This is screenwriter John Cohen’s first professional effort, along with Matthew Flanagan, whose only credit is a 1996 TV series called Standard Deviants.  Suffice to say that the inexperience shows.  It’s vanity all the way with an absurd, nonsensical plot.  Why would an experienced VP, for example, transform a ditzy bike messenger into an executive assistant?  Why not call a staffing agency and take one of their candidates to lunch?  Why would a savvy CEO allow his long-term exec to be fired without looking into the situation?  Why would he hire Katie with so many resources at his disposal?  Why would he then allow her—a young woman who can’t type, follow directions or hold a thought in her head—to meet with his most important clients?  

The inanities are endless and made all the worse by Marshall’s inexplicable throwbacks to other films. Like the scene where Simpson’s dress blows up over a sidewalk grate, as she stands in front of a Seven Year Itch poster. And aunt Penny Marshall’s cameo as an executive who says that she’s “been to Milwaukee.”

If the film has any draw, it’s Simpson’s beauty.  She’s a striking young woman—a point Marshall hammers home with lingering shots of his star’s plunging cleavage and shapely rear-end, all displayed in form-fitting clothing.  What’s particularly disturbing about this scenario is that Simpson’s father, Joe, produced the film.  Footage of him bragging about his daughter’s DD-sized breasts has been widely circulated, but this is even more distressing.  Didn’t this man used to be a youth pastor?

The audience for Blonde Ambition is a mystery.  With such patently silly production values, it seems geared to young girls, but its language and sexuality make it only appropriate for older teens or adults.  In a brief “behind the scenes” featurette, Joe Simpson states that “This is a film for Jessica fans.”  Remind me again.  Who, exactly, are they?

DVD EXTRAS:

• Deleted Scenes
• “Behind the Scenes” featurette

CAUTIONS:

• Drugs/Alcohol:  Mild, including a few quick shots of prescription pills used to frame an innocent employee.
• Language/Profanity:  A handful of obscenities.
• Sexual Content/Nudity:  Lingering and numerous cleavage shots of star (plunging necklines, tight blouses); several shots of a young woman’s clothed rear-end, followed by male approval; young woman climbs into bed with her boyfriend, only to discover another women with him; several scenes with a couple kissing and a few mild sexual allusions; also, a character appears to be homosexual but no mention of his sexuality is ever discussed or alluded to.
• Violence:   Mostly slapstick, physical comedy—especially pratfalls.