Malibu Barbie meets Harvard Law, in Reece Witherspoon’s new summer release, Legally Blonde. Witherspoon is Elle Woods, CU coed, president of her sorority, and was recently dumped by her boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Mathew Davis II, Pearl Harbor) during their last year of college. Witherspoon (Little Nicky) is even more delightful than she was as the ambitious Tracy Fitch in Election. This role was Witherspoon’s first real starring role and she shined. Woods grew up in Bel Air across the street from Aaron Spelling, everything she ever did came easy and the 4.0 in fashion merchandising thinks her Warner is going to propose and give her the six karat diamond, after all his grandmother just visited and that is not the sort of thing you mail. Much to her disappointment he announces that if he is going to be a senator by the time he is 30, he needs to get serious, and as much fun as she has been, she just is not the serious kind, and Harvard law school is serious. After all, his brother just got engage to a Vanderbilt while he was attending Yale Law. Warner comes from a long line of senators and there is just so much pressure on him. Witherspoon was not your typical shallow, airhead sorority blonde though, she brought much more to her character Elle Woods. She was never mean or vicious and if she made a much-deserved jab at you it was not an obvious or demeaning insult. Even when people judged her before getting to know her or were outright mean she brushed it off and never retaliated. This made everything she did endearing and funny. Her actions were not just “Blonde” they were stereotypical Southern California female that spends entirely too much time grooming and color coordinating their wardrobe and accessories. You don’t have to be blonde to fit that role but if you are grooming this much, chances are you groomed yourself into “blonde”

As for the plot, after Witherspoon sulks for about a week, she gets inspiration from an article announcing the engagement of Warner’s brother to that Vanderbilt girl. She holds up the newspaper to her sorority sisters and announces this is what she is going to do. They respond with “become almost deformed?” You know how those uptight serious debutant socialite women can look. Witherspoon said no, get serious and law school is serious. Witherspoon takes her 4.0 in fashion merchandising, gets a good score on her LSAT and has a Coppola direct her video essay, and then gets into Harvard Law,  “like its hard?” All this effort, just to win back the love of her life and show him she can be serious. Once at school she gets more than just an education in the legal profession.  

There is no nudity but some references to sexual situations. I don’t think the language was at all particularly offensive but it does have a PG-13 rating. Legally Blonde, was directed by Robert Luketic, also in this picture was Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions) as Vivian Kensington, former prep school girlfriend of Warner, Luke Wilson (Charlie's Angels) as Emmett the first person to befriend Witherspoon at Harvard and Holland Taylor (Town & Country) as Professor Stromwell. This film was a riot. I was entertained throughout the entire picture. Witherspoon delivered a better performance than Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Rarely does a comedy keep you engaged the entire movie, so I give Legally Blonde a 10 on the About-Movies.com rating scale.

Last updated: Saturday, October 28, 2006 05:37:38 PM

Click Here to get back into frames.