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The Movie: The movies mean different things to different people for some it's simply something to do on a Friday or Saturday night but for others such as myself it's more then that. If you look down the list of things I do in a day most, if not all are related to movies. I could be watching a DVD, reviewing a movie or just reading articles about upcoming movies. Any which way you look at it I basically eat, sleep and breathe the movies. At times this can become trying as what does a guy do to escape the world around him when the world around him doesn't really exist. Sometimes I wish I could just go to a movie for fun and have it be like the old days where I was just a regular movie goer. Over the past 6 months my desire to see almost every movie has had it's ups and downs. I've been able to see some great movies that I wouldn't have seen before in State and Main and Finding Forrester but I've also subjected myself to such utter garbage such as Dr. Doolittle 2 and Evolution. There have also been some movies that I've been on the fence about seeing. This usually happens when the movie has a few actors or actresses in it that I like but the story looks lame. If Legally Blonde would have come out a few short months ago it might have fallen in this category which would have been a shame. While it does have the most annoying trailer I've seen since Miss Congeniality I hope that people will look past that and decide to give Legally Blonde a chance. Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) lives one pretty happy life. She's head of her sorority Delta Nu, last years Homecoming Queen, has a 4.0 grade point average at UCLA's school of fashion and has a steady boyfriend named Warner (Matthew Davis) who she expects to propose. It seems that nothing could possibly go wrong. However one night at dinner the unthinkable happens when Warner dumps Elle. Warner explains to her that he wants to be a senator by the time he's 30 and if he's going to accomplish this then it's time that he take his life more seriously. Heartbroken, Elle slips into a deep depression ignoring her friends. One day while her friends try to cheer her up at a local beauty salon Elle figures out what she needs to do to get Warner back, she needs to go to Law School. So she drops everything, studies hard and prepares an interesting admissions essay and before you know it she's been accepted to Harvard Law. Upon her arrival at Harvard it's clear she doesn't fit in and will have to overcome a number of obstacles to get what she wants. Another thing she didn't count on was Warner getting back together with his old Prep school girlfriend the snotty and uptight high society type Vivian (Selma Blair). I admit that Legally Blonde isn't the most original movie I've seen in my life but it doesn't need to be. By mixing the best parts of Clueless, Election and My Cousin Vinny, Blonde works extremely well. While one can see the plot twists miles ahead of where they occur, it's fun to watch the loveable Elle go through all the required hoops to get there. Also helping the picture are the sub-plots that show Elle as a caring person who is in essence the anti-blonde. She is smart, caring and takes pride in helping people out whenever possible. While on the surface it seems these scenes are added in just to pad out the running time, they actually are present to show the viewers that Elle is a real person not the standard one dimensional blonde female movie character. Reese Witherspoon steals the show once again in this film. She shows that Elle is a caring person by nature and will go to whatever length needed to achieve her goals. Reese really provides a strong royal model for girls of all hair colors by showing that anyone can achieve their goals. All they need to do is just believe in themselves. Selma Blair who is best known as the other side of the lesbian kissing scene in Cruel Intentions is good in her small role as the smart snotty overachieving Vivian who gets everything she wants by working at it. One great recurring joke in the last half of the film has a law professor and practicing layer continually asking Blair's Vivian to get him coffee and snacks when her character could clearly provide better legal assistance then that of Miss Wood's. It's an interesting reversal of stereotypes as the usual reaction would to have the dumb blonde get the coffee. All in all another excellent performance from the lovely Miss Blair. It's a shame that her sitcom on the WB! Network entitled Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane (later known only as Zoe..) never took off in the ratings as she's a great comedic actress. Ali Larter shows up in a small role as an accused murderess. Larter doesn't really have much to do here which is a shame as I generally love Ali in all her roles. However us Larter fans do not have long a wait for more Ali action as she'll be appearing in not one, but two films later this summer. American Outlaws and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the final film in the New Jersey saga. As for male performances in Legally Blonde there's nothing much to say about them as the film is dominated by females. Also worth noting is a scene stealing performance from Elle's look Taco-Bell type dog Bruiser. First time director Robert Luketic takes on the material with a fresh approach. As the same generic story has been told time and time again in different forms, It would have been easy to make the character of Elle the usual superficial bimbo that normally populates the screen in these stories. Taking a cue from the success of Erin Brockovich perhaps these two films symbolize a shift in the direction of movies involving blonde females painting them as more then just sex objects with low intelligence. It should be noted that this film is based upon the upcoming novel of the same name by Amanda Brown. Some of the material in this movie is down right hilarious but there also moments where the jokes are so obvious that you may hear groans coming from the audience. In a summer full of moronic comedies with jokes appealing to the lowest common denominator Legally Blonde is a refreshing change. While it's not without it's faults, it's one of the smarter comedies I've seen recently and as such and that's as big a plus as you can get. Recommended. |