THE BLING RING

Between 2008 and 2009, a group of privileged teenagers successfully robbed the homes of several high-profile celebrities in and around Calabasas, Caliafornia, including Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Lindsey Lohan. The Bling Ring, based on these events, tells the story of Marc, awkward and unsure of himself, starting at a new school, and becoming friends with Rebecca, a charismatic and beautiful teenage girl. His initial attraction to the glamour of her lifestyle and friends spirals into a dangerous obsession under her influence and encouragement. Eventually, simply worshipping from afar is not enough for their fanatical idolisation of celebrity culture, leading to some of the most daring and extraordinary thefts ever carried out.

Sofia Coppola, the director, has avoided the story's potential for commercial success by writing a slow-moving understated script and casting mostly unknown actors in the title roles. The audience is distanced from the characters emotionally: although it is implied that there are personal issues troubling many of them, they are not enlarged upon, and their actions are reported coldly, without context, so you're not allowed to become sentimental. But Coppola seems so determined to chronicle these events in a detached and muted way that it sometimes undermines the inherent excitement and drama of the story. But the film is full of a self-mocking irony that is very appealing: Emma Watson finally proves her worth delivering Coppola's most absurd lines in her cringingly earnest, monotone voice, wide-eyed and serious ('Your butt looks AWESOME'). Israel Broussard is wonderful as Marc, palpably vulnerable and self-conscious, with all the tension and desperation of an uneasy adolescence.

 

Sofia Coppola's films are not for everybody. Someone looking for drama, pacy dialogue and a gripping plotline would be disappointed by the slow-moving awkwardness of her movies. The Virgin Suicides and Lost In Translation are communicated with a chilling detachment, and yet are humming with an intense sense of tragedy and bittersweet humour. The Bling Ring does not quite achieve this, but then it is a very different film. What it does leave you with is the open-ended question: how far has celebrity culture crept into our lives? Do the images of famous people hurled at us each day give us a sense of entitlement and ownership over them? Coppola doesn't answer these questions directly, but leaves you to consider the extent to which you yourself are influenced by the world of celebrities.