Pegg and pig funniest part of 'How to Lose Friends'
Simon Pegg's great gift in "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is his ability to take a self-centered, toxically obnoxious main character and breathe just enough whimsy and humanity into him to make him tolerable.
Barely.
He plays a British tabloid journalist (which I argue could be a contradiction in terms) named Sidney Young, not a far reach from Toby Young, the real-life Brit who wrote the book upon which this comedy is based. The real Young was reportedly so abusively self-centered that he was asked to leave the movie set after offering lots of advice to director Robert Weide.
Maybe Weide shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss Young's feedback.
"How to Lose Friends" is a soggy, sloggy look into the world of big-city publishing, a little like the far superior "The Devil Wears Prada."
Pegg's Sidney arrives in New York to work for a high-end magazine looking suspiciously like Vanity Fair, where the real Young worked.
The magazine's publisher Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges, reluctantly playing the role) has big plans for the Brit staffer, and baits him with the opportunity to navigate through the "seven levels," with each successive level bringing Sidney closer to the top of the magazine heap.
Sidney strives to make himself worthy, but his barbed personality and suggested lack of inherent talent appear to be slamming doors on him.
As Pegg fumbles and fusses through Peter Straughan's screenplay, the supporting cast becomes a compelling reason to sit through "How To Lose Friends."
Gillian Anderson, last seen in that ignorable "X-Files" sequel "I Want to Believe," brings a sexy toughness to Eleanor Johnson, a super Hollywood agent who could probably negotiate a Cubs/Sox rivalry truce. A champion wheeler-dealer, Eleanor pushes a young actress named Sophie Maes (the aptly named Megan Fox), already well-practiced in the Marilyn Monroe-esque art of attracting attention.
Kirsten Dunst whips up a perfectly bland personality for Alison Olsen, Sidney's office confidante. Danny Huston slips into snakeskin mode as the unctuous Lawrence Maddox, a magazine politico who eventually becomes Sidney's boss.
"How to Lose" enjoys its ridiculous moments of humor, especially when Sidney tries to a crash an awards party by claiming his date, a literal pig, was the star of "Babe." But a dark comic bit involving an annoying dog pales in comparison to a similar scene in "There's Something About Mary."
This movie seems to constantly be running out of comic breath as it veers from overdone, broad physical shtick to tacked-on, ethical lessons learned.
Fortunately, the animated Pegg is front and center throughout, and while his character gleefully loses friends and alienates people, Pegg works up a sweat not to lose fans and alienate moviegoers.
"How to Lose Friends and Alienate People"
Rating: 2 stars
Starring: Simon Pegg, Jeff Bridges, Kirsten Dunst, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson
Directed by: Robert Weide
Other: An MGM release. Rated R for language, nudity and druge use. 109 minutes