{"id":227,"date":"2008-01-11T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/?p=227"},"modified":"2009-09-09T19:43:12","modified_gmt":"2009-09-09T23:43:12","slug":"americanizing-shelley-2007-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/?p=227","title":{"rendered":"Americanizing Shelley (2007) – Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
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\"Sultry

Sultry Namrata Singh Gujral in "Americanizing Shelley"<\/p><\/div>\n

You\u2019ll Grow Accustomed to Her Face<\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n

\u00a0[xrr rating=3.5\/5]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Americanizing Shelley<\/em>. Starring Namrata Singh Gujral, Beau Bridges, Brad Raider, RonReaco Lee, Phillip Rhys, Wil Wheaton, Erin Hershey, Shaheen Khan, Ajay Mehta, Noureen DeWulf, Tony Yalda, Morgan Brittany, and Robert M. Rey. Music by Jay Ferguson. Cinematography by Christo Bakalov, B.A.C.\u00a0 Production design by Kathryn Evans. Costume design by Barbara Anderson, Pooja Gujral, and Jaymee Mandeville. Edited by Christopher Roth. Written by Namrata Singh Gujral. Directed by Lorraine Senna. (Warner Bros.\/Polychrome Pictures\/American Pride Films Group, 2007, color, 90 minutes, in English, and Punjabi with subtitles). MPAA rating: PG.)<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not supposed to like Americanizing Shelley<\/em>, at least not according to the unwritten code of my profession. It doesn\u2019t affect a sneering tone. In fact, it\u2019s so sweet that it verges on sappy. It\u2019s also a popcorn flick that may be great to take a date to, but most guys will probably be looking at their watches (read: \u201cchick flick\u201d). It\u2019s also quite formulaic. The formula is so hoary, in fact, that it\u2019s borrowed from a Cypriot myth almost two thousand years old, about a forlorn artist named Pygmalion who sculpts a statue of a woman so lifelike that he falls in love with it.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, I was enchanted. Perhaps it was the timing. That bath I said I needed after wandering the dark barrens of There Will Be Blood<\/em>? Well, Americanizing Shelley<\/em> was like an invigorating shower, and I was able to cleanse myself of those ugly emotions after watching this endearing romantic comedy.<\/p>\n

The Pygmalion myth of remaking a woman over according to the idealized image of her male designer has resurfaced constantly in popular culture\u2014often through tragedies, such as Hitchcock\u2019s suspense masterpiece Vertigo<\/em> and Andrew Nichol\u2019s underrated cautionary film S1m0ne.<\/em> Most famously, it\u2019s been identified with dramatist George Bernard Shaw\u2019s Edwardian comedy of manners Pygmalion<\/em>, which was reworked as the Lerner and Loewe musical comedy My Fair Lady<\/em>. In its lighthearted treatment of the ancient tale, though, this movie comes closer to the 1983 British flick Educating Rita.<\/em><\/p>\n

Shalini Singh has waited her whole life to leave her Himalayan village in India and travel to America\u2014or, as she calls it, \u201cthe Land of the White People.\u201d To the consternation of her mother (Shaheen Khan), she\u2019s closing in on thirty and still unmarried. Not to worry, however: Shalini just graduated from \u201cthe University of Cooking and Cleaning\u201d and is set to present herself to Neil (Phillip Rhys), to whom she was betrothed since childhood. Neil has become a successful Hollywood talent agent, and Shalini is worked up into a lather because soon \u201cI\u2019ll be married to the man of my family\u2019s dreams!\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Neil has become a success not only in the boardroom but on the casting couch as well. One day, after trekking halfway across the world to meet him, Shalini shows up in his office wearing a sari and holding parcels, her face hidden behind untamed hair and oversized glasses. But when she proudly presents herself to her fianc\u00e9, he blows her off. \u201cYou cook and speak English? Great, I\u2019ll hire you as a maid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stunned, Shalini leaves his office and starts trudging down the sidewalk. There she runs across Rob (Brad Raider), Neil\u2019s hapless assistant, who\u2019s trying to make a name for himself at the agency. Rob has his own problems: His girlfriend was just stolen by Neil on her climb up the ladder of fame and fortune.<\/p>\n

Shalini sees her own inadequacy in competing with the hotties that are more to Neil\u2019s liking. So she strikes a deal with Rob: \u201cAmericanize\u201d her into becoming a Hollywood celebrity so that Neil will fall in love with and marry her.<\/p>\n

In a sequence of events familiar to fans of \u201cfish out of water\u201d movies like Pretty Woman<\/em> and Legally Blonde<\/em>, Shalini stumbles slowly forward as she strives to become both \u201ccool\u201d and \u201chot.\u201d Rob suggests changing her name to the more Latina-sounding \u201cShelley Picante,\u201d and with the help of Army friend Blaine (RonReaco Lee), she works out in a \u201cboot camp\u201d montage to get the killer body she thinks she needs.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as she leaves the cultural ties that bind her to India, \u201cShelley\u201d becomes an American in the larger sense. At a kicker bar, she ditches taboos about women drinking alcohol. \u201cThat\u2019s what I like about your culture,\u201d she tells her new friends as she orders another round of beers. \u201cI can do something because I want to, not because I have to.\u201d Of course, when she arrives home, drives the porcelain bus, and then wakes up with a hangover, she learns that exercising free will does not necessarily entail wisdom.<\/p>\n

Although some of the movie\u2019s humor missed its mark, a scene at a cocktail soiree, where Rob advises her to just wing it, makes for some dead-on satire. Afraid to insult \u201csomebody who might be somebody,\u201d the Beautiful People at the party all feign acquaintance with Shelley and her work, and before you know it, she\u2019s in like Flynn.<\/p>\n

But after her makeover is complete, and having become \u201cAmericanized\u201d only in the most superficial sense, Shelley comes to see Neil for the two-timing cad he really is. Worse, he wants her to lower herself in order to generate more publicity in the scandal sheets, thus boosting her celebrity status. Forced to choose between her family\u2019s wishes and her own better judgment, Shelley discovers that being an American is not about celebrity but about making independent decisions and keeping one\u2019s integrity intact.<\/p>\n

This picture has a distinctly Eighties feel to it, accentuated by composer Jay Ferguson\u2019s soundtrack, which somewhat echoes The Wedding Singer. <\/em>More importantly, the movie captures the optimism of that decade through colorful, Bollywood-style dance sequences. Namrata Singh Gujral portrays the benign immigrant heroine with compassion, conviction, and a charming effervescence. Phillip Rhys is deliciously ruthless and shallow as Neil. The only weak link, I thought, was Brad Raider as Rob. I experienced a fair amount of cognitive dissonance in his portraying a nice guy who is simultaneously a shrewd publicist. His acting was too lukewarm to make plausible either his ambition or his benevolent ability to transform Shalini into Shelley. Though he comes across more credibly as he grows accustomed to her face, Rex Harrison he ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Still, this was a fun and entertaining watch. Americanizing Shelley <\/em>is a formulaic movie that\u2019s nonetheless wise beyond its plot. Shelley realizes the American Dream in its truest sense: measured not in terms of fame and riches, but in the independence gained by standing on one\u2019s own two feet and succeeding or failing by the choices one makes.<\/p>\n

Robert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in\u00a0<\/span>Black & White Magazine<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Entrepreneur<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Hoy! New York<\/span><\/span>, the New York\u00a0<\/span>Post<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>RCA Victor\u00a0<\/span>(Japan)<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Scene in San Antonio<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Spirit Magazine<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(Canada),\u00a0<\/span>Top Producer<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0 and the Trenton\u00a0<\/span>Times<\/span><\/span>. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of\u00a0<\/span>The New Individualist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ll Grow Accustomed to Her Face \u00a0[xrr rating=3.5\/5] Americanizing Shelley. Starring Namrata Singh Gujral, Beau Bridges, Brad Raider, RonReaco Lee, Phillip Rhys, Wil Wheaton, Erin Hershey, Shaheen Khan, Ajay Mehta, Noureen DeWulf, Tony Yalda, Morgan Brittany, and Robert M. Rey. Music by Jay Ferguson. Cinematography by Christo Bakalov, B.A.C.\u00a0 Production design by Kathryn Evans. Costume […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,38,37,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bollywood","category-comedies","category-independent-films","category-mreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions\/474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}