Release Date: February 8, 2011
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 86 minutes

Lane Daniels (Hilary Duff, A Cinderella Story, “Lizzie McGuire”) is a bright, ambitious journalist who dreams of writing for Cosmopolitan, her favorite magazine. She finally gets her chance to pitch her article, “Switching Careers to Find Love” to Cosmo’s editor Kate White (Emmy™-winner Jaime Pressly, “My Name is Earl”, “Las Vegas”) who enthusiastically accepts the idea, recognizing a potential cover story.

Lane’s editor gives her enthusiastic recruit some very firm, very simple rules: first, land a corporate job. Then, she must date as many eligible co-workers as possible! As Lane navigates her way through her new corporate world, she meets Tom (Michael McMillan, “True Blood”) and Seth (Matt Dallas, “Kyle XY”)…appealing, available: but how do they match up to her ‘checklist’ of ideal male qualities? Then Lane meets Liam (Chris Carmack, “The O.C.”): a dashing music producer working outside her office. Dating him would mean breaking the rules, and suddenly career and love threaten to collide.

Beauty & the Briefcase is the most enjoyable romantic comedy TV movie that I have seen this past year. Based on the book, Diary of a Working Girl by Daniella Brodsky, Hilary Duff leads and executive produced this film and is automatically likable as Lane simply because of her incredibly kind and positive demeanor. It is so easy to root for Duff in any role, as she is so extraordinarily charming. It boggles my mind that someone can be this charming.

Though stunning and sweet, Duff’s character Lane still has battles to fight. She takes advantage of the ditzy blonde stereotype to get into the work force once Cosmo gives Lane her first assignment. Her work on this assignment can make her career or keep her at the freelance fashion writer level that she comes from. But Lane steps up to the plate and drinks cocktails at the bar while going on a number of dates throughout the week. Lane’s enthusiasm for her assignment is really all that viewers can hold onto as Lane is clearly not prepared to enter the corporate world and we’re not given knowledge of her former success and potential as a writer. Thankfully, Cosmo takes a chance on her and continues to do so when Lane bends the rules that her boss gave her. Once Lane makes her dating rounds, she ends up letting her heart lead her instead of her assignment lead her into the man that fits the bill.

Watching Lane’s journey finding love in the corporate world was a fun journey to take, even though she took quite a leap in being very creative with her very first major assignment. Lane was aggressive in her approach and yet still respectable and smart in her approach, so thankfully it all works out. These characters are very well crafted and the screenplay is very well written. While the landscape of present day New York City and all of the on set visuals were beautiful, I did feel more connected to the screenplay than the overall film. The writing was noticeably fantastic.

Not only that, Duff’s comedic delivery is genius and Lane’s voice over narration definitely keeps viewers hooked! You never know what will come from Lane’s thoughts or mouth. A favorite laugh out loud moment comes when Lane says, “I saw nothing. Yum’s the word” when learning the ropes from her hunky new colleague.

While Beauty & the Briefcase can definitely be described as lighthearted, there are a very special lessons to be learned about love, expectations, and taking chances. For this reason, Beauty & the Briefcase is one of the most entertaining and captivating romantic comedies on ABC Family today.

Unfortunately, there are no Bonus Features on this DVD.

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