The old adage is true: blondes really do have more fun. At least, as long as Reese Witherspoon is involved.
Witherspoon, a Nashville-born actress who has gained notoriety toiling around in critically-acclaimed films like Election and Pleasantville, has long since been a favorite with the indie crowd. She’s now scored mainstream status with Legally Blonde, a campy, silly comedy that turns out to be a lot smarter and funnier than you might suspect.
Sure, the movie plays a bit like Clueless goes to college, but it has a wider range of humor (in other words, it can be appreciated by more than just the teen crowd).
The enduringly perky Witherspoon plays Elle Woods, a sorority president and homecoming queen from the fictional California University Los Angeles. When Elle’s smarmy boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis), invites her out for a romantic dinner, she wrongly assumes that he’s planning to pop the question.
As it turns out, Warner has been reevaluating his life as of late, and has concluded that marrying Elle just wouldn’t be a smart thing to do, career-wise. After all, if he’s going to become a senator, he needs to marry a “Jackie,” not a “Marilyn.”
After a brief stint of self-pity (during which she munches chocolates and watches bad soap operas), Elle gets back on her feet and hatches a plan. If what Warner wants is a smart, serious fiancée, then that’s what she’ll become.
In a moment of inspiration, she decides to follow Warner to Harvard Law School so she can win him back. Through a series of unrealistic scenes (Elle manages to ace the L.S.A.T. after only a few study sessions) she gains acceptance into the elusive Harvard Law School. They smooth things over slightly by informing us that Elle has a perfect 4.0 GPA – even if she did major in fashion merchandising.
She packs up her little lap dog, Bruiser, and drives her BMW convertible off to the stuffy Massachusetts college.
And this is where the real fun begins.
Elle is an awkward fit at Harvard from the word go. Her pastel pink wardrobe is hardly a match for the plain, earthy clothes sported by her peers. And wouldn’t you know it — she’s the only blonde in sight.
She’s mocked and teased by all of her classmates, except one: Emmett (played by Luke Wilson — but more on him later). Worse still, she discovers that Emmett has already found himself not only a new girlfriend, but a fiancée, the crisp, vile Vivian Kensington (played with wonderful precision by Selma Blair).
But despite getting off to a rocky start, Elle finds she really has a knack for law school, and goes on to become one of the most successful students in the class. (A side storyline has her befriending a manicurist with low self-esteem, but I won’t go into that, as it involves some of the film’s funniest scenes.)
Scene for scene, Legally Blonde offers a bit more than your average ditzy comedy.
For one thing, Witherspoon is about as far away from being an “average” actress as you can get. She’s got a real talent for delivering a character, and manages to carry the movie all by herself.
The only semblance of a true supporting player comes from Wilson (who’s always a pleasure to watch) as he evolves into Elle’s closest confidant.
It goes without saying that Legally Blonde ends in the hokey, hunky-dory way all light comedies do. This isn’t a film that will change your life for the better, but it will make you laugh for a solid hour and a half.
Grade: B+
PG-13, 1 hour 34 minutes
