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Movie: Legally Blonde 2
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Sally Field
Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld; Written by Kate Kondell
(MGM)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
I never saw Legally Blonde 1, and I really wasn't interested in seeing LB2 until Arianna Huffington wrote about it. Now I kinda wish she hadn't.
This comedy is so lightweight that it's in danger of blowing away on a windless afternoon. Reese Witherspoon tries hard enough as Elle Woods, our blonde Harvard-educated lawyer, but the notion of this Bel Air Bimbo taking on Washington on its home turf is just too much for me to swallow. Oh I forgot, Elle is not a bimbo, she's very smart. Well she must be to have catalogued that much information about cosmetics in her blonde-encased cranium, right? She's freaking encyclopedic! Who knew there'd be anything left in there to fight for animal rights? Anyway she wins over the organized Washington forces with spunk and kindness, though it helps a lot that one is a sorority sister and that her dog falls in love with the gay dog of an NRA senator, whose heart just melts with sweetness when he finds out! (Yes, you heard me right.) The combined forces of the animal testing lobby don't have a chance, even when the Senator that sponsored her (Sally Field) sells out. Woof!
Ms. Woods Goes To Washington is nothing like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and I find it hard to even mention the two together, though the producers are obviously trying to conjure up some sort of connection to the Capra classic. I think what really bothers me is that Elle's interest in animal rights was just because her own dog's mother was involved in testing. Would our heroine ever be interested in an issue that doesn't directly intrude on her frilly little world? Probably not. I fear a person like her would go right back to sleep after the skirmish over their bill was won, believing all was comfy again, everywhere.
Arianna says the lesson here is that a determined grass roots populist movement can defeat entrenched power. Okay, fine! I didn't need a tanker truck of syrup to make that medicine go down. Oh hell, maybe I've just lost my mainstream sense of humor in this time of smiley fascism and I'm too damn serious to enjoy such fluff.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Not really.
© 2003 - Rusty Pipes