Blonde Ambition

By Cyril Pearl -- Video Business, 1/7/2008

SONY
Street: Jan. 22
Prebook: now
> Dismal romantic comedy starring Jessica Simpson is neither romantic nor funny.

At one point early in Blonde Ambition, a passing subway train whooshes air up through a grate and billows star Jessica Simpson’s skirt over her head a la Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch. Sadly, this film isn’t The Seven Year Itch and Simpson ain’t no Monroe. Rather, it’s an obvious tale about a small-town Southern girl (Simpson) who moves to New York, drops her cheating boyfriend (Drew Fuller) in favor of an Manhattan hottie (Luke Wilson) and becomes a savvy business woman while out-charming the corporate goons around her. The thing is, Blonde Ambition is silly and boring, and Simpson doesn’t have the rom-com chops to deliver on a role that Reese Witherspoon played so deliciously in Sweet Home Alabama and the Legally Blonde films. How or why Wilson, Willie Nelson, Penelope Ann Miller and even Andy Dick ended up in this movie is a mystery, but at least they add a dash of cred to the proceedings. With the exception of some New York City insert shots, Blonde Ambition was filmed entirely on location in Louisiana—and that’s where it should have stayed.

Shelf Talk: Jessica Simpson still enjoys a solid, if shrinking, coterie of fans who will be interested in checking out Blonde Ambition, though many of the young men who enjoy ogling her will be disappointed by the film’s relative lack of titillation. And as the pop star-turned-leading lady doesn’t contribute any songs to the soundtrack, the music tie-in is not there either. Play this one up as in the tradition of Legally Blonde and The Devil Wears Prada and hope that the cutesy pic of Simpson on the cover art will get some attention.

Romantic comedy, color, PG-13 (mild sexual situations), 93 min., DVD $24.96
Extras: featurette, deleted scenes
Director: Scott Marshall
First Run: DVD premiere