The Real Blonde

A film by Tom DiCillo (USA, 1997),

with Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener, Maxwell Caulfield, Elizabeth Berkley, Kathleen Turner, Daryl Hannah, Steve Buscemi and Bridgette Wilson.

The story takes place in Manhattan, New York City, and features wannabe show-biz stars in their current environments: just wannabes... ie soap opera actors, Madonna stand-ins, part-time waiters, etc... Apart from fame, all have set different vital goals: Mary needs to determine whether she has a sexual problem or not, supermodel Sahara is desperately looking for "Disney" love, and soap opera actor John for a real blonde...

Hollywood and fashion have inspired a lot of satyrical and even cruel films before: The Player, Ready-To-Wear, Swimming With Sharks, among others. DiCillo himself has already depicted the everyday difficulties of an independent production in award-winning comedy Living In Oblivion. So how original is The Real Blonde, compared with its predecessors? Well, the essential difference rests upon the people it's all focused on! For the first time, here's the story of Mr/Ms Everybody, trying hard to put her foot in the industry. That's the reason why the characters are overall so nice: they're still genuine... at the end. And this is probably the film's main weakness too: the fall is way too "American", ie the mushy way: success seems to be around the corner for who's good and striving (ahem...). Anyway, in the meantime, the others -those who have power and fame- really look stupid and superficial. Even though, they're not that bad: they can still give you a chance! So nothing really, compared to Swimming With Sharks' sharks (duh!), The Player's bastard or Ready-To-Wear's bitches... The Real Blonde is therefore a sarcastic comedy, the bias of which eventually makes it sweet. It's entertaining but would have definitely gained in critical value by taking more risks...

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