Legally Blonde

Legally Blonde

Thirty-six years on from the time the Beach Boys did a song on Hawaii and set it to the California Girls melody, and Legally Blonde starts promoting a wannabe ambassador of perhaps the most superficial culture in the entire West Coast. Taking the Valley Girl and Malibu Barbie approach in her All-Pink style, Elle Woods is a chic sorority girl who is always ready to fight fashion emergencies.

She waits for the new edition of the Cosmopolitan, invites sparky boyfriends to creatively styled campus parties, and anxiously awaits her persistent boyfriend, Warner, to ask her for her hand. But just as she is about to think he is about to ask for her hand, he surprises her with perhaps the only thing that could ever be more surprising to a surprise, that as a future vas law school student and politician, he needs a more ‘serious’ wife, ‘serious’ in this regard being Jackie Kennedy instead of Marilyn Monroe. She’s out. Harvard’s coming in.

Eager Elle wishes to win back Warner, so she makes a move and enrolls at Harvard Law School. And lo and behold, this terrible student who can only mention participating in filmed dance routines for Ricky Martin gets admitted to the fashion merchandising program. Harvard appears to think there is no bad publicity.

The next day, Elle begins to change her goal it is no longer to win over Warner, but to prove that she is smart enough to complete the course and, at one time, assist in exonerating a woman accused of murdering her spouse. As luck would have it, she is able to accomplish both while remaining true to her values and herself along the way. Take the storyline of Clueless and combine that with the cinematic touch of Erin Brockovich!

Overall, Elle is the heart of Legally Blonde; she is a good person. Certainly, her views of the world may seem non-genuine due to shallow symbols but, she is selfless as well and goes above and beyond herself to help others. A hairdresser who has her own insecurities becomes Elle’s friend and Elle manages to jazz up her world. When she sees a nerdy law student get shot down by a girl he approaches, she goes up to him and puts her reputation on the line just to bring attention up to the nerd.

This girl acts as if she actually cared about the nerd who never called her back. Elle is doing her utmost to not expect the worst in people, in this case, Brooke, her client. And when Brooke, her client, opens up to her boyfriend, the aspiring lawyer, she remains professional and doesn’t betray that trust. When others disrespect her, Elle don’t take action and only puts extra work to show whom she really is. She doesn’t care about the attention of a teacher who is entirely too pushy. On the day of her commencement day from Harvard, Elle states that passion, courage of conviction, and a strong sense of self are the key to success.

At one point, she also urges a colleague, “You have to trust people a bit more.” Grudges may easily be forgiven by her, yet with effort and a positive outlook, she can even ‘hug’ her aggressors and turn them into allies. Elle shows a perceptive attitude towards the people surrounding her and gradually wins their affection and respect (even including the audience), proving that it is not wise to rely solely on first impressions and looks.

The opening montage is set against the backdrop of young women dressed in skimpy clothes and bikini bottoms. They often feature other women in barely-there bathing suits. There are off-color sexual jokes, sexual terminology, and a funny scene in a class about sperm banks, casual sex, and jerking off. Elle’s girlfriends from California even joke about HIV and how they “made a teacher dance for them.” For instance, Elle describes an episode where a contestant is a ‘wet t-shirt’ girl. There are also many other lesbians, and many homosexual themes throughout.

In court, the attorney’s witness stands up and presents a horrifying account of a slaughter. He made use of the name God in about one-third of the slurs which went on as the dispelling profanities of the movie (two s-words, no f-words).

There is a lot of social drinking going on but no one gets intoxicated. At the dinner, Elle and Warner drink wine, and elsewhere in the film, a Harvard party has the fermented grape. Frat guys encumber a beer keg, and there seems to be a quest of overindulgence. Other characters drink beer, too. Elle’s father takes part in the action of the movie only two times, and on both occasions, he is drinking a martini. A woman says that she was a member of the organization “Lesbians Against Drunk Driving.” After Wallace dumped Elle, her friends recommend her a narcotic painkiller called Percocet.

Who would have thought that it would be the female characters that would bear the brunt of most unreasonable and ugly qualities? Everybody here is either dumb, rude, soft, or sexually confused, except Luke Wilson. There’s plenty of male-bashing throughout the movie including: “Men are big fat retards.” At different times though, Elle’s steadfastness in not betraying Brooke’s trust is virtue that also has a shadow which diplomatically doesn’t get discussed.

From the context of the exercise video girl’s word, she was lip sucking her waist when the murder took place (the great secret), and if the truth is exposed, her image will be tarnished. Perhaps, she is not a killer but, doesn’t she owe her fans the truth that she is a knockoff? One wonders just how true the credit is when it refers to the lexical aspects of “legally blind.”

The story is not exceptionally-creative but Legally Blonde fulfills its aim of entertaining the viewer during a hot summer. This is definitely the case with Witherspoon, who performs as Elle, a character that is bright and potentially too sweet to handle, though she is effortlessly adorable. Nevertheless, despite certain illogical plot advances that are cut within the minimum, the friendly feeling of the plot still captivated me, to be in the opposite. I admired Elle and rejoiced in her ability to inspire those around her.

Did the big wigs over at Hollywood become a little too cynical? Legally Blonde seems a bit too virtuous for most Hollywood films nowadays. Still, one cannot ignore the language and humor in this fish-out-of-water comedy/courtroom drama that will have families slapping it with a citation for contempt.

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