Material Girls

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For the Madonna song, see Material Girl.
Material Girls

Official poster for Material Girls
Directed by Martha Coolidge
Produced by Milton Kim, Tim Wesley, Mark Morgan, Guy Oseary, Hilary Duff[1], Susan Duff, Eva LaDue, David Faigenblum
Written by John Quaintance, Jessica O'Toole, Amy Rardin
Starring Hilary Duff
Haylie Duff
Anjelica Huston
Brent Spiner
Lukas Haas
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) August 18, 2006 (U.S.)
March 2, 2007 (UK)
Running time 97 mins
Language English
IMDb profile

Material Girls is a satirical teen comedy film starring Hilary Duff and Haylie Duff. It is based on a script written by John Quaintance and is directed by Martha Coolidge, and it also stars Anjelica Huston, Lukas Haas, and Brent Spiner. It is co-produced by Patriot Pictures and Madonna's film production company, Maverick Films.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The plot centers around Marchetta sisters, Tanzie (Hilary) and Ava (Haylie), a pair of rich, spoiled socialites who enjoy material things such as shopping and dating rather than caring about their late father's cosmetics company. When a scandal involving one of the company's products turns into an investigation, the girls find their assets frozen and must adjust to life without their fortune. Just when it seems like things couldn't get any worse, disaster strikes again. When a fire starts in their home, Ava quickly takes all her clothes while Tanzie, caring about her father more, takes her dad's TiVo and some clothes. They are tempted to listen to their advisors and sell the company to their biggest competitor (Fabiella) for just over $60 million dollars each. While this means that they could return to the lifestyle that they were accustomed to nonetheless they decide to honor their father's memory by trying to turn it around themselves. Finding inspiration in Erin Brockovich, the girls decide to get to the root of the scandal. In the end, the girls successfully manage to clear the Marchetta name and reclaim the company. Nearly seven months after the scandal began, the girls are seen leading the company, with Ava as the CEO and Tanzie working as a lab technician.

[edit] Production and release

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[2] cover version of Madonna's song "Material Girl", which was the inspiration for the film's story and is featured at the beginning of the film.

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. Has 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 number nine on the weekend box office chart, grossing $4.62 million dollars 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 disc 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] .


[edit] Reception

The movie was panned by the critics, received just 4% of approval of Rotten Tomatoes [7], and 17% by Metacritic [8].

[edit] Cast

The DVD cover for Material Girls.
The DVD cover for Material Girls.

[edit] Characters

Ava and Tanzie Marchetta
Ava and Tanzie Marchetta

Ava and Tanzania "Tanzie" Marchetta are the daughters of the late Victor Marchetta, creator of Marchetta Cosmetics. Two years prior to the film's start Victor met a tragic death. Their mother had left them to marry an Egyptian prince. She has changed her name to Isis and refers to her daughters as "cousins". She appears to have little to no interest in her daughters' existence, but goes out of her way to send them an e-mail every few years. Despite his busy schedule, Victor had always been an important figure in the girls' lives. Two years after his death Tanzie would dubb him the person who had influenced her the most. With the absence of a mother the girls were taken under the wing of their housekeeper Inez, whom had been with them for many years and loved them very much. The girls were involved in the Marchetta scandal of 2006, but discovered it was a plot and set up, and redeemed their family name.

[edit] Trivia

  • Material Girls has a very similar plot to Cow Belles. It coincidentally has another sister/sister duo, Aly & AJ. Both films were preceded by The Simple Life, said to be the first incarnation of a similar plot.
  • Henry named his cat after Clarence Darrow. Darrow was an American lawyer best known for defending John T. Scopes in the infamous "Monkey Trial" against opposing prosecutor Williams Jennings Bryan. Darrow passed away in 1938.
  • The film began production on April 18, 2005. On March 31, 2006, Lukas Haas (Henry), told an entertainment website that the movie might not find a distributor. On April 6, Box Office Mojo reported that the movie had been bought by MGM, and would be released in August. It was released in 1,500 theaters, and flopped.
  • The phone that the Marchetta sisters used were hiptop

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Material Girls Official website (December 30, 2007).
  2. ^ CANOE - JAM! Music - Artists - Duff, Hilary: Exclusive interview with Hilary Duff
  3. ^ http://stw.ryerson.ca/~sonian/apr5/arts/haas.html
  4. ^ MarthaCoolidge.com
  5. ^ Box Office Prophets: Box Office Estimates Report for August 18-20, 2006
  6. ^ Box Office Mojo. Material Girls. Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
  7. ^ Material Girls Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  8. ^ Material Girls (2006): Reviews

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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