Material Girls (2006)

Two wealthy sisters, both heiresses to their family's cosmetics fortune, are given a wake-up call when a scandal and ensuing investigation strip them of their wealth.

Director:

Martha Coolidge

Writers:

John Quaintance, Jessica O'Toole

Stars:

Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, Anjelica Huston

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hilary Duff	...	Tanzie Marchetta
Haylie Duff	...	Ava Marchetta
Maria Conchita Alonso	...	Inez
Anjelica Huston	...	Fabiella
Brent Spiner	...	Tommy Katzenbach
Lukas Haas	...	Henry Baines
Marcus Coloma	...	Rick
Ty Hodges	...	Etienne
Reagan Dale Neis	...	Jaden
Obba Babatundé	...	Craig (as Obba Babatunde)
Henry Cho	...	Ned Nakamori
Misti Traya	...	Martinique
Christina R. Copeland	...	Brigitta
Brandon Beemer	...	Mic Rionn
Colleen Camp	...	Charlene

Storyline

The silver spoon daughters of the late cosmetics empire founder Victor Marchetta, Avan and Tanzie, never even took an interest in the business, happy to let it be run by their and the firm's administrator, Tommy Katzenbach, while they lead socialite lives, aiming at a marriage with soap star Mic Rionn. Suddenly a scandal wrecks the firm's stock and their family reputation. Their credit cards are canceled, one of them torches the mansion, the other hands their sports-car to a thief mistaken for a parking valet. So they end up living with their Latina former cleaning lady. Help to investigate whether the firm is really best sold to competitor Fabiella, as Tommy claims, comes from hunky lab technician Rick, whom the previously mistook for the inexistent firm parking lot attendant, and Henry Baines, whose free law for the poor charity they didn't even consider for sponsoring.

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Plot Keywords:

actress | princess | cosmetics | wealth | credit card | 

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Taglines:

It's A Short Trip From The Penthouse To The Poorhouse.

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for language and rude humor

Did You Know?

Trivia

A pivotal scene involves the girls catching up with a clip of Erin Brockovich (2000) on TV. Footage from the movie proved to be very difficult to secure so director Martha Coolidge rang up her friend Steven Soderbergh to see if he could cut some of the red tape.

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Goofs

When Ava and Tanzie spend their first night at Lucy's house, Ava's phone repeatedly disappears and reappears on the table.

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Quotes

Ava Marchetta: What? I'm not tipping you until I know how your service is.
Bus Driver: It's a dollar thirty five for both of you or no ride.

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Connections

References Erin Brockovich (2000)

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Soundtracks

Party Like That
Written by Richard Wolf (as Richard "Wolfie" Wolf) and John Czornyj

User Reviews

Should be rated PG 13

First let me say that I like the Duff sisters, so I was not looking to hate this movie. In fact, we own Hilary's previous movies on DVD and I figured we'd eventually own this one too. Now that I've seen ("wasted money on" is another way to say it) this movie, I can tell you I will not ever buy this and will never watch this again.

The only reason I gave this a one instead of a two is that I genuinely like the Duff sisters. I was looking forward to a movie that my daughter would like and I would enjoy, if not just tolerate. I think the sisters should fire their agents, advisers, producers, or whoever put them up to this. It did nothing to enhance their careers. And I'm still not sure who they thought their audience is. Certainly no adults would (or should) choose to see this movie if they weren't going for their daughters, but neither was this movie properly aimed at young girls (the Duffs' main fan base.) As far as the PG rating, I am not a prude - I actually own Mean Girls, and I am fairly liberal about what my children watch (e.g., we love Friends, even though others think the material is not always appropriate for kids) but I squirmed in my seat for the moms that had younger children in the audience, as well as for my 11 year old daughter. Without going into detail - no spoilers - there were blatant references to adultery, gang banging, and sex that I did not think appropriate at all. There was some foul language. There was outright prejudice against all sorts of people. Referencing an earlier review, yes the comment was about "I Love Lucy" and not a Hispanic nanny, but nonetheless, annoying anyway.

Most importantly, the movie was mindless, and it didn't have to be. The Duff sisters aside, there were some genuinely talented people in the cast (Anjelica Huston, Maria Conchita Alonso) but the script was so bad that there was no saving this movie. There was a shot at redemption near the end, but the screenwriters blew that too. (How do these things even become movies?) It's almost as if the creators know that this movie won't last but a nano-second in history, as evidenced by the constant mainstream references and advertising plugs. Technically, there was bad continuity (Check out Hilary's hairstyles - in the beginning there is one scene where her french braid magically disappears with a camera angle change; or the lips moving out of sequence with the dialogue)and the jarring special effects editing were distracting and juvenile.

Like the characters themselves, this movie is all form with no substance.

Details

Official Sites:

MGM [United States] Official site [Russia]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 August 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Material Girls

Filming Locations:

Barwick Studios - 4585 Electronics Place, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,603,121, 20 August 2006

Gross USA:

$11,449,638

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$16,907,725

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Maverick Films, Rafter H Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1