To hate? Or not to hate?

Well I went into this film with an open mind and tried to put any prejudice I may harbour for the filthy rich to the back of my mind.

What I really liked about this documentary is that it doesn't tell you what to think. It isn't biased in any way. Johnson just turns the camera on his friends and lets them talk. Ultimately some of them dig their own grave and some of them open up and show real vulnerability and fear...as well as pride.

What I saw in those with the most bravado was fear. A desire to bury themselves in booze, broads and drugs because they simply don't know who they are or what else to do. It's obvious that they all know they have done nothing to earn their wealth and therefore know what other people think of them. So they 'get in first' so-to-speak by looking down on people and basically living up to all of our expectations of a poor, rich brat.

Other's however, are also aware of their extreme good fortune in life and choose to find a way to move forward with that knowledge and hopefully make some kind of contribution to society. I was quite impressed to see one of them working a $50,000 a year job.

What I came away thinking was that, how you 'DO' rich is entirely up to you. You can revert to type or you can break the mould. What I saw was both...and it actually filled me with a little hope.

However, even amongst the most non-spoiled of them all I still felt a distinct lack of consideration for the underclasses and also a distinct lack of consideration for how people can end up in these situations. It was all still a little 'poor rich kid' for me. What it ultimately shows is how removed these people are from every day life and that bothered me.

At one point Trump mentions a time her father looked at a homeless guy on the street and he said something like "that guy is 80 million dollars better off than me", which made her proud. Well, we don't know what put that guy on the street do we? Maybe it was mental illness. In any event, it's easy to make money when you already have a name and a huge amount of money to spend. No matter how well adjusted she is, she still exhibited a lack of understanding or empathy for anyone but her ilk (it seemed to me).

However, the film is balanced and interesting and Johnson certainly appears to be a 'man with a mission' who is keen to make some kind of difference to the world with his huge wealth.

It would be nice to run around making documentaries all your life without any consideration for how to pay the bills though wouldn't it?