Uptown Girls | | Cast : | Brittany Murphy, Dakota Fanning, Jesse Spencer, Heather Locklear | | Director : | Boaz Yakin | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | August 15, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | May 04, 2004 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 10, 2005 | | Summary | Highly Recommended-Surprisingly Good | Content
 | Twenty-five years after the film "Times Square" we get an updated version of that New Wave classic. And like its predecessor, "Uptown Girls" is destined to be more appreciated twenty-five years later than it was by contemporary critics and audiences. Both films include terrific music that had people stopping at a store on the way home from the film to pick up the soundtrack album/CD (with "soundtrack" defined as songs by a collection of artists as compared to a more traditional musical score), both feature two emotionally fragile girls who are polar opposites who bond and help each other, and both take place in NYC.
One major difference was that while "Times Square" had a clear target audience, "Uptown Girls" was never able to quite figure that out. While in almost every way superior to its sister film "Raising Helen", "Uptown Girls" lacks that films consistent family focus. So we have a serious story marketed as a comedy, a generational bonding picture with so much unnecessary adult material (a word here-an obscene gesture there) that it has a PG-13 rating. All of which means that adults think of it as a kid film and young viewers find only intermittent sequences to which they can relate.
At least the film's is consistent in its inconsistency, as Boaz Yakin's inspired and imaginative direction and many incongruously subtle script elements are paired with a contrived and predictable basic story.
All this disparity should work in "Uptown Girls" favor in a few years when the dust clears and the film finds its proper audience, one that appreciates its complex dichotomy and subtle nuances. Until then it is worth noting that this will be an important film historically. Film historians will look back on "Uptown Girls" as the feature where Brittany Murphy (Molly Gunn) really began to define the perceptive airhead persona she began to develop in "Drop Dead Gorgeous". Roger Ebert sees a lot of the divine ineptitude of Lucille Ball in Murphy with both being magnets for "Whoops! moments. I don't see her going quite that far, more like Zazu Pitts or Katherine Hepburn. Hollywood has gone two generations without an actress with this kind of natural comic talent. She and Dakota Fanning (Ray) play off each other very well.
Music is central to the story since Molly's father was a rock legend who died in a plane crash when she was a young girl and Ray's mom runs a record label. Little Molly inspired her father to write a song about her before he died called "Molly Smiles". She inspires her boyfriend to write the song "Sheets of Egyptian Cotton" but she does not want to hear her father's song. This sets up a somewhat predictable but otherwise perfect ending as you finally get to get to hear "Molly Smiles" at Ray's dance recital (and the film is worth watching just for this-as good an ending as "School of Rock"). As someone commented earlier, the song works perfectly in the finale as all the plot threads are pulled together: " (1) we get to hear "Molly Smiles," (2) Neal makes up with Molly, (3) we find out what happened to Tommy Gunn's guitars, (4) Ray makes up with Molly, (5) Ray finally dances free style, (6) Ray uses some moves she learned from Molly, and (7) Ray wears Molly's designer tutu. Appropriately, The soundtrack has a lot of the songs by female artists and makes for a pleasant enough album when you finally decide to play something else besides track 12. But you will probably pick this one up for the song about daddy's little girl because "Nothing's wrong when Molly smiles." Bottom line don't listen to the negative reviews see this for yourself. If you can suspend belief and just accept the contrived basic story, then it won't be hard to really enjoy Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning as two broken kids who help each other learn how to live, 25 years after "Times Square". |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Uptown Girls | Content
| This was one of the sweetest films about relationships with friends,family and especially between a mother-daughter-nanny. I bought this for my own and sent one to my daughter, her nick name is RAE and so with our relationship it seemed to touch our hearts in the same way. She got it on her birthday and told me ...yes, it made her cry. The ending song during the credits " TIME" is so touching I cry everytime I hear it. I recommend this to any mom & daughter who has had a tough time of it growing up. It will show forgiving and moving on ... perhaps fixing a broken relationship or touching it in a special way to open the door for forgiveness ?
I watch it whenever I need a boost of love.
C.Hildreth
Topeka KS |
| Rating | | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun. | Content
| Brittany Murphy needs better roles. I don't know how to explain this further, but I do not believe that she has quite found her stride yet. As I look through her catalog of 20-something films, it surprises me that I can only say that I have enjoyed about a teaspoon of her work. Even as I look through the titles like Sin City, Little Black Book, and Girl, Interrupted, I cannot help but think that perhaps it wasn't her roles in these films that caught my attention, but instead the story, style, and power of the other, stronger, characters. She has yet to come forward and surprise us all with her hidden talent. Uptown Girls is a glowing example of Murphy not quite gaining her stride, but finding herself in the aura of a stronger actress. The story surrounding Uptown Girls is flimsy and brittle. Murphy's character carries no emotion or depth at all, which only proceeds to corrupt the story even further. Thankfully, we are not forced to drag our feet through the film with only the likes of Murphy to carry us, thankfully, we have a young, and highly inspirational Dakota Fanning, to add some levity to the project.
Uptown Girls is not a good film in any way shape or form. I have mentioned before that the story itself really held no merit at all. Here we have the story of a wealthy girl that cannot handle responsibility, whom ultimately learns the key values in life from a cliché child character that has been created in nearly every film released in the past decade. Plotholes seem to be endless and frequent, while unexplained coincidences seem to plague the very root of this story. It is yet another classic example of Hollywood attempting to give us the sympathy character (Murphy) while never quite explaining the hurdle of money, past, or reason. We have entire scenes, which revolve around a relationship that seems like it was developed in high school, not real life. Murphy tries to juggle a job, a non-existent, yet existent love life, and friendship, while still proving that she is a strong individual. Whew. Yet, through all of this mess (in which Murphy seems to lead us), there is a glimmer of light. Dakota Fanning. I mentioned her name before, but I feel as if I should explain in some detail. Dakota is a talented actress. At the ripe young age that she is, I feel as if we have only seen the cusp of her talent. I believe that Oscar will reward her one-day and she so deserves it. There were moments in this film when Dakota literally took this feeble story and made it her own. She stole every scene away from Murphy and proceeded to make a film that showcased her talent. For such a young actress, this was an impressive feat. Fanning owned this film, and it was demonstrated in every scene she graced.
Outside of Fanning, the rest of the film was dismal. Director Boaz Yakin has shown us in the past that he can create decent work. Even in this film, there are scenes that just jumped from the screen. One that comes to mind is the way he set the camera up so that when Murphy and Fanning meet for the second time, Murphy is reflected off Fanning's sunglasses. It was a brilliant shot, sadly, it was the only worthwhile piece of photography throughout the entire film. Yakin could have taken this feature and transformed it into this rather dark insight into the world of the wealthy and privileged. Instead, we are forced to watch this below-mediocre film that yields to age-old Hollywood clichés and unanswered questions. Perhaps most has to do with Murphy and her inability to go beyond the ditzy blonde image, but I think more has to do with Yakin. He has been bought by the glamour of Hollywood and has found that their images can be found through his eyes. Where was that cunning director that gave us that inspirational film Fresh? I didn't see that same director anywhere in this picture. Yet another decent director has found that money can prevail over creativity.
Overall, this was a truly uninspiring film. With low-grade actors attempting to bring some life to the shattering script (like Heather Locklear as Fanning's mother), we only are left with more of a mess than what we began with. Fanning carries this movie and honestly gives us a better performance than the entire crew put together. I believe that she could have been the only person in this film and it would have been 100% better. We needed more background on Murphy, like her passion for her parents, her devotion to her friends, or her inability to cope with reality, instead of being rushed right into unmanned situations without explanation only to find most laughing instead of asking the question ... why? This was a pathetic attempt to show the effects of parenting on children, using copious clichés to make the general audiences feel comfortable. See this movie for the talent of Dakota Fanning, but skip everything else. Pathetic.
Grade: ** out of ***** |
| Rating | | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | I'm a guy and I was even almost in tears haha | Content
| This was a sweet story, plenty of moments where even the toughest of guys will have to hold back tears. I caught it on tv late last night and was bored so I decided to watch it. Worth a watch definitely. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 31, 2005 | | Summary | The Best film! | Content
| i love this film i laughed and cryed ALL the way through - its amazing! a lovely story 5/5 !!!brilliant acting (and dancing too!)
i recomend it to ANY one. i love it! |
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