Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde Review
by Jonathan F. Richards (moviecritic AT prodigy DOT net)July 8th, 2003
IN THE DARK/Jonathan Richards
LEGALLY BLONDE 2: RED, WHITE, AND BLONDE
Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
PG-13, 95 minutes
UA South
Two Chiles
Reese Witherspoon, who is said to be one of the smartest and most ambitious young women in Hollywood, has latched onto a franchise playing the dumb/smart blonde, a role in which she is in no danger of threatening the legacy of the late Judy Holliday but will certainly make a lot more money.
A couple of years ago, Witherspoon launched this franchise with the funny, frivolous "Legally Blonde", in which California sorority airhead Elle Woods (Witherspoon) digs into the seldom-used but surprisingly well-furnished spare room that is her brain to get into Harvard Law School in order to maintain geographical proximity to the man she loves, Harvard Law professor Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson).
The sequel picks up two years later, with Elle on the verge of being offered a partnership in her staid Boston law firm and making plans to tie the knot with Emmett on the pitcher's mound at Fenway Park. The trouble starts when she becomes obsessed with tracking down the birth mother of her Chihuahua Bruiser (Moon Doggie) to invite her to the wedding (are dogs allowed on the grass at Fenway?) A private detective locates the bitch - in the clutches of a lab that uses animals as test subjects for cosmetics ("We test make-up on animals so you don't have to.")
Now, you wouldn't think this would upset Elle -a little eyeliner and blush never hurt anyone. But she takes such a stand that she gets fired by her law firm, and next thing we know she's landed a staff job in Washington with Massachussetts Congresswoman Virginia Rudd (Sally Field), and is pushing "Bruiser's Bill" - legislation to outlaw animal testing of cosmetics.
What to say about this movie? That it champions the idea that you can't tell a book by its cover? In this case the cover in which she makes her Washington entrance is a pink suit with a matching pillbox hat - think Jackie Kennedy in an Easter basket, or a stewardess for Trans-Love Airways. She flounces into Rep. Rudd's office with her Chihuahua under her arm, and the staff members give her the cold shoulder, which we're to understand is terribly judgmental of them.
Or is it that anyone can make a difference? Here's ditzy Elle, the kind of gal who believes in solving problems with a "snap jar" (don't ask) and does an ecstatic squeal-and-shimmy when she greets her friends, but she's got a good mind for memorizing rules and figures, and she comes up with unconventional but effective strategies for getting things done. Don't give up on the system, this movie says, even if it doesn't seem receptive to you at first. A sunny attitude and good old American sticktoitiveness will open more doors than you can ever imagine, and a smile is better than a frown.
Or is it just that the Old Girl network is still, when all is said and done, the best way to crack the Washington façade? One of Elle's antagonists turns out to be a Delta Nu. Or that by being kind to the little people - Bob Newhart plays Sidney Post, the doorman at Elle's Washington apartment building, and a man who seems to know more about capitol politics than Karl Rove - you'll find help in unexpected places. Or that personal relationships trump doctrinaire rigidity inside the Beltway - Bruiser develops a relationship with the pooch of a reactionary NRA-preaching Southern congressman, and this leads to an unusual alliance, or rather a couple of them.
Anyway, you will be getting the idea that this is a message picture. It quotes, both in general thrust and in a specific clip, from the Frank Capra classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", but in spirit it is probably closer to a chick-flick slant on a Jerry Lewis or a Jim Carrey vehicle, in which the goofy, childish, unsophisticated protagonist has to overcome initial resistance from a bunch of stodgy old poops in order to win the day.
But I know "Mr. Smith." I've seen "Mr. Smith" many times. And Elle, you're no "Mr. Smith".
The rest of the cast includes a few holdovers from "Legally Blonde", including Jennifer Coolidge ("Best in Show") as Elle's Boston hairdresser ally. Sally Field gets the movie's best line, lifted to good comic effect from "The Wizard of Oz". Dana Ivey and Bruce McGill are good in their stuffed-shirt roles as congressional obstacles, as is Regina King, who as Rep. Rudd's Chief of Staff shows a commendable resistance to Elle's pink Pollyanna pluck until the script requires, as we knew it would, a sudden conversion under the approaching welcome breath of the closing credits.
The unambitious script is by newcomer Kate Klondell, with a story by the writers of the recent Rock Hudson/Doris Day pastiche "Down with Love". The direction turns out to be in the hands of Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, who made the smart 2001 comedy sleeper "Kissing Jessica Stein". Aside from the wry use on the soundtrack of such protest anthems as Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and Lennon's "Power to the People", he seems to have surrendered to the material. He's even directing the pilot for a "Legally Blonde" sitcom. The fun never stops.
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