Born Rich
October 2004 Reviewed by: Marc Mickelson Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Born Rich documents an existence with which few people can empathize: being wildly wealthy and questioning what you did to deserve it. Director Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, and his 20-something friends, whose parents are in publishing, textiles, gaming, finance, and real-estate development, give a peek into their lives and try to make us wonder if we would trade places with them. On the one hand are the trappings that come with incredible wealth -- elaborate parties, shopping sprees, admittance to the finest schools, membership in exclusive clubs -- and on the other are the questions that such wealth dredges up, those of an individual's place in the world and worth as a person.

It is in the more introspective moments that Born Rich works. Here, the people filmed are sympathetic and the scenes meaningful. The best exchanges occur between director Johnson and his father, who is much more cautious and stoic than his filmmaker son. Others who appear display the sort of carefree lifestyle, and affinity for wretched excess, that those of us not part of the same economic strata think the rich are about. It is the dichotomy between having wealth and pondering its implications with which the film wrestles, ultimately taking on the personality of its maker, rather than that of some of its subjects. Born Rich has something of a reality-show feel -- it often moves from scene to scene with little narrative momentum. Although the director knows and presumably likes each of the people he films, he does not always show them in their best light, which helps the movie, and the people in it, seem authentic.

Extra materials include deleted scenes and two different commentaries. The scenes depict facets of the characters' personalities that the movie does not, including the fact that the rich are not immune to being obnoxious when drunk. They are worthy additions, but they lack real profundity, as does the movie itself.

Born Rich leaves one with many morsels to taste but no legs of lamb to chew on -- perhaps because of the way it was constructed, perhaps because it's not easy to care about the people it documents. I enjoyed the glimpse into an exclusive existence, but I can't say that I understand it any better. Would I trade places? From what I can see, born rich ain't such a bad thing to be.

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