Legally Blonde** 1/2 out of **** July 16, 2001 BY ADAM KEMPENAAR How adorable...um, I mean, how talented is Reese Witherspoon? Exhibit A: In Legally Blonde, she plays an irritatingly perky California sorority babe whom you would dread getting stuck next to on a non-stop flight to London, yet somehow manages to make you root for her. Exhibit B: She single-handedly takes a movie that is really nothing more than a second-rate Clueless knock-off and turns it into a fairly enjoyable summer comedy. Witherspoon stars as Elle Woods, a blonde bombshell who, like Alicia Silverstone's character in Clueless, is a lot smarter than she looks. Poor Elle thinks her fair-haired boyfriend, Warner Huntington (Matt Davis), is about to propose when he reveals that he is dumping her because he needs to find someone who is more serious -- in other words, less blonde. Or, as the aspiring senator so humorously puts it, "I need to marry a Jackie." Determined to show her serious side and reclaim her man, Elle -- a fashion-marketing major -- decides to follow Warner to Harvard law school. How exactly does a fashion-marketing major from a non-prestigious state university get into Harvard? For starters, she almost aces the LSAT entrance exam. And it doesn't hurt that the committee reviewing her application, which includes a video essay with several shots of Elle in her bikini, is composed entirely of men. Of course, in real life, Elle would never get accepted to Harvard, but Legally Blonde doesn't aspire to realism. Director Robert Luketic wisely puts his movie in the hands of his capable star, who perfectly captures Elle's persistent optimism and innocence. She doesn't wear a bikini in her application video because she expects to get in based on her looks -- she's just a girl who likes to lounge around the pool all day. Unlike Elle's appearance in a bikini, however, Legally Blonde is far from perfect. Somewhere near the end, the plot inexplicably shifts from a bubbly romantic comedy into a clumsy legal drama, with Elle and some fellow students helping to solve a murder case. Furthermore, screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith tease us with some great satirical lines but fail to deliver consistently. The movie could have used a few more quips like the one from a scruffy guy in Elle's orientation group who pretentiously explains that not only was he first in his class at Princeton, but that Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time was actually based on a paper he wrote...in the fourth grade. Still, Legally Blonde is an affable comedy that succeeds thanks to Witherspoon's rare combination of quick wit and angelic innocence. Agree? Disagree? E-mail CinemaScoped at: cinemascoped@sbcglobal.net |
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