I like the premise of The Bling Ring more than I like the actual movie. It is about a group of teenagers that break into the homes of a handful of celebrities. It is actually based on true events which make the premise all the more interesting. Unfortunately, the characters are insufferable to watch. At least it has Emma Watson, so that must make it slightly better, right? Not really.
The novelty of Emma Watson acting like the complete opposite of Hermione Granger wears of pretty quickly. The novelty of watching people breaking into the homes of celebrities also wears off just as fast. Outside of a few parties, most of the movie revolves around robberies. This is probably for the best.
There are no forced romances or other plots to give the characters depth. I am skeptical that the real-life counterparts of these characters had any sort of depth. Everyone is shallow. They have no real goals or ambitions, or any sort of discernable characteristics.
The Bling Ring just sort of goes on a loop of robberies until the last third of the film. This is where the movie starts to get better and just comes to an end. The movie makes an excellent point about how as a society we are generally more interested in news that brings misfortune into other people’s lives and how no one cares about people who do good deeds. I did not need to watch a movie to figure that out, but watching the misfortune of others is the entire reason why I watched The Bling Ring. This point changed my perspective of the movie.
There is not much to The Bling Ring and the characters are not likable, but this is what made me appreciate the movie by the end. I was hoping for an elaborate story, but the truth was not interesting. The movie tried to glamorize it, which frustrated me when I was watching it, but it feels like a joke now. Maybe the lives of people who do terrible things are not worth watching and we should just move on. Unless you really want to watch Emma Watson pull off an American accent, skip The Bling Ring and move on.
Laneous Missile 