It's quite apparent -- right down to the hot pink lettering in the advertising -- that the distributor of "Slap Her ... She's French" would very much like it to be mistaken for another "Legally Blonde".
The only problem is, the Reese Witherspoon picture wasn't a gratingly unfunny groaner littered with zero-dimensional, unlikable characters and hackneyed, threadbare comic setups.
Fortunately, few -- aside from those who might mistake this German-financed production for a breezy foreign-language art house import -- will take the bait, ensuring that "Slap Her" beats a hasty retreat to the video store.
Wasting a potentially workable "All About Eve" premise, the film concerns the seemingly charmed life of one Starla Grady (Jane McGregor), the most popular student at Splendona High School, located somewhere deep in the heart of Texas.
That is, until one fateful day when, needing to amp up a little audience sympathy during another beauty pageant (Sending up pageants? How novel!), she announces her family will be taking in an exchange student from Paris in yet another gesture of her unfailing goodwill.
Enter the mousy, bespectacled Genevieve LePlouff (Piper Perabo), who seemingly worships the ground Starla struts upon. The beret and really bad French accent might fool some people, but it's clear from the get-go that Genevieve, or whatever her name really is, has major plans to dethrone her not-so-gracious hostess.
Naturally, Starla doesn't take kindly to people attempting to appropriate her life, and with a little detecting assistance from her bookish kid brother (Jesse James) and the nice-guy school photographer (Trent Ford), she exposes Genevieve as a vengeance-crazed wannabe.
But Genevieve isn't the real culprit here -- it's writers Lamar Damon and Robert Lee King and director Melanie Mayron who are truly deserving of a group smack.
Rather than striving for anything resembling sharply observed satire, the filmmakers have instead opted to mine lazy laughs from tired targets, and the bottom-feeding results leave behind an irritating, slimy residue.
While King, who directed the appropriately campy "Psycho Beach Party", and Damon seem to be biding their time until the next cat fight, actress-turned-director Mayron allows all the squandered comic opportunities to fall with an awkward thud, as if anticipating a laugh track to bail her out.
The cast, which also includes Julie White, Brandon Smith and Michael McKean as an improbable French teacher (maybe that's where Perabo learned the lame accent), doesn't fare much better, while the technical aspects, including the work of production design team Anne Stuhler and Roswell Hamrick ("Boiler Room", "Made"), are more proficient than the picture deserves.
SLAP HER ... SHE'S FRENCH
The Premiere Group
The Premiere Marketing & Distribution Group and Constantin Film present in association with Bandeira and Key Entertainment a Beau Flynn, Emcke/Augsberger and IMF 2 production
Credits:
Director: Melanie Mayron
Screenwriters: Lamar Damon, Robert Lee King
Producers: Beau Flynn, Jonathan King, Matthias Emcke
Executive producers: Bernd Eichinger, Thomas Augsberger, Stefan Simchowitz, Matthias Deyle, Volker Schauz
Director of photography: Charles Minsky
Production designers: Anne Stuhler, Roswell Hamrick
Editor: Marshall Harvey
Costume designer: Julia Caston
Music: David Michael Frank
Cast:
Genevieve LePlouff: Piper Perabo
Starla Grady: Jane McGregor
Ed Mitchell: Trent Ford
Monsieur Duke: Michael McKean
Bootsie Grady: Julie White
Arnie Grady: Brandon Smith
Randolph Grady: Jesse James
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
The only problem is, the Reese Witherspoon picture wasn't a gratingly unfunny groaner littered with zero-dimensional, unlikable characters and hackneyed, threadbare comic setups.
Fortunately, few -- aside from those who might mistake this German-financed production for a breezy foreign-language art house import -- will take the bait, ensuring that "Slap Her" beats a hasty retreat to the video store.
Wasting a potentially workable "All About Eve" premise, the film concerns the seemingly charmed life of one Starla Grady (Jane McGregor), the most popular student at Splendona High School, located somewhere deep in the heart of Texas.
That is, until one fateful day when, needing to amp up a little audience sympathy during another beauty pageant (Sending up pageants? How novel!), she announces her family will be taking in an exchange student from Paris in yet another gesture of her unfailing goodwill.
Enter the mousy, bespectacled Genevieve LePlouff (Piper Perabo), who seemingly worships the ground Starla struts upon. The beret and really bad French accent might fool some people, but it's clear from the get-go that Genevieve, or whatever her name really is, has major plans to dethrone her not-so-gracious hostess.
Naturally, Starla doesn't take kindly to people attempting to appropriate her life, and with a little detecting assistance from her bookish kid brother (Jesse James) and the nice-guy school photographer (Trent Ford), she exposes Genevieve as a vengeance-crazed wannabe.
But Genevieve isn't the real culprit here -- it's writers Lamar Damon and Robert Lee King and director Melanie Mayron who are truly deserving of a group smack.
Rather than striving for anything resembling sharply observed satire, the filmmakers have instead opted to mine lazy laughs from tired targets, and the bottom-feeding results leave behind an irritating, slimy residue.
While King, who directed the appropriately campy "Psycho Beach Party", and Damon seem to be biding their time until the next cat fight, actress-turned-director Mayron allows all the squandered comic opportunities to fall with an awkward thud, as if anticipating a laugh track to bail her out.
The cast, which also includes Julie White, Brandon Smith and Michael McKean as an improbable French teacher (maybe that's where Perabo learned the lame accent), doesn't fare much better, while the technical aspects, including the work of production design team Anne Stuhler and Roswell Hamrick ("Boiler Room", "Made"), are more proficient than the picture deserves.
SLAP HER ... SHE'S FRENCH
The Premiere Group
The Premiere Marketing & Distribution Group and Constantin Film present in association with Bandeira and Key Entertainment a Beau Flynn, Emcke/Augsberger and IMF 2 production
Credits:
Director: Melanie Mayron
Screenwriters: Lamar Damon, Robert Lee King
Producers: Beau Flynn, Jonathan King, Matthias Emcke
Executive producers: Bernd Eichinger, Thomas Augsberger, Stefan Simchowitz, Matthias Deyle, Volker Schauz
Director of photography: Charles Minsky
Production designers: Anne Stuhler, Roswell Hamrick
Editor: Marshall Harvey
Costume designer: Julia Caston
Music: David Michael Frank
Cast:
Genevieve LePlouff: Piper Perabo
Starla Grady: Jane McGregor
Ed Mitchell: Trent Ford
Monsieur Duke: Michael McKean
Bootsie Grady: Julie White
Arnie Grady: Brandon Smith
Randolph Grady: Jesse James
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 8/22/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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