Reese Witherspoon – simpering good looks, wholesomely toothy blonde stereotypically American – airhead by impression, sharp cookie actress by reality – apparently.
She’s just the sort of image obsessed Yank that gets her cultural brethren/sistren a bad name.
Which I guess made her the obvious choice to play Elle Woods, the up and coming Barbie made real who forces her way into Harvard Law School to win back her former beau who ditches her for his future career and his stint at Big School.
Standard American heartwarming, good wins out in the end movie, standard American heartwarming good time girl with big grin, prim looks and virginal aloofness, you know you want to hate it so badly it hurts, but equally you can’t help liking it despite yourself and finding things hugely amusing, even though the best bits are the hamfisted slapstick such as the lovesick beautician who tries Witherspoon’s lessons in love and succeeding in breaking her chosen one’s nose – you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it.
It’s empty headed and pleasant enough stuff, something which you won’t find very challenging or deep, something fluffy and sweet to pass an hour or two, with lovely pictures of a cutesy pie yap yap lap dog and a cutesy pie blonde bimbo made good, but real love wins through in the end.
Now really, there ain’t anything at all more to it than that, so by rights I should be stopping there and letting you go on your way, but dave27 has never been merciful like that and ain’t about to start now, is he?
The acting’s pretty bland and nondescript, functional and average enough with few people letting the gang down, but equally no high spots.
The writing is atrocious with an overly easy preoccupation with hitting easy targets and exploiting stereotypes, such as the bespectacled female law student whose claim to fame is organising lesbian marches and street fights, or the repressed buttoned up collar introvert student with a bad haircut and even worse social skills. There’s just no bloody depth or sincerity here. Not that you really come to expect such things with Americana of course, reality rarely enters in to such worlds as this one – you need the British movie scene for such as that.
Now on the face of it Harry Potter should be much more naïve and simplistic and bland than this, but Rupert Grint and the rest can give Witherspoon and her twenty something compadres a million miles head start and still leave them standing, despite all the adolescent angst and uncomfortable silences. It’s sadly. Sadly disappointing when you think about it, but equally it makes you proud to be a Brit.
Having said that there’s some funny moments, I’m afraid that they are just that, literally moments where you might smirk if you forget yourself – imagine paying out good money to see something like this in the cinema – you’d be so bloody pissed off it’s not true.
Ah well, it’s summer, this is a good time American movie set in the summer, where the sun always shines and your buttocks clench embarrassingly together as Witherspoon offers more of her trite one liners and simpering homilies … would you want her defending you on a murder charge? Would that she was defending the witless losers who were responsible for Legally Blonde or Unimaginably Bland to be more exact.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2000 - Comedy - Director: David Raynr - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Shane West, Marla Sokoloff, James Franco, Colin Hanks, Christine Lakin, Aaron Paul
Comedy - Director: Tony Dow - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: John Challis, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tessa Peake-Jones, Gwyneth Strong
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
a good review, Ive onlyy seen the end of this and it looked utter shite!! H xxx
Ryan74 10.10.2003 21:56
Good op, but I'm surprised you didn't like this film, I thought it was really quite clever and biting.
beatlemanic 05.08.2003 18:35
Not even 2 stars? Didn't you even snigger once? Or ogle Reese in her pink outfits? Or sigh with satisfaction just a little when justice was done? Ah well, each to their own! Jo
An extraordinary comic performance from Reese Witherspoon makesLegally Blondea winner. ... more
Witherspoons Elle is a ditzy blonde forced by circumstances to metamorphose into a strong-minded and academic lawyer, without losing her strong sense of self in the ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
An extraordinary comic performance from Reese Witherspoon makesLegally Blondea winner. ... more
Witherspoons Elle is a ditzy blonde forced by circumstances to metamorphose into a strong-minded and academic lawyer, without losing her strong sense of self in the ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
She's a Beverly Hills beauty who'll do anything to keep her man. Even if it means going ... more
all the way... to law school! Reese Witherspoon (Election) stars with Luke Wilson (Charlie's Angels), Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions), Matthew Davis (Pearl Harbour) ...
Advantages: A good demonstration of how social status can be completely misaligned Disadvantages: I'm a man. Therefore, 90% of the humour here is completely beyond me
superpricee 05.11.2001 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Legally Blonde (DVD)
![Legally Blonde [DVD] [2001]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78531096.jpg "Legally Blonde [DVD] [2001]")
Jun 4th, 2003
very helpful by (91%):
helpful by (9%):
