The Bling Ring follows the true events of a group of teens in the Beverly Hills area who went on a rampage of burglaries of A-list celebrity homes. Marc (Israel Broussard) has just moved to a new "drop-out" high school and almost instantly he is alienated by students as he enters the school. His day doesn't seem to get much better until he meets a well dressed, overconfident Rebecca who, for whatever reason, feels like making a new friend and invites him out with her friend Chloe (Claire Julien). Simultaneously Nicki (Emma Watson) and Sam (Taissa Farmiga) awake in their Beverly Hills home and start their day. Both groups quickly intertwine as they meet at a local night club where we are finally introduced to their shared life ambition of living the celebrity life. Then rather suddenly Rebecca has this urge to break in to Paris Hilton's house while she is away in Las Vegas throwing a party. From there the narrative spirals into scenes of burglary after burglary and a slow build of suspense. The under arching theme of a deep affinity for the celebrity life style isn't as cleverly veiled as I would like and I think that comes from the inexperienced actors which is often a problem in Independent films. Emma Watson's performance would have been fantastic if it were not for her trouble with an American accent.
I was entertained by the film, there were some humorous scenes and Nicki's mother Laurie (Leslie Mann) portrays a laughable new-age home school teacher bent on spreading the word of "The Secret." But despite these brief comedic moments, the film seems to lack impact. The sudden spark of thievery seems to come out of no where, which is a thematic problem due to the fact that it is the sole focus of the film. The friendship between Marc and Rebecca flourishes inhumanly fast, making their connection not believable. Had their been a few more scenes of relationship development this problem could have been easily solved, however it appears that surveillance footage was mistakenly deemed far more important than character development. By the time the credits rolled I left feeling a little unsatisfied, but the social commentary was a breath of fresh air.
