�Spoilt� is to Cher as �big� is to Everest. She lives in a perfect Californian house with her rich father, goes out with similarly gorgeous friends, and finds shopping is the ultimate saver of souls. The most important question in her life is to whom she is going to lose her virginity.
Loosely based on Jane Austen�s Emma, Clueless translates eighteenth-century England into twentieth-century teen California in all the most important ways: social success is based on money, novelty and conformity. Cher, among the most popular girls in the school, is still an endearingly well-meaning person despite her realism-impoverished upbringing and her favourite pastime is to conduct makeovers for her friends. When the sore-thumb-like new girl Tai turns up at school, she persuades her reluctant friend Dionne to help transform her from grungy New Yorker to cutesy Californian princess.
At first Tai is touchingly grateful for Cher�s condescending touch, but after a while she grows overconfident and Cher begins to realise that Tai is becoming more popular than she is! Possibly for the first time in her life, Cher has a problem that can�t be solved by a Gucci handbag. She decides on a makeover for herself: ��but this time, I make over my soul.�
Alicia Silverstone plays the wide-eyed, charming Cher brilliantly and carries the film away. However, the supporting cast are all excellent too, creating a (sadly not as exaggerated as we�d like to think) picture of self-centred American youth. With this as its weapon the film has razor-sharp satire and is endearingly funny at the same time. Cher�s search for her soul, and for her perfect man, leads her through a host of comic situations, including the wooing of her blatantly gay friend and her catastrophic driving test. In the end, this film is a very sharp and perceptive piece of fluff, and inevitably it is as likeable as Cher herself. |
