Went in expecting another run-of-the-mill, formulaic, predictable romcom. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, tension/climax ensues threatening their bond before all is resolved in a happy ending where boy ends up with girl.This is not what this movie is AT ALL. That alone deserves a 5/10. Why this movie receives such harsh ratings from IMDB reviewers and critics alike shows that people don't appreciate movies that defy stereotypical genres. I certainly do.This is a very relatable premise. Possible infidelity in relationships, which technology makes easier to uncover. But it was not explored in the context of a predictable romcom, but instead, it was more of an exposé on the world of reality TV, where cutthroat, merciless, manipulative, sociopathic TV producers will do anything for ratings, including ruin people's lives. Funnily enough, this movie was made before the TV show Unreal but this is what it reminded me of. Hunter's character was brilliantly portrayed. The way she manically got off on the real life drama she created for television, by toying with the lives of several people, while feeling no remorse was disturbing and chilling to watch. I certainly did not see the twist coming AT ALL because she maintained the ruse of being Murphy's friend and side kick effortlessly well throughout the film, giving no hint of what she was plotting behind the scenes. As a viewer, I felt just as played as Murphy's character did. That in my book, is a job well done on the part of the acting, writing and direction of this movie.I love how in the end, Stacey doesn't end up with a guy, but instead, her dream job. What romantic comedy has ever ended like this in history? Where a woman is not defined by ending up with a guy in the end, but instead by her career. This ending should be empowering to women everywhere! It is a refreshing change of pace. To all the people and critics scolding Murphy's character, I have to wonder why this is. Firstly, Hunter manipulated her every step of the way, by planting the seed of doubt in her mind, encouraging her to set up interviews with all her boyfriend's exes and even getting a hold of his Blackberry and snooping through it. Stacey was with this guy for a year and it never occurred to her once to snoop through his phone or past relationships. So obviously, she is not an inherently bad person, she was merely a pawn in Barb's game and she was clearly very good at controlling her pawns. That is the whole point of the movie. Seriously, did every single movie critic miss that? Secondly, this guy is nothing to write home about. The fact is, he was deceitful, and ironically, Barb did Stacey a favour by helping her uncover who he really was so she could find someone more deserving of her. I would expect if I'm with someone for a year, that they would not keep from me, weekly meet ups and phone calls with not one, but two of their exes, one of which they keep naked pictures of on their phone. Also, I'd expect that my partner of one year would want to introduce me to their parents after such time. And if they're going to say, oh that's just something I don't do, for that to be the truth, instead of a lie because they don't want to be honest and say, I just don't think you're the one. It is unfair to waste a year of someone's life leading them on. Also, the one woman who was apparently good enough to be introduced to his parents, he deliberately humiliated by laughingly playing her phone messages to his superficial fling. Given how strongly Joyce was holding onto him, I think she also deserved to know what a tool this guy really was. So ultimately it was good for all concerned for the truth to come out. If Derek was a nice guy, then Barb would be unimaginably cruel breaking up a happy relationship. But because he's not, we're ironically grateful that Barb allowed Derek to be exposed for who he really is so both Joyce and Stacey could be open to find someone better. But no, I don't agree Stacey is the villain here at all. She is the victim of a bad relationship and a manipulative, conniving sociopath masquerading as her friend.Overall, a very unexpected, thought provoking movie.

From the female perspective, this movie is about women brutally screwing each other over. From the male perspective, it's about your seemingly perfect girlfriend turning into a psychotic bitch for no reason. Add in a spastic performance by Brittany Murphy, about 1/4th of the film being nothing but an infomercial for the greatest hits of Carly Simon and comedy that starts out at dog farts and goes downhill from there. The result is that Little Black Book is repellent to virtually every possible viewer.Stacy (Brittany Murphy) is the main character of this disaster. She would be pathetic as a real person and is even worse as a fictional protagonist. Stacy is overwrought, bug-eyed and empty of anything except an unexamined, childlike desire to work with Diane Sawyer. She gets a job at a syndicated talk show based in New Jersey, which becomes the pretext for an endless series of jibes at the low-brow, trashy nature of such programs. The only other thing in Stacy's life is her live-in boyfriend Derek (Ron Livingston). He appears to be perfect so, of course, Stacy isn't satisfied with that.Egged on by Barb (Holly Hunter), her fellow associate producer and the Friedrich Nietzsche of daytime talk shows, Stacy gets a hold of Derek's palm pilot while he's out of town and finds information in there about his old girlfriends. Putting aside how incredibly quickly the palm pilot became a dated reference, Stacy lies to Derek's old girlfriends to find out what she thinks he's been hiding from her. If you think that comes back to bite Stacy in the butt, you're only partly correct.I will admit that Little Black Book is energetic and has a quick pace. Holly Hunter also appears to be having a great time playing Barb. That's about all the praise I can give to this narrative malformation.I think I can sum up how awfully written this film is in one sentence. Stacy spends the whole movie acting like a manic, lying bitch and the audience is still supposed to be rooting for her at the end. How is that supposed to work? This thing was written by two women, but there's a scene in a gynecologist's office that could have come from the mind of a 19 year old frat boy. There's a cameo appearance by musician Gavin Rossdale that's so obtrusive and unnecessary it's like a 19 year old frat boy taking a trip to a gynecologist's office. The story casts Stacy as the product of a broken home and a self-absorbed mother, then brings the mother back at the end to cheer on her daughter as she achieves her greatest dreams, as though mom weren't responsible for most of Stacy's personal dysfunction.The glimmer of an idea in the sunken pit where the heart of this movie is supposed to be is that Stacy is the girl in the romantic comedy who gets in between the two people who are destined to be together. In this case, that's Derek and one of his old girlfriends. It's the old trick of taking the same story you've seen before and telling it from the viewpoint of a minor character. The difficulty is that most romantic comedies delight in making the Stacy-character as big a skank as they can, while this one desperately tries to make her sympathetic. It doesn't work, particularly since the film also goes to great length to portray Derek and his old girlfriend as utterly wonderful, despite Derek not telling his live-in girlfriend of a year that he continues to have ongoing friendships with two of his exes. If these filmmakers had made Derek out to be a bastard and let Stacy and the old girlfriend run away together, at least that would have been something.Little Black Book is 98% annoying, 1% cloying and 1%…well, I can't think of another negative adjective that rhymes with "oying". This is the sort of movie that ends careers, and it largely did that to Brittany Murphy's.

Okay, this has to be one of the worst 'romantic comedies' I've ever seen - its a completely unbelievable plot line, with a far-too-easily-HATEable heroine - who, by the way, overacts throughout the entire film. There are far too many close-ups in the last 15 mins of Brittany Murphy's quivering lips and tear-filled eyes - takes away any possible sympathy you might have been tempted to feel for her self-involved egomaniac character. And any rom-com that leaves the viewer at the end of a tortuous two hours with neither an idea of how romantically- happy the heroine ends up (whether one actually cares or not) OR whether there's any chance she might die in some horrible accident can really be summed up with the words "a complete and utter waste of my time" - that I'll never get back!

I went into this movie not expecting an epic (come on!), but at least a halfway decent film to take my mind off things for an hour and a half. And, after wasting that hour and a half on this pathetic excuse for a rom-com, all I can say is: wow. I didn't think it was possible for a movie to be this bad, even after seeing Rumor Has It... (side note- don't see that one either!) I can usually put up with Brittany Murphy- I loved Uptown Girls- but she got on my last nerve. The plot was clumsily thrown together, and for a supposed comedy, I laughed out loud exactly once (at the phone smashing bit- gotta admit, that was hilarious). Even some die-hard fans of this movie admit the ending was one of the worst in romantic comedy history, and as a complete non-fan, it was just appalling. The only part I appreciated even a little bit was the way the writer avoided the trap of having Bean and Stacy get together. But overall, without a doubt one of the worst movies I've ever seen.