[MOVIE REVIEW]When law is in black and white... and hot pink
Published: 09 Oct. 2003, 22:47
Leaving the movie theater after watching “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde,” the one thing on my mind was, “Where did she get those shoes?”
Once again, Reese Witherspoon is pretty in pink as Elle Woods. She’s as stylish as the ladies in “Sex in the City” and has a contingency of equally stylin’ girlfriends, which numbers in the thousands if you include her sorority sisters in the frosted-lipped bunch.
Elle may look like pure fluff topped with a pillbox hat, but don’t forget ― she has a law degree from Harvard, works for a top law firm and is engaged to a Harvard professor.
Witherspoon is a delight. The movie fizzles. Trying to satirize the democratic system, gay issues and society at large, the filmmakers can’t resist their too-serious message about success the Elle way: savvy mixed with kindness.
If you didn’t find Elle endearing in the first installment, chances are she’ll annoy you in “Red, White & Blonde.” The sequel takes the funky, empowering attitude of the first movie and churns out pure saccharine. It’s frosting minus the cake.
Take Elle’s wedding, for example. There’s one snag in her plans for the big day: Her beloved chihuahua, Bruiser, is an orphan, and Elle wants everyone to be happy on her wedding night.
So she tracks down Bruiser’s biological mother, only to discover she’s being held by V.E.R.S.A.C.E., a laboratory that tests cosmetics on animals. Elle tries to take them on; her firm fires her. So off she goes to Washington to work for U.S. Representative Victoria Rudd (Sally Field), who is sponsoring an animal-rights bill.
There, in a sea of black suits, she sticks out like cotton candy at a funeral. Congresswoman Rudd’s chief of staff, Grace (Regina King), hates her on sight and refuses to be of any help whatsoever.
But, being invincible, Elle brings on the Snap Cup. You write something nice about a colleague, place the message in the cup, and the note gets read aloud, followed by a group finger snap. Sweet? Sickeningly. It might have worked in elementary school, but with Washington’s top cadre of aspiring politicians?
“Red, White & Blonde” does have its moments. Elle finds Congress “just like C-SPAN, except it’s not boring.” Rudd’s assistant Reena (Mary Lynn Rajskub) finds Elle “so shiny.” Bruiser comes out of the doghouse and falls for a dog owned by Stan (Bruce McGill), a conservative Southern congressman. Stan in turn lends a hand to Elle’s animal crusade, and soon her sorority sisters and ever-important hairdresser Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge) are convening in the capital for a Million Dog March. If only good legislation came together this quickly; we’d all have something to snap about.
“Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde”
Comedy / English
95 min.
Now showing
by Joe Yong-hee
Once again, Reese Witherspoon is pretty in pink as Elle Woods. She’s as stylish as the ladies in “Sex in the City” and has a contingency of equally stylin’ girlfriends, which numbers in the thousands if you include her sorority sisters in the frosted-lipped bunch.
Elle may look like pure fluff topped with a pillbox hat, but don’t forget ― she has a law degree from Harvard, works for a top law firm and is engaged to a Harvard professor.
Witherspoon is a delight. The movie fizzles. Trying to satirize the democratic system, gay issues and society at large, the filmmakers can’t resist their too-serious message about success the Elle way: savvy mixed with kindness.
If you didn’t find Elle endearing in the first installment, chances are she’ll annoy you in “Red, White & Blonde.” The sequel takes the funky, empowering attitude of the first movie and churns out pure saccharine. It’s frosting minus the cake.
Take Elle’s wedding, for example. There’s one snag in her plans for the big day: Her beloved chihuahua, Bruiser, is an orphan, and Elle wants everyone to be happy on her wedding night.
So she tracks down Bruiser’s biological mother, only to discover she’s being held by V.E.R.S.A.C.E., a laboratory that tests cosmetics on animals. Elle tries to take them on; her firm fires her. So off she goes to Washington to work for U.S. Representative Victoria Rudd (Sally Field), who is sponsoring an animal-rights bill.
There, in a sea of black suits, she sticks out like cotton candy at a funeral. Congresswoman Rudd’s chief of staff, Grace (Regina King), hates her on sight and refuses to be of any help whatsoever.
But, being invincible, Elle brings on the Snap Cup. You write something nice about a colleague, place the message in the cup, and the note gets read aloud, followed by a group finger snap. Sweet? Sickeningly. It might have worked in elementary school, but with Washington’s top cadre of aspiring politicians?
“Red, White & Blonde” does have its moments. Elle finds Congress “just like C-SPAN, except it’s not boring.” Rudd’s assistant Reena (Mary Lynn Rajskub) finds Elle “so shiny.” Bruiser comes out of the doghouse and falls for a dog owned by Stan (Bruce McGill), a conservative Southern congressman. Stan in turn lends a hand to Elle’s animal crusade, and soon her sorority sisters and ever-important hairdresser Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge) are convening in the capital for a Million Dog March. If only good legislation came together this quickly; we’d all have something to snap about.
“Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde”
Comedy / English
95 min.
Now showing
by Joe Yong-hee
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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