Material Girls

For the Madonna song, see Material Girl. For other uses, see Material girl (disambiguation).
Material Girls

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Martha Coolidge
Produced by Milton Kim
Tim Wesley
Mark Morgan
Guy Oseary
Hilary Duff
Haylie Duff[1]
Susan Duff
Eva LaRue
David Faigenblum
Written by John Quaintance
Jessica O'Toole
Amy Rardin
Starring Hilary Duff
Haylie Duff
Anjelica Huston
Lukas Haas
Music by Jennie Muskett
Cinematography Johnny E. Jensen
Edited by Steven Cohen
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • August 18, 2006 (2006-08-18)
Running time
 97 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $15 million
Box office $16,907,725

Material Girls is a 2006 American teen comedy film starring Hilary and Haylie Duff. It is based on a script written by John Quaintance and is directed by Martha Coolidge. It also stars Anjelica Huston, Lukas Haas, and Brent Spiner. The plot was conceived from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. It is co-produced by Patriot Pictures and Maverick Films.

Plot

Tanzania "Tanzie" (Hilary Duff) and Ava (Haylie Duff), two rich, spoiled Hollywood socialites who enjoy material things such as shopping and dating, rather than caring about their late father's cosmetics company. When a major media scandal involving their father's night cream causing extreme skin conditions breaks out on the news, the press soon mob the girls, causing them to stay inside. Soon a fire starts in their mansion, as Ava quickly grabs her engagement party dress and some miscellaneous objects. Tanzie, on the other hand, takes her father's TiVo which had a recording of her father talking about his cosmetics on the news and doesn't grab any clothes.

They leave for a hotel and soon learn all their credit cards have been shut down and have no money left in their bank accounts, leaving them broke. So they go and stay with their maid and close family friend Inez in her small apartment and their car gets stolen by two guys whom they both mistake them for valets. The next morning, Ava and Tanzie take a bus to Ava and her fiancè, Mic's engagement party. They go to Ava’s engagement party, where they see Etienne make a break for it once they see the girls arrive, as they both begin to realize that most of their friends only liked them for their reputation and money. Ava also finds out that Mic has dumped her, though it was done through Mic’s agent Sol (Larry Poindexter.) The current chairman and close friend of Marchetta, Tommy, wants to sell the company to their biggest competitor Fabiella (Anjelica Huston), but the girls, however, don’t want to sell their father's company and are tempted to listen to their advisors, for over $60 million each. As their advisors tell them that they have 30 days days to make the deal official to Fabiella, they start their own investigation, researching clients and the testers who tried out the everdue night cream, and commonly said that that results were either with a rash or no long-lasting effects, as promised. Tanzie, soon discovers the main person who accused of the company of her use of the Marchetta Evedue Nightcream giving her a severe skin disease on her face, appeared on a documentary based on skin diseases Tanzie watched earlier, prior to the scandal and accusation. Tanzie, then goes to the news station that reported the scandal to obtain its main sources and based on her viewing of 2000’s Erin Brockovich (especially the famous scene of Julia Roberts leaning over a counter with her cleavage in full view to obtain information for her case), to locate the lady who accused the company, she learns that her name is Margo Thorness. As they confront, Margo, she reveals that as she tried out the Marchetta Everdue Nightcream, it gave her a severe side effect, she called the company and they offered to pay for her reconstructive surgery. The sisters ask for before and after pictures of Margo, she claims to them that she's camera shy, despite her having a huge amount of self-portraits of herself with her cats in her living room. Margo later asks them to leave, saying "she has church today", despite that it's Wednesday. After they leave Margo's house, they meet her next door neighbor, who gets extremely aggravated with her cats walking around his house. He reveals to the girls, that Margo grew up in that house with her mother and that she was actually born with the skin disease, proving that the accusation is a fraud. Although this means that they could return to the extravagant lifestyle they were accustomed to, they decide to honor their father's memory by trying to turn it around themselves, as none of the closest friends have helped them.

In the end, the girls successfully manage to clear the Marchetta name, as they prove that Margo was actually born with that skin disease and reveal, that it was Tommy who was behind the scandal as he was the one who paid for Margo's surgery, using both the Marchetta sister's personal bank accounts, implanting evidence on Fabiella using her name as being the ones who accused the company with the help of the news, as a way to make the sisters believe that Fabiella was behind all this and secretly selling Marchetta to her prior to the scandal. and reclaim the company. Nearly six months after the scandal began, the girls are seen leading the company, with Ava as the CEO and Tanzie working as a chemist, with them both finding their true loves - for Tanzie, lab technician and fellow chemist Rick and for Ava, legal clinic lawyer Henry.

Cast

Production

The film began production on April 18, 2005, in Los Angeles, California. For the film's soundtrack, Hilary Duff recorded two new songs: "Happy" (which features the same music as "Play with Fire", her single released in August 2006) and a Timbaland-produced cover version of Madonna's song "Material Girl",[2] which was the inspiration for the film's story and is featured at the beginning of the film.

Release

On March 31, 2006, the entertainment site AndPop.com reported that Lukas Haas had said he did not expect the film to be released. These statements were confirmed on April 5, in an article in The Ryersonian. Haas expressed his unhappiness with the film, and said they had been trying to sell the film for a long time with little success.[3] On April 6, the website Box Office Mojo reported that MGM had picked up the rights to Material Girls and would be releasing it on August 25 (this was later changed to August 18). On May 2, the official website for Martha Coolidge reported that it would be released on around 2,000 screens.[4]

Material Girls was released in 1,500 theaters in the U.S. and debuted at #9 on the weekend box office chart, grossing only US$4.62 million in its first three days of release.[5] The DVD for Material Girls was released on December 12, 2006 in the U.S by 20th Century Fox under the MGM Home Entertainment label. It is a double-sided DVD with special features including the music video for Hilary Duff's single "Play with Fire". In the UK the film was released on March 2, 2007 to coincide with the release of Duff's single "With Love", her album Dignity, and the UK release of her scent With Love... Hilary Duff. It was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. The film has garnered a total of $16,847,695 worldwide.[6]

Reception

The film received extremely negative reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes ranking Material Girls 46th in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 4%,[7] and 17% by Metacritic.[8] Hilary and Haylie Duff's performances were panned by critics and earned both of them Razzie Award nominations for Worst Actress and Worst Screen Couple.

References

  1. ↑ "Material Girls Official website". December 30, 2007.
  2. ↑ Mike Bell (2006-01-10). "CANOE - JAM! Music - Artists - Duff, Hilary: Exclusive interview with Hilary Duff". Jam.canoe.ca. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
  3. ↑ Archived November 4, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ MarthaCoolidge.com
  5. ↑ "Box Office Estimates Report for August 18-20, 2006". Box Office Prophets. 2006-08-20. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
  6. ↑ Box Office Mojo. "Material Girls". Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  7. ↑ "Material Girls Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
  8. ↑ "Material Girls (2006): Reviews". Metacritic.com. 2010-07-17. Retrieved 2012-12-04.

External links

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