LEGALLY BLONDE
Watery but generally amusing knock-off of “Clueless,” set in law school.
Running time: 95 minutes. Rated PG-13 (language, sexual humor). Loews 84th St., Union Square, Kips Bay, others.
TO the extent that it’s at all interesting, “Legally Blonde” is a post-feminist girl-power fantasy in which a spoiled, overdressed sorority sister from Beverly Hills – obsessed with hair products, fashion, thinness and getting hitched – manages to triumph over the grinds and snobs of Harvard Law School without surrendering any of her, uh, values.
You could see it as an inverted “Revenge of the Nerds.”
Other than that, it is merely a watery, poorly directed update of “Clueless” with Reese Witherspoon playing a 21-year-old, slightly less appealing version of Alicia Silverstone’s character.
It boasts a handful of good laughs, but despite Witherspoon’s always remarkable presence and skill, you miss Silverstone – and her film’s sharp but sweet-natured wit.
Elle Woods (Witherspoon) is president of her sorority and Miss June in the college calendar. She’s also an honor student – in fashion merchandising.
Elle is in love with WASPy Warner Huntington III, unaccountably attending “CULA” and headed for Harvard Law School. One night when Elle expects him to propose, Warner dumps her, explaining that if he wants to be a senator before age 30, he needs “a Jackie, not a Marilyn.”
Devastated, Elle resolves to follow him to Harvard Law. Her grades and an unusual admissions video (“directed by a Coppola”) get her in.
But once at Harvard, her flashy pastel wardrobe and ditzy ways go down badly. She also discovers that Warner is already engaged to Vivien, a serious, ultra-preppy brunette (Selma Blair).
With the help of Emmett (Luke Wilson), a handsome recent graduate, and Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge), a local manicurist, Elle transforms herself into a serious law student and is soon selected by a professor to assist in a high-visibility murder trial.
Elle’s deep knowledge of hair-care plus her connection with the defendant (Ali Larter), an exercise infomercial queen who belonged to Elle’s sorority, make all the difference.
You don’t have to be an attorney to be dismayed by the clueless way the movie depicts both law and law school. Couldn’t these filmmakers have just rented “The Paper Chase”?
The predictable script by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, who wrote the much superior “Ten Things I Hate About You,” is punctuated by crude vulgarities and mildly offensive cultural stereotypes that jar with the film’s general sugariness.
But the real villain here is helmer Robert Luketic, whose direction is so bereft of subtlety he gets garishly antic performances from much of the supporting cast and almost sucks the charm out of Witherspoon’s bubbleheaded Elle.