Review | Film review: Crazy About Tiffany’s – only for the converted
Matthew Miele’s film about the American luxury jeweller is more infomercial than documentary, peppered as it is with fawning sound bites and nauseating self-regard
2/5 stars
A brand-promotion infomercial which pats itself on the back so often that it becomes a little nauseating, Crazy About Tiffany’s celebrates the 179-year-old luxury jewellery company with a steady flow of excessively fawning sound bites, as if this film’s title – taken from Audrey Hepburn’s famous line in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – applies to us all. (Or maybe it does: there’s a throwaway scene acknowledging China’s new-found affluence.)
For the top 1 per cent who are already converted, this authorised documentary should do wonders in making them feel better about their jewellery, as director Matthew Miele (2013’s Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s) considers every laudable aspect of Tiffany and Co – from American history, pop culture, and incidental facts such as that it makes sports trophies – to justify the New York brand’s blue-chip status. Even Abraham Lincoln is listed as a customer.
Movie clips set in Tiffany’s flagship emporium – from Breakfast at Tiffany’s to, well, Sweet Home Alabama (2002) – are played in full, while celebrities such as Jessica Biel (who was accessorised with Tiffany jewels on red carpet at the Academy Awards) and Baz Luhrmann (who let Daisy wear Tiffany in 2013’s The Great Gatsby) offer their compliments.