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Review
by Kozo: |
Lau
Ching-Wan and Gigi Leung get paired up in Driving Miss
Wealthy, a romantic comedy that comes with an impressive
pedigree. Writers James Yuen and Jessica Fong co-wrote last
year's award-winning drama Lost in Time, which was
directed by Driving Miss Wealthy producer Derek Yee.
However, Derek Yee does not direct Driving Miss Wealthy;
he leaves that up to pal James Yuen, who was responsible
for Clean My Name, Mr. Coroner, and the epic My
Wife is 18. Given the uneven and downright fluffy films
Yuen has directed, it's no surprise that Driving Miss
Wealthy turns out to be an amusing, but formulaic and
throwaway cinema exercise. That said, it's not the worst
thing Hong Kong has produced this year, though even that's
being somewhat generous. Really, there just isn't much of
a movie here.
Lau Ching-Wan is Kit, an ex-cop
who's looking to make some decent dough. His ex-boss Hui
Siu-Hung sends him to a prime opportunity: bodyguard for
reclusive tycoon Feng Kwok-Lap (Chow Chung). Kit manages
to make it through the rigorous screening process, but it
turns out the assignment is not to bodyguard Mr. Feng. Instead,
he's supposed to watch over Feng's daughter Jennifer (Gigi
Leung). While that sounds easy, this is a formulaic romantic
comedy, meaning Jennifer is unbelievably quirky AND there
are numerous manufactured situations designed to facilitate
and/or hinder the lead actors' eventual union. The writers
don't disappoint in that department, as Driving Miss
Wealthy is loaded down with quirks, overused devices,
and just plain strange stuff that's certainly distracting,
but doesn't really add up to that much. Let's take a look:
Jennifer is a spoiled rich
girl whose friends constantly take advantage of her. She
also won't accept a bodyguard, so Kit has to pretend to
be Mario, her new Filipino driver. As a spoiled and totally
unrealistic human being, Jennifer is due for some serious
life lessons, so dad cooks them up for her. He pretends
to go into a coma, and assigns his aides to pretend to steal
the entire family fortune from Jennifer. He hopes that Jennifer
can learn to stand on her own two feet, and sends along
Mario/Kit to make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble.
It's rough going at first, but Jennifer eventually recovers
by using Mario/Kit's suave Filipino handsomeness (she calls
him the "Filipino Louis Koo") to sell slimming
pills to Hong Kong's Filipino population. Never mind that
the business involves chicanery and non-FDA approved products,
but Jennifer must learn to be a capable adult who'll go
that extra mile just to save an extra $10. She also must
eventually fall in love with Mario/Kit, but will she be
able to handle the truth of his non-Filipino identity? Do
you honestly think that she won't?
As is usual with romantic
comedies, the big question is not if the stars get together,
but exactly how they go about it. Well, in Driving Miss
Wealthy, the road to romance is paved with, yes, even
more of those quirks, overused devices and just plain strange
stuff. Jennifer has a fascination with getting really terrible
hairdos from a hunky hairdresser, so we get an hour's worth
of Gigi Leung with simply awful hair. Jennifer also gets
Mario/Kit a makeover, which leads to a whole sequence of
Lau Ching-Wan with faux dreadlocks, and the slow-motion
sight of the two cavorting in romantic bad-hair harmony.
There's also a sequence where Mario/Kit overdoses on a "skin
lightening" herbal treatment, and Jennifer stays at
his bedside, worried and teary-eyed for her male servant.
And, most touching of all, there's an extended montage as
Jennifer and Mario/Kit experience the joy of selling slimming
products, and the camaraderie of being working-class people.
If the above is actually supposed to be touching and/or
emotionally compelling, then I clearly missed the boat.
Driving Miss Wealthy
is basically uneven as all hell, mixing the occasional cloying
sentiment with out-of-nowhere gags that make no sense. In
addition to all the events designed to create affection
between the lead characters, there's even more random crap
that may be momentarily funny, but overall adds absolutely
nothing to the film. For example, when Jennifer and Mario/Kit
first visit her new Sham Sui Po apartment, everyone they
meet is played by serial overacting comedian Jim Chim Sui-Man.
Why? Who the hell knows? One supposes it's supposed to be
funny, but it seems more weird than anything else. Luckily,
there's a "plot" to hold things together, but
it's strung together by the barest minimum of development.
Eventually everything comes together and Jennifer learns
how to be a self-sufficient seller of slimming pills, but
her transformation seems to only be scripted. The script
supports its driving storyline with only perfunctory details,
and saves the rest of its efforts for random inanity. Wong
Jing would be proud.
On the other hand, Driving
Miss Wealthy gets some points over the standard Wong
Jing wackfest (i.e., The Spy Dad) by at least attempting
to tie things up in a somewhat logical, if not too realistic
fashion. Despite all the manufactured hijinks going on in
this slightly overlong 100-minute movie, Lau Ching-Wan and
Gigi Leung do strike up enough chemistry to make their pairing
seem at least somewhat desirable. Lau, in particular, has
some fun with his fake Filipino accent, and Leung manages
to become much more sympathetic towards the end of the film.
Sadly, for most of Driving Miss Wealthy, Leung is
more annoying than charming, and overall gives an inconsistent
performance. At least the actors perform well enough to
make rooting for them possible. They're certainly a more
interesting pair than, say, Richie Ren and Cecilia Cheung,
but really, that can only get you so far. Ultimately, Driving
Miss Wealthy isn't much more than your usual bag of
romantic comedy tricks, and is directed with only passable
interest by James Yuen. Given the quality of stars and Hong
Kong Cinema's rather sparse 2004 output, Driving Miss
Wealthy is occasionally diverting, and even amusing.
However, those with limited movie-watching time probably
don't need to go here. (Kozo 2004)
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