All the trailers leading up to the start of Legally Blonde were for, duh, teen flicks....was I surprised? No. Considering that teens will often will go to a film they like over and over again (as my teenaged nephew will attest to), it's no wonder that they get the major hype and their dollars are so sought after. Throughout Legally Blonde, I could see clumps of adolescents all moving their lips along with some of the dialogue. Obviously, they were what I call "Repeat Attenders"!

Legally Blonde is one of those cute, perky films that kept me laughing throughout, oohing and ahhing over the cutie chiuauia (spelling??) and basically feeling quite entertained. Not bad for a bargain matinee.

The premise is as simpleminded as its main characters: Honey, you're gorgeous but I need smart AND gorgeous! Thus, within the first ten minutes, the coolest, hippest couple on this prep-school campus are officially split up. He is off to Harvard to make a name for himself in law school and she is stuck with her other make-up obsessed girlfriends who all come from major money but have little to offer besides their Peroxide Beauty. Never one to turn away from a challenge, our Ms. Witherspoon is determined to also get into Harvard to be with her buffoon boyfriend and show him just how smart she really is. This is where the suspension of disbelief suffers from massive gravity!

Number one, how easy is it to get into Harvard? Not hard at all when you have creative screenwriters, I suppose. Yeh, right! Well, to move along, she DOES get in to Harvard and meets her baffled boyfriend who already has another female trophy on his arm.You get the idea.

What makes this movie "work" is that it pokes fun at itself continuously. In other words, it KNOWS it's being tacky and predictable and embracing stereotypes we all know and loathe, so it can make you laugh at times when you also are aware you aren't exactly being politically correct. Case in point: in one courtroom scene, a male witness is insisting he had an affair with his female boss. When confronted with evidence that he is GAY, he angrily denies this, causing a rather effeminate man in the crowd to stand up and swish out of the room, screaming something that rhymes with Witch! It got great laughs (mine included) but, if you think about it, the humor came at the expense of the all too familiar "gay=swishy=funny" belief that many of us have. I didn't feel guilty for laughing, but I later figured out the writers and producers had manipulated me quite skillfully into laughing at something I usually am more sensitive to. Oh well, can't be politically correct ALL the time!

We also tend to laugh most at things we can relate to, right? Well, I cannot personally relate to being filthy rich, but Witherspoon's obvious blase feeling about her being so makes her come across as genuine and valid as a result. However, what I COULD relate to was the angst these young people feel about their appearance, their "coolness"/hip appeal, and most of all about what they want to be when they grow up. Much of this gets overdone in Legally Blonde and makes Witherspoon's boyfriend appear to be only a puppet to please his image conscious parents. You know darn well that when he tells her, "You are gorgeous but I need someone who is SMART and gorgeous", he represents the pot calling the kettle black. Again, I could certainly relate to this kind of defense mechanism, e.g., I can't accept this deficit within myself, so I'll throw over there onto you and not accept it in you either!"

Long story short: I would still pick Witherspoon's other hysterically funny movie "Election" over this one as my favorite. It appeals to both teens and elderly 40 year olds like me, and plays out that gleefully evil side we all have when we spot someone young, gorgeous and perky aspiring to be even MORE perky. You know it's wrong (yeh, yeh) but you just can't seem to help rooting for these cheesy people to fall flat on their face! Unfortunately, Matthew Broderick's efforts to make this happen have an even more hilarious reverse effect. See it if you haven't done so yet!

Back to Legally Blonde: see this movie with some teens, watch their smiles and nods and don't be too disappointed to realize that, indeed, the times they are a-changing. Kids no longer idolize Mom the homemaker; they apparently want to have Reese Witherspoon's face and her boyfriend's body.

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older