{"id":7526,"date":"2010-01-29T06:42:05","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T22:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=7526"},"modified":"2018-03-14T11:14:41","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:14:41","slug":"uptown-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/01\/29\/uptown-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Uptown Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-uptowngirls-01\" Uptown Girls<\/a><\/em> (2003) \u2013 on rental. My interest in Brittany Murphy\u2019s comedies and dramas got revived after watching Just Married<\/em> the other day. The late actress was pretty productive with a long list of films, several of which I\u2019ve queued up on DVD rental. Uptown Girls<\/em> was made in the same year as Just Married<\/em>, and I actually have an impression of this film though I didn\u2019t catch it then at the theater, that came by way of Dakota Fanning\u2019s involvement in this comedy-drama.<\/p>\n

Murphy plays Molly, a well-off socialite living off the fame and inheritance of her rock legend father. She\u2019s socially adept, claiming the Dalai Lama as one of her character references even, but is otherwise bimbo-ish, and almost child-like despite her age. Fanning on the other hand plays Ray, the only daughter of a mother (Heather Locklear) who\u2019s never home and dad whose bedridden in a coma at home.<\/p>\n

Ray\u2019s family is wealthy, but she\u2019s also largely neglected by her mother who showers her with expensive luxuries but otherwise doesn\u2019t spend time with her. That\u2019s turned her bitterly cynical, though she\u2019s also brilliant and wise beyond her years.<\/p>\n

The two cross paths when Molly\u2019s financial manager to whom she\u2019s relied on for everything disappears along with most of her wealth. She\u2019s forced to seek employment, and eventually lands one as Ray\u2019s nanny. The rest of the film explores their relationship: an adult with the aptitude of a child, and a child with the aptitude of an adult.<\/p>\n

About casting choices: Murphy fits Molly\u2019s character well enough, though I can think of other actresses who can play as well the ditzy, wide-eyed, carefree: Cameron Diaz, anyone? Fanning though is the actress who\u2019s playing a character slightly out of her usual element. Ray\u2019s outspoken and intelligent, like the other roles Fanning had played up to that point. But in Uptown Girls<\/em>, she\u2019s also brimming with sarcasm, and displays open animosity and disgust against Molly. When the latter asks if Ray has ever seen a shrink, she bites back \u201cSince I was three\u201d. It\u2019s to Fanning\u2019s credit that even though Ray\u2019s bitchy \u2013 and bear in mind she plays a 9 year old \u2013 the character isn\u2019t dislikable.<\/p>\n

Much of the film smartly centers on the two\u2019s relationship and engagement. The early setup scenes explores Molly\u2019s newfound relationship with an up and coming rock singer, Neal (Jesse Spencer, left<\/em> in the picture), and are a little slow, but the film picks up noticeably when Ray becomes Molly\u2019s employer. The scenes they both share from that point progressively reveals bit by bit why they are the way they are. There\u2019s a touching scene at about midpoint where an adult Molly is in tears over boyfriend depression, and it\u2019s the young Ray who ends up having to comfort her. Quite the reversal of roles! Nicely too is that their antagonism isn\u2019t resolved until very late in the film so there\u2019s a nice build-up to the film\u2019s final outcome, and it isn\u2019t a perfectly happy ending either.<\/p>\n

Of the supporting cast, besides Locklear, the other instantly familiar face for me was Donald Faison (right<\/em>). I wonder if Ling recognized him though: Faison played Dr. Chris Turk in the \u2018Scrubs<\/em>\u2019 series that we spent so many evenings in the last couple of years watching.<\/p>\n

So, a little uneven at the start, but otherwise a thoughtful drama with light comedy. Watch especially if you\u2019re interested in the two actresses.:)<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uptown Girls (2003) \u2013 on rental. My interest in Brittany Murphy\u2019s comedies and dramas got revived after watching Just Married the other day. The late actress was pretty productive with a long list of films, several of which I\u2019ve queued<\/p>\n

Read More Uptown Girls<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-entertainment","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-10-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}