Legally Blonde

Legally Blonde on the surface looks a little dated, shallow, and even pretty stupid. The mere image of Reese Witherspoon as this sorority-row ditsy girl attending law school all for the means of getting her boyfriend back sounds like at best a one-note idea, and at worst an onslaught of annoying tropes and dumb unfunny scenes. However, much like what the movie sets out to accomplish, appearances are very deceiving when you judge solely from the outside, which is what everyone quickly realized once they saw the film. Sorority girl, Elle Woods (played by Reese Witherspoon) is expecting her boyfriend, Warner (played by Matthew Davis) to propose to her, but those dreams are crushed once he announces that they have to break up because he can’t date someone ‘’of her intelligence’’ now that he’s going off to Harvard to become a senator. Believing that he’ll want her back if she achieves the same thing, Elle studies hard and manages to get accepted into Harvard, where her frilly and upbeat personality doesn’t mesh with the other students at Harvard, mainly fellow classmate, Vivian (played by Selma Blair) who is now dating Warner. Through several trials and constant looks of mockery, Elle proves herself worthy of interning with the school’s most respected teacher, Professor Callahan (played by Victor Garber) along with Warner and Vivian who are all tasked with assisting in the case of Brooke Windham (played by Ali Larter), who is being convicted of murdering her husband. Believing in her innocence (helped out by the fact that she was a former member of her sorority), but with only Callahan’s junior assistant, Emmet Richmond (played by Luke Wilson) backing her up, Elle will have to use all the tools she has learn in her studies (as well her natural talents and observations) in order to win this case. Despite what would be believed, Legally Blonde was a huge success; receiving moderately positive reviews from critics, grossing $141 million worldwide on an $18 million budget, earning Golden Globe nominations for itself and its lead actress, and spawning a franchise that involved a sequel in 2003, a direct-to-DVD spin-off, a musical which premiered in 2007, and even a future follow-up. While nothing phenomenal from a writing or even story perspective, the steady direction, perky yet empowering atmosphere, and the likability of its main character, makes it a lot of fun for back then and even now.

The film was based on the novel of the same name written by Amanda Brown. Coming from her own personal experiences while studying at Standford Law School, where her blonde hair and obsession with fashion and beauty caused her to clash with a lot of her peers, you start to see how and why this is a solid idea for a movie if given to the right person. The manuscript written by Brown (all on pink paper with a pink frilly pen, funnily enough) was at first ignored, but quickly got the attention of producer Marc Platt, who connected with the character of Elle, saw the comedic potential of the story, and eventually got the project made, with 20th Century Fox and MGM helping to distribute. Despite the film’s innocent identity, it was almost an incredibly raunchy and vulgar movie that was nothing like the light-hearted feel-good movie it was meant to be (going for a more American Pie vibe), but once that was changed, screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith reworked the film to adopt a more approachable and all-encompassing demeanor, which definitely helped it out in the long run. Having previously written 10 Things I Hate About You, they know how to work around the expected tropes of a genre to create something that, while still dated in some respects, can be more than the sum of its parts, and the direction this narrative goes in is refreshing, opens up several lame stereotypes involving women and their expected status depending on their look and attitude, and above all else, gives something fun and entertaining. It might not be the most hilarious or even most original concept on the planet, but it keeps the emotional focus always at the centre (that being Elle and her progression in the world of law), and a lot of credit deserves to go to the director for how well this movie is pieced together. Being an Australian newcomer with only his quirky short film, Titsiana Booberini, to his name, director Robert Luketic does incredibly well for a feature-length debut, keeping the pace of the film nice and quick, the tone innocently lively but never obnoxious or demeaning, and provides an empowering movie that doesn’t demean overt femininity, but rather embraces it and creates a situation where beauty and brains can exist harmoniously and neither should be demonized so heavily as they have been in the past and even future. From a logistical side, it can get lost sometimes, particularly during the climax where the realms of plausibility do start to get tarnished (a professor actively tries to grope his student, and he just gets a slap-on-the-wrist firing), but it does conclude in a very emotionally satisfactory way, which is what this film runs on.

Most of the characters in this, ironically or otherwise, fall into the realms of being stereotypical, and when that’s intentional, it works to the film’s favour. The entire idea around this film is trashing the mindset that women can only ever be ‘’pretty, but dumb’’, or ‘’smart, but ugly’’, and with the film’s stance on embracing the components of femininity that are usually looked down upon like fashion, beauty standards and a ‘’gal-pal’’ attitude, it works to see that kind of demeanor portrayed so openly on-screen and counteracted against those that diminish it. At the centre of this is the character of Elle, and she is the main reason this movie is as good as it is. There are still other factors that make it come together, but if Elle wasn’t as engaging, likeable, or as wonderfully performed as she was, this movie would not have worked. She may at first seem like a typical ditsy rich girl with too much money to spend, but the movie shows her as passionate, capable, and intelligent within her own right even before she goes to Harvard. Watching her push to improve herself at first for a boy but then just for herself, is very engaging, the fact that she keeps her overly girly attitude whilst growing as a lawyer makes for very memorable character that very much stands out, and Reese Witherspoon is so perfect at capturing the perfect balance of being out-of-her-element and naive, but not stupid and always enjoyable to be around. While the lead is handled close to perfectly, the rest of the cast are sadly not as memorable as a trade-off. On the one hand, most of the female roles are done in a way that are still generic and not the most interestingly written but are connected with some nice scenes. Selma Blair plays a pretty archetypal role, but her acting is strong enough to hold her scenes together and seeing her and Elle slowly becoming friends is nice (even if she is completely forgotten about near the end of the film), Jennifer Coolidge provides for a nice friend for Elle even if her scenes are nothing special, a stern college professor played by Holland Taylor gets a few memorable scenes, Ali Larter is quite good as the character of Brooke Windham which the climax is based around, and even a lot of the sorority sisters are played in a goofy way, but their genuine care for Elle and her success is really endearing. With that said, most of the male characters in this are not very strong and can’t escape their stereotypical portrayals despite the acting being solid all around. Matthew Davis is just the jerky boyfriend and outside of a few slimy smiles and comedically confused reactions, doesn’t have much to work with, Victor Garber leaves very little impression outside of his disturbing creeper moment, and Luke Wilson feels inserted in solely for Elle to have a love interest, it feels like a waste even for someone like Luke Wilson.

You can definitely feel the time period when watching this movie from everything involving the production, the tone, the way the characters look and talk, to even the soundtrack and visuals, it has a very strong early 2000s vibe which would usually be a death sentence. However, this movie is clever enough to know how to work with these elements to enhance their narrative and characters rather than just for an excuse to throw in modern elements to lazily appeal to a wide majority. The cinematography by Anthony B. Richmond does a fine enough job with the usual expected qualities, but what he is really great at is shooting the film in a way that doesn’t exploit the women to a sexual degree. For a story that features the lead and several other women in tight-fitting clothing (and even sometimes just a flat-out bikini), its appreciated that it never once feels like the movie is going too far or exploiting them in a sexual way (which many other film with these kind of narrative would jump at), it feels completely natural and purposeful and that is a credit to Richmond and to Luketic for treating them respectfully. The costume design by Sophie De Rakoff does a great job a portraying Elle’s personality through her choices of attire, and the balance between regular levels of over-the-top, to traditional yet still stylish, makes for a lot of memorable looks throughout the film. The overall production design for the film by Missy Stewart makes this world very lively and vibrant without going too outlandish or unrealistic, resulting in a movie where the tone of color plays an important part in the film rather than just as set decoration (there is so much pink in this movie, but you get why). Seeing the contrast between the brightly lit, Barbie-esque beach vibes of California against the pencil-pushing, mahogany tones of the more traditionalist school of Harvard are delightfully noticeable and combining that with the almost illuminating quality of Elle’s clothing, it furthers the overt point the film is going for. The music by Rolfe Kent can come off as a bit schmaltzy and in-your-face at times, but it does mirror the peppy cheer the film is trying to achieve and as it keeps going, it does become less intrusive. The soundtrack is kind of like that to, with pop songs that are very clearly of the time-period, but they aren’t a hindrance in any way, and because of the mindset the film puts you in, you’ll probably end up giving into them eventually.

Legally Blonde didn’t rock the boat by being some deep or complicated film that dissected social and gender issues in a gritty intense manner, it made a charming, simple, product-of-its-time film that addressed these problems in a way that didn’t distract from its heart or its main purpose. The fact that this film has a cult following makes perfect sense as everything about it just feels like the kind of film that would attract a large audience for its personality, its aesthetics, and its overall feeling of empowerment. You can’t say this film is a smash hit as there are intricacies surrounding the story and the writing that aren’t the most complex or make the most sense from a modern perspective (determining someone is gay just because they know a fashion designer is a little bizarre, made even weirder considering the director himself is gay), but you can always tell its heart is in the right place. It works as a great inspirational story while also knowing when to have fun with itself, the acting is solid, Elle is a fantastic lead, and the visuals and music feel like characters in their own right and create a mood that is very engaging. Not the most complex thesis paper, but one that will stand out and score high enough with its quirky yet composed content, this movie manages to be both smart and stylish, and therefore everybody wins.