Legally Blonde
Resse Witherspoon has been on the verge for quite a while thanks to a diverse body of work that includes Pleasantville, Fear, Man in the Moon, and the wickedly funny Election. Now, she’s poised to break out in a big way with Legally Blonde, a surprisingly adept comedy in the vein of Clueless. Can Blonde do for Witherspoon what Clueless did for Alicia Silverstone? Or will she actually have a career when it’s all over?
Blonde introduces us to Witherspoon’s Elle Woods, a SoCal sorority president and all around popular girl whose sun-kissed locks hide an incredible secret: She has a 4.0 grade point average! Of course, it’s in fashion merchandising, but who cares? Elle’s got plans. Like getting engaged to her Ivy-League boyfriend, Warner (Matthew Davis), and becoming the wife of the most handsome and successful lawyer in California. There’s just one catch: On the night she expects him to propose, he dumps her, reasoning that in order to be president some day, “I need a Jackie, not a Marilyn.” And with that, he’s off to Harvard Law School and Elle is reduced to hiding in her room eating bonbons and watching soaps. Our heroine is down, but not out. She decides the best way to win him back is to get into Harvard Law, too. After all, how hard can THAT be?
Once there, she has a few problems to deal with: All her real friends are back in California, neither her peers nor her professors at Harvard like her much, and she can’t even get a decent pedicure! Plus, Warner has a fiancée, played by Witherspoon’s Cruel Intentions co-star Selma Blair. What’s a blonde to do? Like Tracey Flick, Witherspoon’s character in Election, there seems to be no way to keep Elle down, and soon she’s winning over her peers, working on a huge murder case for one of her professors (Victor Garber), and catching the eye of the Professor’s assistant (Luke Wilson). Can you say Warner whom?
Blonde shares a lot in common with another film about a seemingly clueless blonde, this year’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. Both feature women who we are programmed to laugh at, being constantly humiliated by the circumstances of life, only to rise up every time, and, in the process, discover something about themselves they never knew they possessed. Each woman becomes more appealing to us as we see their drive and determination carry them through to become the heroines of their own lives. Yes, it’s girl-power at work, but it still puts a smile on my face.
First-time helmer Robert Luketic and screenwriters Karen McCullah Kutz and Kristen Smith give Witherspoon a lot of material from which to work and she’s up to the challenge. Her Harvard admissions video essay is priceless. Witherspoon gives a flawless performance that looks so simple, but was probably impossible to get. She’s got charm and energy to spare. While the majority of the supporting cast doesn’t get the same opportunity to shine, there are a couple who make an impression, including Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s mom from American Pie) as a lovelorn manicurist, and Ari Larter (Final Destination, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) as the woman who Elle helps to defend (Larter and Witherspoon have a very funny jailhouse scene in regards to Larter’s alibi on the night of the murder). Both Wilson and Blair are saddled with thankless roles, but do the best they can with them. But the film is clearly Witherspoon’s and she makes the most of it.
Since the film has done so well at the box office, there are plans for a sequel as well as a possible television series. Elle Woods is proving she’s still a force to be reckoned with.