Suburban Girl (2007) [PG-13] ***

Brett Eisenberg (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a 24-year-old associate editor at a small NYC book publisher. She's caught the eye of Archie Knox (Alec Baldwin), the wealthy, 50-year-old celebrity editor-in-chief of a much larger book publisher. Archie is an alcoholic and a diabetic, with two failed marriages, a daughter who won't speak to him, and a twenty-year history of dating progressively younger women.

In Suburban Girl we get beautiful people with lots of money, witty, sophisticated dialogue, believable on-screen romantic chemistry between Gellar and Baldwin, gorgeous costumes, makeup and sets, glossy production values, and a peek into the book publishing business. Ultimately, though, we're cynical about the relationship between Brett and Archie. Brett needs a mentor in the publishing world, and Archie's trying to recapture his lost youth. We understand Brett, when she says to Archie: When I look at you, I see a teacher; when you look at me, you see a student. And we understand how much Brett has grown, when she explains to Archie why she won't marry him: Because a girl can't grow up until she loses a father and leaves an Archie.

Suburban Girl was screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, but was never given a theatrical release and was released on DVD in early 2008. Critics panned the film as a pseudo-sophisticated romantic comedy-drama that could be described as a blend of Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada. Regardless, if you enjoy romantic comedy-drama set in New York City, in which there's a daughter-father age difference between the leads, films like Love Affair (1994) with Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, Sabrina (1995) with Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford, Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and Autumn in New York with Winona Ryder and Richard Gere, then you will very likely enjoy Suburban Girl. 

Labels: Cinderella-story, comedy, drama, rom-drama-faves, romance
Internet Movie Database 54/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=61, viewers=56)
Blu-ray

In a life imitates art moment in June, 2012, 54-year-old Alec Baldwin married his 28-year-old yoga-instructor girlfriend, Hilaria Thomas. One can only assume that Hilaria had not watched Suburban Girl before accepting Baldwin's proposal, or that she simply ignored Gellar's advice...  a girl can't grow up until she loses a father and leaves an Archie.

One can also assume that when Hilaria's father was watching The Hunt for Red October in 1990, starring 32-year-old Alec Baldwin, he had no idea that his six-year-old daughter Hilaria would, 22 years later, marry the actor.