by Karyn L. Beach

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is based on a novel by Toby Young. It's about a young British writer who comes to New York City to work for a very established magazine. He learns some hard lessons while making every mistake in the book. I saw the film. If this is an interesting premise to you, read the book. I haven't read it but it has to be better than the movie.

Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) is running his own struggling, independent entertainment magazine in London when he gets THE call. It comes from legendary editor Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges) and it is an offer to work for his upscale New York magazine, Sharps (Vanity Fair in the book). Of course, he jumps at the chance. But things aren't that simple in the cut-throat, high-stakes and hyper-political worlds of celebrity and society. Sidney works closely with Alison (Kirsten Dunst) who attempts to show him the ropes and starts to fall for him in spite of herself. Their boss is Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston) a man who not only knows the ropes but controls them. At the moment, he's working closely with super publist Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson) who is representing Sophie Maes (Meagan Fox) the IT actress of the moment.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is supposed to take a biting look at this celebrity-fueled society and the media that feed on it. The movies that do this successfully are witty and sharp. They exagerate the flaws and the circumstances and they make the villians and their escapades larger than life. This movie stayed too small and didn't take enough chances.

Simon Pegg who was a charming Everyman in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz is quickly losing that charming edge. Earlier this year in Run Fat Boy Run and now with How to Lose his everyday charm is becoming just everyday boring. Likewise, boring is a good word to describe the interactions between Pegg and Dunst.

There were so many wasted opportunties here. Bridges as the editor, Huston as the deputy editor and Anderson as the publist could have been so much more than what they were given. Again, these portrayals would have worked best as caricatures because as characters they just weren't that compelling.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People lost me pretty early on. I think it will alienate most audiences as well.