Best friends Mia and Mel run their own cosmetics company -- a business they built from the ground up. But they're also in over their heads financially, and the prospect of a buyout offer from an industry titan proves too tempting to pass up. The beauty business is now about to get ugly as the proposal puts Mia and Mel's lifelong friendship to the ultimate test.
Films like this never seem to go out of date, and feel like they are regularly released, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are bad though, from the trailers before watching the movie, not only did it look entertaining but it also seemed to use some intelligent and genuinely entertaining humour. As well as this, the film features some decent actors too, with Salma Hayek and Rose Bryne being the standout actors here - it doesn't have any A list names, but there is a good enough lineup to suggest that the film will have a good sense of excitement, and based off the lineup, a decent sense of humour too. The film essentially focuses on two women who are in the fashion industry selling makeup, and they receive a buyout from someone at the top, prompting them to rethink their lives and friendship. The main question though, is this film something to laugh along with, or laugh at how bad it is? Here are my thoughts.
Ok, so I'll start by saying that this film isn't meant to be on the same level as 'Joker' or '1917' or even 'Knives out' - from my perspective it feels to be much more of a film which doesn't expect you to take it massively seriously but to provide a decent element of humour and entertainment along the way. And how the film starts helps establish the humorous mood of the film. The introduction scene is great and helps to give us a down to Earth and personal perspective of the characters, seeing them talking about imaginary sex and their lives helps to not only give them a humour connotation, but also it helps to introduce us to the solid friendship that the two main characters have, and by doing so, helps to create a much more genuine and realistic character set. As well as this, the variety of dialogue used also helps to give the characters an upbeat and exciting feeling to them, and it is the highlight of the film for me, not only do the characters each have their own unique and fresh personality but the level of humour that characters use is actually really funny, sure they can be a little cliché but on the whole, I really liked them and they got a lot of laughs from the audience too. This element of humour is key in the film and is executed surprisingly well, not only does it give the characters a personal feeling, but it also just helps to make interactions between them much more upbeat and enjoyable, scenes like the burping, the random comments from Sydney and the scenes where the girls smoke a joint around a baby, the film is full of silly yet funny scenes like these which help to keep the characters feeling fun.
The film has a wide variety of characters which play a part in the film, and it utilises every one of these well through creating individual and unique personalities which help to give us a perception and in-depth overview as to who the various characters are and their roles within the film, it's done well in terms of time allocation too. We get to see a good length of different characters as they don't pop up too much (apart from the main characters) and they don't suddenly disappear for most of the film either, they're prominent and it helps to establish the characters relationships in the film, giving us a more in-depth insight into them.
Alongside the characters though, I liked the plot and story of the film too. Sure, it has a similar theme and feeling of progression to other films of the genre in terms of a villain character trying to split up a friendship, succeeding and then failing - it doesn't step out of line from that mould but where it is unique is its actual story and the feeling of progression which the film has. The actual storyline of the film is good because of the topics it focuses on as well as the variety of different locations and varieties of scenes that we see, from baby showers to scenes in their shop to action scenes at the offices, there is a lot in this film and that's exactly what keeps it exciting and feeling fresh, there's always something happening and it feels like the film is essentially split into sections, when one event is done the film jumps into the next one, with a ~90 minute running time, there isn't an abundance of time for the storyline to progress and this actually works in the films favour, because it means that there are always important or exciting things happening, and like I said, the film essentially jumps from one exciting action scene to the next. I like how the flow between these still works decently though, sure there are some scenes which seem to jump without providing much/any context at all, but the use of narrative and location shows a fairly clear sign of what is happening and why.
All things considered though, the storyline is decent, it follows the story of two friends who own a cosmetics shop and fight it out in the fashion industry, it's a nice take on a comedy film like this because it introduces new character types, as well as giving us a variety of scenes and themes which are new to the genre, such as mixing in the fashion and business themes, it's a nice attempt at mixing things up and adding something new to the genre, whilst adding a nice and fresh outtake on the characters. The film also mixes in a few serious moments into the story too which help to give it a little bit of variety in terms of its emotional value, and how seriously it should be taken, seeing characters open up to each other about their lack of a childhood and the depressing stories from their childhood is surprising and caught me off guard - it's not so emotional that it made me feel sad as such, but it adds a sense of purpose and variety to the characters and plot - and helps to make it more of a general film instead of one purely focused on comedy for every scene. The film also gives a good sense of satisfaction seeing the characters win at the end, and the good connection that it makes with us helps contribute towards this.
The film isn't perfect though by any stretch of the imagination and all things considered, has a lot of faults with it. Firstly, the plot. The plot of a comedy doesn't have to be much if the jokes carry it, but this plot was just plain and boring. The two leads sell their company to Hayek. Eventually, the two of them fight and split for a few scenes, then come to the realization they still need each other. Just super run-of-the-mill and tedious. This is just looking to capitalize on the successes of films like Bridemaids and Spy, two decent films which were received well, and make a quick buck in January. It's extremely unfunny and predictable. All of the leads deserve better and have done better. The only jokes that got a laugh out of me were one about Calliou and one involving Billy Porter's dramatic exit from a dinner. Everything else is just really forced moments and not funny. Salma Hayek is playing a cartoon villain that just doesn't fit in a movie like this either. She is only a few steps away from a cackling villain on a Saturday morning cartoon.
Also, the film conforms to the genre by selecting EXTREMELY typical roles, there's a sassy character, a crazy character, a very stereotypical gay character, a strange character who feels like the only purpose in the film is to provide weird humour and one which feels controlling. It genuinely just feels like a rinse and repeat of so many other films of this genre which are out there already, it doesn't offer a massive amount to the genre and it sure doesn't offer much to the portfolio's of the main actors either because the overall film just feels quite bland and typical. The storyline to the film is established and as I mentioned, it is decent but it doesn't feel strong or gripping at all, there isn't any in-depth analysis of the characters, there aren't any side stories or events on the side to keep the story feeling exciting and there just isn't anything to push the capabilities of the film - it's just way too typical for me.
Overall, I would give this film a 5. It's not very good, to be honest, sure it has a cast which is quite funny and the story is decent and somewhat exciting, but everything in this film has been done 100s of times before, and as this film offers absolutely nothing else to help it stand out, it just doesn't show any ambition and is a film to see in a charity shop in a few years as a DVD. It's a real shame because it feels like there is a decent basis for the film, the framework is there for a good film, but the lack of in-depth insights into the characters, and a very typical story don't help this film at all. Would I recommend this film? No. Not unless it's something you're dying to see, and if it is then you should probably question why you are dying to see this over the other films out now... It just doesn't offer anything which will genuinely grip and excite the average film fan - and will leave many annoyed when they realise that they've paid a pretty penny for a film like this.
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review, I hope you have a lovely day! If you would like to check out my Official Facebook page where you can see sneak previous and more film insights then please consider checking out the link below!
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