Legally Blonde

Saw Legally Blonde, a cute, goofy movie about a stereotypical, air-headed sorority girl who gets into law school to impress her ex-boyfriend who dumped her for not being "serious".  It's mostly a fish-out-of-water comedy about this pink-clad, high-heeled blonde woman being perky and bubbly and receiving withering gazes and sneering one-liners from stuffy law profs.  The film is very satisfying however, because you know the pretty girl is going to show them all and the profs' wry smiles will slowly become genuine smiles of quiet approval.

The film is a lot goofier than I expected.  The bassoon is heavy on the soundtrack and all emotions are broadcast loudly.  It's not a "smart dumb" movie, just a dumb-dumb movie.  I was hoping for more nuance and frankly hoped that the film would honor some her of "silly" girl-world problems and skills.  Perhaps there could be a scene showing how keeping a sorority-full of women happy requires some very complex management and diplomacy.  No such luck, alas.

Of course the film isn't just one-note or totally straightforward either.  There's scenes where the main character doubts herself, or where she buckles down and achieves greatness, but often it's in spite of her self that she does this, not because of it.  I wish it were otherwise because as the film is, it reinforces the opinion of the ex-boyfriend: that her life is a frivolous waste of time.  Only something serious like Law is worth spending attention on.  I'm not sure what about Law makes it more important than (say) fashion or public relations, but the law school has some very distinguished professors and some very fancy buildings, so...

The above grousing aside, the film is totally a fun guilty pleasure.  The main character, although dumb, is incredibly hard-working and seems to be a genuinely nice person.  She helps a couple of side-characters and, when a former mean girl tries to make up with her, she quickly forgives and forgets.  Snide law students make fun of her but she is nothing but nice and assertive.  The final court-case show-down is ridiculous and God help her future clients, but she's a fun person to watch for a while and a good person to root for.