by Robert Luketic, 2001.
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Davis, Jennifer Coolidge, Luke Wilson, and Selma Blair.
Rating: 10/10, 5/10.
First of all: anyone who doesn’t like Reese Witherspoon, please email me your address so I can come knock some sense into you.
Next: This movie kicked derriere. Elle Woods (Witherspoon) is a senior sorority girl dating Warner (Davis). When she expects him to propose, he instead breaks up with her, saying that for his future and his family he needs a more "serious" girlfriend. So Elle attempts to become more serious by applying to Harvard Law (where Warner himself is going). She gets in (humourously, by the way) and all sorts of hijinks happen. It turns out that Warner has gotten back together (and engaged!) with his high-school girlfriend (Blair). So, Elle has to get him back from her by becoming ever more "serious." She ends up as an aide, along with both Warner and his fiancee, in a murder trial where her professor is the defense attorney. All sorts of things happen and eventually, of course, Elle ends up saving the day and coming out on top.
Coolidge is wonderful as a manicurist Elle befriends, who has problems of her own. Wilson doesn’t have much to do, but is quite adequate in his role as the nice guy Elle is obviously going to end up with instead of the horribly awful Warner, whom Davis does a good job portraying. Blair, as the bitter, mean fiancee is wonderful, especially in the second half of the movie, when she’s less bitter and mean. Witherspoon, though, is fantabulous. Much better suited to the role than was Alicia Silverstone in Clueless (which, though perhaps a better movie, wasn’t quite so entertaining as this one...which I compare to Clueless because they are in fact very, very similar movies in many ways). Ms. Witherspoon, I bow down to you.
The costumes are fabulous, especially the defendant’s newspaper-suit. The cinematography isn’t all that noticeable (not that it should be in this sort of movie...) except in the scene where Blair confronts Witherspoon in an elevator. The camerawork in that scene is incredible.
The most memorable scenes: The ingenious opening sequence; the admission videotape ("I object!") Elle’s first class at Harvard law, with her hilariously strict professor (though I can’t remember the character’s or the actress’s name, sorry); the older woman on the couch at the manicurist’s reactions to Elle; and the "bend and snap" dance routine.