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Review Uploaded
07/28/03

1 hr. 45 mins.
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Sally Field, Bob Newhart, Luke Wilson, Regina King, Jennifer Coolidge, Bruce McGill, Dana Ivey, Mary Lynn Rajkub
Directed by: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld

Rating: ** stars (out of 4 stars)

When we last saw Reese Witherspoon’s ditsy alter ego Elle Woods in the original 2001 smash hit Legally Blonde she was taking the legendary Harvard University campus by storm with her off-kilter brand of cutesy chaos. Cleverly armed with her trademark fetish for all things pink and the wink-wink acknowledgement that suggests her blonde-headed buffoonery is in the riotous spirit of lampooning the myth of yellow-haired party gals as klutzy cuties, Witherspoon revisits the mockery once again. This time, she heads to the nation’s capitol in Washington D.C. and takes her familiar act on the road for some patriotic overtones in the lackluster sequel Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde.

Director Herman-Wurmfeld wants the audience to buy into Witherspoon’s air-headed protagonist as the unlikely “intelligent” young lady who’s saddled with a spunky outlook that the rest of society deems as a perky person “a few fries short of a Happy Meal.” Well, in the first Legally Blonde movie, this concept was rather refreshing in witnessing a seemingly self-absorbed bubble-headed beauty taking on the role as a complete outsider only to persevere and become a Harvard-educated law student despite the Establishment’s reservations. Yes, this fish-out-of-water comedy was no doubt predictable and contained the usual sight gags and benefited from its dumb blonde mantra nicely. However, it was Witherspoon’s shrewd and energetic performance and her willingness to flow with the fluffy material that made the original Legally Blonde inspired.

In this regrettable follow-up, Herman-Wurmfeld hopes to stretch this one-joke premise and get as much mileage out of it as he can. Unfortunately, this is the sad case of going to the well once too often and milking a tiresome formula that surprisingly worked the first time around. To ensure that peppy protagonist Elle Woods is just as sympathetic and unassumingly bright as compared to the pompous yet prestigious know-it-alls she left behind at the intimidating halls of Harvard, the script calls for her infectious presence to invade another territory looking to receive its guaranteed comeuppance-the shady underbelly of politics. Thus, the chippy-minded Elle Woods is sent to tame the conflicted and seriously flawed center of Lawmaking Land with her upbeat innocence and hidden savvy. Therefore, one tepid oxymoron grows into another concerning a brainy blonde looking to put a fire under the feet of manufactured honest politicians in an attempt to shake up the status quo. Although LB2: RWAB is meant as a lightweight farce that incorporates traces of off-kilter levity, this showcase fails to recapture the zany expectations that were so prevalent in its intentionally dopey but delightfully entertaining predecessor.

Seeing as though the timing of LB2: RWAB’s release was just before the July 4th holiday, the theme of the movie couldn’t be any more appropriate: the seeking of justice. And what might that semblance of justice be you ask? In this case, Elle Woods’ crusade is for animal rights (no doubt because of her trusty sidekick in that of her treasured Chihuahua Bruiser). You see Elle is not too thrilled about the testing of animals for some arbitrary cosmetic product. It hits too close to home when her precious Bruiser is considered…excuse the pun…dogmeat for some cosmetic lab that’s associated with the Boston law firm for which she currently is employed as an attorney. The defiant Elle wants her firm to stand tall and dismiss the heartless cosmetics company as a major client. Furthermore, she wants all those poor critters to be free and pressures her employer to make this cosmetic company change its animal-cruelty stance. Obviously too radical and unrealistic to deal with, Elle is fired by her exasperated law firm.

Determined not to go away quietly and bury this hot-button political issue, Elle finds the ideal pulpit for her cause by joining the staff of Massachusetts congresswoman Victoria Rudd (Sally Field). By teaming with Rudd and her handlers, Elle can work on a law to abolish animal testing once and for all. Naturally there are those within Rudd’s camp that find Elle as nothing more than a novelty act in high heels. But soon Elle’s supporters (including a faithful doorman played by veteran actor-comedian Bob Newhart and a wise-cracking beautician friend played by Jennifer Coolidge) and distracters are won over by her passion for this heated topic. Elle manages to impress some top-notch congressional bigwigs, particularly in the likes of Stanford Marks (Bruce McGill) and Libby Hauser (Dana Ivey). Soon deception will be a factor as Elle’s boss Rudd is forced to sidetrack the pink-wearing Barbie doll lawyer’s mission as she becomes scrutinized by her campaign donors and other constituents. Will Elle and her colleagues stand by and watch the dirty deeds of politics rear its ugly head once again? Or will it take more than Elle’s flighty charm to challenge the cynicism of a political storm brewing?

Herman-Wurmfeld, who was responsible for guiding another unconventional feminine protagonist that stood against the grain in the same sex romantic comedy Kissing Jessica Stein, gleefully oversees this flimsy fantasy that will gladly pander to demographics ranging from the PETA organization to free-thinking feminists. Kate Kondell’s screenplay feels very unfocused and stilted in its presentation. The dumbing down of Witherspoon’s Elle Woods was masterful when it was played to the hilt against the stuffy academia atmosphere regarding the privileged observers at Harvard during the first installment. There, we could sort of see Witherspoon’s dizzy routine as a synthetic socialite serving as the subversive darling dimwit to upset the preconceived notions of her reserved peers.

But in LB2: RWAB, the recycled robustness of Witherspoon’s Elle Woods is nothing more than reusable fodder overplaying the gimmick that was so resonate in the first outing. Because Witherspoon is such an intuitive actress, she was able to overcome the trite blonde dumbbell schtick by playing it smart and trusting the material to let the audience see what a soulful underdog that her kooky characterization really was. Indeed Elle was clueless but nevertheless resilient in all her faulty frivolity. But in this second edition, she’s reduced to regressing back to the same old stupid stereotype that worked so marvelously for her in the eventual growth of Elle Woods. As a result, Witherspoon’s excursion into this mindless political romp is wasted. The thought of preachy and goofy comedies pertaining to the process of legislation is as stimulating as reading the phone book backwards.

Aside from the overdone, silly-minded pink-oriented motif and the film’s high-spirited sentiment for its beast-bonding tendencies, the supporting players don’t fare too well in throwaway secondary roles that are not remotely memorable or substantive. Remarkably, Field is uncharacteristically stiff as the compromised Bay State congresswoman trying to tend to her ambivalent self-interests. Luke Wilson continues his transparent rounds as the obligatory “love-interest-for-hire” stud (witness his meager on-screen contributions in the popcorn pleaser Charlie’s Angels and the staid romantic comedy Alex and Emma). Here, Wilson is the put upon beau of Witherspoon’s spunky legal eagle. Coolidge is the standby one-dimensional best buddy there to lend a hand in the “Ethel Mertz” high jinks sidekick sweepstakes. Even Elle’s collegiate Delta Nu sister Grace Stoteraux (Regina King) is grating on the nerves as a stuck-up princess that changes her rough exterior conveniently just in the nick of time to assist with the agenda at hand. As for Elle’s beloved canine Bruiser, he’s way too busy involved in an absurd subplot involving his homoerotic sexual entanglement with another male dog-specifically southern Congressman Stanford’s mutt. Ah, the amusement of animal gay sex. Hmmm…every comedy must have this weird and wacky angle tossed in for casual kicks, huh? Geez, talking about wanting to veto something so vehemently! Believe me, LB2: RWAB is the perfect concoction to start with in this tiresome instance.

This awkward Mr. Smith Goes to Washington knockoff is too insufferable to take even as an innocuous farcical treat. One will probably find the inane antics in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde as a spry diversion to jump-start the holiday/summertime festivities. Certainly there must be plenty of ways to disregard this sugary Washington-based washout that has all the warmth and wit of a prolonged presidential impeachment hearing.