With echoes of Shopgirl and a dash of The Devil Wears Prada, Suburban Girl is mostly light and fluffy. There is little substance, and this is only provided in small doses. Were it not for the supporting cast, including a scene-stealing Alec Baldwin and, to a lesser extent, Peter Scolari, the film would be all fluff, so thank goodness the casting director placed two witty, talented men in the film. Too bad the rest of the cast is bland and boring.

The film is based on two short stories from Melissa Banks' book, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which I read in the late 90s and adored. It's directed by Marc Klein, the writer of Serendipity, another fluffy film that could have tanked were it not for the brilliant casting of almost all the roles in the film (a fact that also could have saved this film).

Sadly, such is not the case in Suburban Girl, where Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the lead role of Brett, an assistant editor at a small publishing firm. Baldwin plays bachelor and business mogul Archie Knox, who sweeps Brett off her feet "Mr. Big" style (yes, there are also echoes of Sex and the City at play here). Brett has some Daddy adoration issues, and her father, Robert, played by James Naughton, still treats Brett like a child, a fact that she seems to both relish and detest simultaneously.

While Sigmund Freud would have a field day with this film, the May-December romance aspect should give viewers pause, if only because the pair (Baldwin and Gellar) have about as much chemistry as a box of rocks. Baldwin's character, Archie, also has his own issues, including a daughter he doesn't speak to (a fact that hit too close to home when the film was making the festival rounds at the same time as Baldwin's unfortunate phone message to his daughter), as well as bouts of falling off the wagon.

The cast is rounded out by Chris Carmack, who plays Brett's boyfriend, Jed, and Maggie Grace, playing Brett's polar opposite best friend, Chloe. Scolari is perhaps the brightest spot in this otherwise bland film. He has a small role as a sarcastic writer (and also has better chemistry with Baldwin than Gellar does).

The film is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 97 minutes. It is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) transfer, with the soundtrack in Dolby 5.1, and optional Spanish subtitles are included. The only extra is a commentary track from Marc Klein, in which he discusses both his filmmaking and script choices.

In all, Suburban Girl is so-so and probably best left to huge fans of Sarah Michelle Gellar, as the film devotes 90 percent of the script to her role.