Little Black Book

Plot

Stacy Holt (Brittany Murphy), an associate producer on a daytime talk show (syndicated out of Trenton, New Jersey), is convinced that her boyfriend Derek (Ron Livingston) is the right man for her, though he has an apparent phobia of commitment, and he's vague about his past relationships. Taking the advice of colleague Barb (Holly Hunter), she looks at his Palm Tungsten C and its record of the names and numbers of three ex-girlfriends: a French supermodel (Josie Maran); a gynecologist (Rashida Jones); and a cook (Julianne Nicholson).

She sets up an interview with each woman, in an attempt to learn more about and get closer to Derek. However, Stacy's plan suffers a setback when she develops a friendship with one of the women.

Stacy is eventually betrayed by Barb when Stacy, Derek and the ex-girlfriends are brought together on stage for a live broadcast during sweeps season. During the show, Stacy comes to the realization that she is not the right one for Derek and lets him go. On the way out, Stacy is met by Barb, who is clearly out of her mind. Barb tells Stacy that her actions were not premeditated, goes on to call the "event" a masterpiece and says that she hopes Stacy will one day understand that she got what she wanted: her life back. With a live camera behind her, Stacy responds with, "I should tear your eyes out right now. But how will you be able to look at yourself in the morning?", which the audience cheers on. Stacy then departs from the studio as the camera stays on a humiliated Barb.

In the end, Stacy winds up earning her dream job working for Diane Sawyer and meets her idol, Carly Simon.

Cast

Reception

The film received largely negative reviews, currently holding a 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 36 on Metacritic. Entertainment Weekly's Scott Brown awarded Little Black Book a D, stating "The big climax isn't climactic, just hysterical and incoherent. Murphy, with her bug-eyed, love-me mugging, is simply too slight and gawky to play the Everygirl." Similarly, the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film a poor write up, criticising the poor script and acting.

The film received some positive reviews; Andrea Gronvall of the Chicago Reader praised the film's humour, awarding the film three and a half stars. Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars out of four, and praised Murphy's performance.

Box office

The film opened at #5 at the North American box office, making $7,075,217 in its opening weekend behind Collateral, The Village, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Manchurian Candidate. The film ended its run with a domestic total of $20,698,668 and an international addition of $1,336,164, totaling $22,034,832 worldwide.