Film Reviews

Material Girls

• Rating:
• Director: Martha Coolidge.
• Starring: Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, Anjelica Huston, Lucas Haas.
• Details: US / 97mins (PG).

Based none-too-subtly on the lives of the Hilton sisters, Material Girls sees Hilary and Haylie Duff play sisters Tanzy and Ava Marchetta - heiresses to a hugely successful cosmetics company. When a TV expose on the disfiguring side effects the company's night cream causes is aired, the sister's assets are frozen and they find themselves heading for the poorhouse. When a rival cosmetics company - run by Anjelica Huston's Fabiella - attempts a takeover bid, the sisters smell a rat and employ legal aid Henry Baines (Haas) to investigate. We know Material Girls is comedy because it says so on the poster, but in actuality it's a 'Where's Wally?' humour challenge because there isn't a decent joke in the entire movie. Here's a taste of the two best jokes: the girls don't know that the bus costs money and later on they think car thieves are valets. Hilarious, yes? One of the basic principles of filmmaking is to have the audience root for the protagonists, but here we're dealt a couple of vacuous, selfish airheads who want nothing more to party - how the hell are we supposed to root for that? As punishment for making this film, director Coolidge and her three writers (yes, it took three of them to assemble this sludge) should be made watch it. Just once is enough - we're not that cruel.

Review by Gavin Burke