Mean Girls Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)May 1st, 2004
"Mean Girls"
Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) has spent her formative year living with her naturalist parents in the wilds of Africa. When her mom gets a position teaching at a Midwest college, Cady must move from the safety of wild animals into the real jungle - high school - in "Mean Girls."
We've been down this path before. New kid in school wants to fit in but must break into the local chick clique if she is going to be somebody at the institute of learning. "Heathers" and "Clueless" both dealt with the beautiful kids in high school but the former film concentrated on mayhem while the Alicia Silverstone vehicle showed the sweeter side of girl cliques. "Mean Girls" takes a middle ground as it deals with fitting in, making new friends and learning the ropes at school. It also deals with revenge, subterfuge, control and jealousy.
Cady is a well-adjusted young lady, home taught all of her life by her parents. Now, back in "civilization" she must join the ranks of all other American teens and run the gauntlet called high school. As she wanders around trying to find her next class she meets Goth chick Janice Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and her fey best buddy Damian (Daniel Franzese). These two outsiders take Cady under their wings to try to help her adjust to her new environment. That is, until one lunch hour, Cady is invited to sit with "The Plastics" - the bodacious babes led by their queen bee, Regina George (Rachel McAdams).
Cady, at Janice's insistence in order to get all the dirt and school gossip, joins the Plastics as their latest recruit. She leads a double life as she clicks with the clique during the day and regales Janice and Damian with all the Plastics' sordid secrets after school. The system works pretty well as Cady deftly walks the line until she spies Aaron (Jonathan Bennet), the hunk who sits in front of her in math class. She sets her cap for the good looking guy only to learn that he used to be Regina's boyfriend and the queen does not give up anything that she considers "hers." Cady ignores the warning givens and a Plastics power struggle is in the making.
SNL alumnus Tina Fey adapts author Rosalind Wiseman's popular guide, "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence" for the big screen and hits one out of the park. Director Mark S. Waters takes the well-crafted adapted material and, with a terrific cast, provides a briskly paced, well-rounded tale that should hit a bull's-eye with its teen target audience and beyond.
Lindsay Lohan rebounds from her unfortunate foray into territory best left to Hilary Duff with "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," a pathetic piece of work that Lohan should have steered well away from. Luckily, she teams up again with helmer Waters - their earlier collaboration in "Freaky Friday" was a tremendously popular hit - and they, with a little help in front of and behind the camera, done real good.
Lohan is a likable and pretty young actress and she does a fine job as the anchor for "Mean Girls." But, she is not alone as she is joined with a long list of characters that help make this one very entertaining flick. Tina Fey is believable and three-dimensional as Ms. Norbury, Cady's math teacher and mentor who encourages the girl to become a member of the Mathletes - the school's competitive math team. Fey writes credible characters and Norbury is just one of many.
Rachel McAdam is letter perfect as rich bitch alpha Plastic who lauds it over the rest of her clique and holds everyone (except herself) in disdain. McAdam plays ice queen Regina with just the right note of superiority and selfishness that is her comeuppance but is also the catalyst for her next level of evolution in queendom. Her Plastics posse, Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried), are both in awe and in fear of their leader as Regina lords over the girls, getting her way with everything. Chabert plays the frightened wannabe bee with a tenuous note as she gives in to any and all demands by the queen. Seyfried is amusing as the ditzy, pretty member of the Plastics who is happy just to be a member.
Usually in a movie like "Mean Girls" short shrift is given to the other supporting characters, but not here. Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzene give full dimension and a lot of humor to their Janice and Damian, the outsider characters - she a Goth chick and he openly gay - that make care about what makes them tick. Tim Meadows, as school principal, Mr. Duvall, is suitably cynical as an educator who has seen and heard it all. Even Regina's mom (Amy Poehler) gets to shine as she tries to be friends with her daughter and the Plastics. "I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom," she explains to Cady. Even little roles, like to members of the student body and the Mathletes, are given weight through Fey's detailed scribing.
Techs are straightforward and solid.
"Mean Girls" is a lot of fun and entertaining even for an old curmudgeon like me. I give it a B.
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