How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is an uneven film, one which tries to balance comedy, satire, and romance all at once and in its attempts to do so fails to strike a chord with the audience. It’s too broad to be funny enough, not smart enough to work as a satire, and the romance feels tacked on.

Based on a memoir by a real life journalist, the film tells the true story of British journalist Sydney Young who is invited, to his amazement, to work at a high profile magazine in New York City. But no matter how hard he tries to do otherwise, he always seems to rub people the wrong way with everything he does.

I don’t refute the effort to do something different with well worn genres. We have all become annoyingly accustomed to the way romance plays out in feature films and how comedy nowadays is all too often about juvenile humour. And on top of that we have an attempt at satire on the world of magazines and how an incident lands on front covers all across the world.

But the problem with the film is it doesn’t go deep enough into this world for anyone in the know to recognise much from what goes on in real life but at the same time its goes just that bit too deep resulting in it alienating, like the title suggests, any naïve viewers out there. So when we are taken on the tour of the headquarters of the building and introduced to the various elements which make it up we are left feeling lost and confused because don’t know enough already to “get” the gags. But at the same time for anyone on the other side of the fence who knows about this world, it’s not recognisable enough in that respect. So it strikes this kind of middle ground of both types of audience members to be left hanging.

Now, what makes How to Lose Friends in any way worthwhile? Well, two words: Simon Pegg. This guy is some serious comedic talent and one to watch for the future. Starting off in British TV comedy with the cult show Spaced and then going on to make two of the best comedies in recent times, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, he is now trying his luck across the pond. And it’s a shame to see he hasn’t been getting the praise and recognition he so very much deserves in the US. For some reason audiences just aren’t responding to him as much as British audiences did, and still do. He’s easily the best element of How to Lose Friends, without question the funniest thing in it. It may just be a personal preference for his style but I just found his mannerisms and way of delivering the lines had me smiling whenever he was on screen (which, thankfully, is the majority of the film). I think he was the perfect choice for this role; I really believe if anyone else had played the role it would have felt just wrong and it definitely would have lost most, if not all, of its laughs.

There’s a fantastically creative element within How to Lose Friends in the form of a fake trailer about a Mother Teresa movie starring the character that Megan Fox plays in the film. It hints at just how witty and smart this film could have handled things, really taking a bite into the whole world which we see. But in disappointing fashion, everything is softened up for general audiences, probably in fear that if it was too satirical then they would lose most people. And that’s probably a fair argument because sadly satire doesn’t sell. But even though you might lose a lot of the initial audience which generates the income you would have ultimately come up with a far better film. And which is better in the long run? In the years to come, which is more beneficial — making a few more million dollars or having a much higher quality film to look back on? Sadly studio bosses would snap back at me with the former, and the main problem being so would the filmmakers.

The laughs in the film come more intermittently than they should. In the process of softening the material for a general audience, the laugh meter suffers. Pegg brings about most of the laughs with only a couple of others thrown in by side characters here and there. Jeff Bridges plays the magazine boss who seems to be clinging on to his glory day of The Big Lebowski (I counted at least three references to that film throughout this one) and whose only merit, for me at least, was making me think, “There’s The Dude!” A miscast Danny Houston plays the slimy, asshole character and Megan Fox is just there, as the film repeatedly references, to look good.

But where the film falters on the supporting cast side of things is with Kirsten Dunst. Many would argue that she has no business being in the movies due to her wooden portrayal of Mary Jane in the Spider-Man movies. With the exception of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind she has shown herself to have little acting talent, at least in the way of credibility. Here she is cast for no reason other than to draw potential viewers. Anyone could have played the role she plays here; it’s not that she’s bad per se it’s just the character isn’t very well written. The romantic interest she plays for Pegg feels forced and unnatural, as does the romantic element in general. The film tries to do far too many things at once; as the saying goes, “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

It’s not the worst film of its type by any stretch of the imagination. I can thankfully say I didn’t hate the film; I enjoyed myself, particularly when Pegg was showcasing his comedic talent, but sadly only somewhat. It all just feels a bit disappointing, particularly because Robert B. Weide, who has spent most of his time involved with the ever brilliant Curb Your Enthusiasm, is making his directorial debut here. Admittedly I’d take How to Lose Friends & Alienate People over dozens of those other, more formulaic romantic comedies but that’s not exactly much of a commendation, now, is it?

==Written by Ross Miller==

==From: Movie World (www.movie-world.moonfruit.com)==

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People may just be the first true British film--and a splendid one at that--to be set on American soil. The fearless actor Simon Pegg plays Sidney Young, a Fleet Street hatchet writer tapped to come to the States to join the literati, and glitterati, at a big, fat, glossy magazine--every resemblance of which to Vanity Fair is strictly intentional. Sidney is possibly the most annoying man in the Western world, tilting at nonexistent windmills. His character calls to mind many of the hapless charmers played by Hugh Grant--but Pegg, without Grant's raffish good looks, comes across as simply hapless. Which is perfect casting, since Sidney is supposed to be enormously aggravating, especially when he first lands in New York. In his first few days in the city, Sidney puts off the first magazine colleague he met (Kirsten Dunst, in a top-flight comic turn), wears a wildly inappropriate T-shirt on his first day of work, spritzes fast food onto the designer white suit of a relative of the publisher, and picks up a tranny hooker. And things go downhill from there. On his first magazine assignment, Sidney, checking captions for a photo page, calls a powerful publicist. "Is he the fat one?" Sidney asks the publicist about one of her clients. Silence. "Well, is he the one with the wonky eye, then?" Pegg is a scream as Sidney, playing quite a different role than his starring one in Shaun of the Dead. Dunst is delicate but steely, and her comedic timing, under the deft direction of Robert B. Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm), is spot on. Great supporting work, too, by editor Jeff Bridges, whose enthrallment to the power elite, and silver mane, channel Graydon Carter; by Gillian Anderson, as a take-no-prisoners publicist; and by Megan Fox, a starlet cast as a bosom-heaving Mother Teresa. Sidney, and the film, will win you over, with a lot of laughter along the way.--A.T. Hurley