Legally Blonde
2001/Comedy/PG-13
Stars: ** 1/2 Explanation of ratings
Good character development and interaction partially eclipse unrealistic plot points.
Bring yourself to believe that a west coast socialite could actually get into Harvard Law School by appealing to the sex drives of a stuffy admissions board. Now, you are ready to enjoy Legally Blonde, because once you get past a few believability issues, the movie is pretty good. It is basically a comedy that mixes a heap of blonde jokes with social commentary. Reese Whitherspoon plays the cutesy blonde she does best, and she takes a shallow character and gives it some real depth by the end of the film. Anyone who has ever felt out of place in various social circles will appreciate her character's situation. It plays like a 21st century, female, college version of The Secret of My Success. The guts of the plot is about how she gets around by forming relationships with characters of various social ranks and lifestyles.
As one would expect, academia and the legal profession do things in the movies that would never happen in real life, but, as I said, once you get past that, there's nothing that stops this film from being good. Everything in this movie is appropriate for children except for a few words and an insignificant bra scene. It is not a sexist romp. Children might not understand the many references to college life and the legal profession, but how many adults really know what it's like at Harvard?
Legally Blonde offers lots of laughs and some character or other to which we can all relate. Although the plot is halfway formulaic, it does manage to deliver a few surprises. Just take the movie for what it was intended to be, and you will be satisfied with it.