Blondes 101: A refresher course. Everyone knows that blondes are more attractive and always have more fun. “Legally Blonde” deals with this stereotype and a few others having to do with the old-school snobbery set in no better place than Harvard Law School. This film is not entirely free from one last stereotype having to do with a teen genre plot as a romantic comedy.
- Paul Wong
- Reese Witherspoon suns herself in the middle of Harvard Square. Forget books … we”ve got looks<br><br>Courtesy of MGM
“Legally Blonde” follows Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon), a rich valley girl from California who wants nothing more in life than to marry her college sweetheart. The movie starts on the night of their “supposed” engagement. Instead of a proposal, Elle is dumped! She”s not the type of girl her boyfriend could ever marry. She”s not smart enough.
Elle is heartbroken, but in the midst of her moping she comes up with a plan to get her man back. She will go to law school to show her boyfriend that she can be the “right” woman for him. With hard work along with a bit of luck, Elle makes her way into Harvard Law School and begins her journey. The departure from your average teen genre plot with a romantic comedy starts here. The film is about Elle”s discovery of herself, not how she gets her man. The humor is non-stop. All stereotypes take a beating. It is indeed fun and a feel-good show.
Witherspoon is great as Elle. She plays the role perfectly, encompassing the true blonde stereotype while squashing all the rumors. Her facial expressions alone are enough to make the whole movie worthwhile.
The film begins with all the Harvard haughtiness paraded before us with our heroine being the only real “character.” In the end, the only ones left standing are those capable of being touched by her goodness.
There is a great scene at the start of the movie where Elle is dress shopping. The store clerk mentions how she “loves a dumb blond with daddy”s credit card.” She tries to sell Elle a sales item for full price claiming it is brand new. Elle asks a couple questions about the fabric of the item and proves to the clerk that she not only knows more about these clothing items than the woman herself, but that she is in no way a dumb blonde.
This small yet important scene shows the audience that Elle isn”t stupid at all. She may wear wild clothing and talk like she has a lower level IQ, but there”s a lot more going on in that mind of hers all the time. The best part is, no matter what happens or how stupid people think she is, Elle never really loses faith in herself. She knows she”s a good person and even better, she knows she can do just about anything if she puts her mind to it.
Not dissimilar to other movies of this kind, “Legally Blonde” does have a few scenes that are a bit predictable with many characters that are black and white. There are a few good guys on one side and plenty of really bad guys on the other. Life doesn”t usually work like this, nor should it seeing it in a movie sometimes feels unnatural and a bit boring. However, commonplace as these elements may be to their genre, “Legally Blonde” does a better job than most at playing out its story line.
Most people going into “Legally Blonde” will expect to laugh a lot and to have a good time those people will come away from the film happy. The few that go into it expecting more than a dumb blonde on screen for two hours will possibly have a pleasant surprise. “Legally Blonde” isn”t about stupidity or dumb luck it”s about sincerity and about good guys not finishing last even if they are blonde.