Summer Cinema: ‘Leagally Blonde 2: Red, White, & Blonde’
The first time I went to see “Legally Blonde” I was ready for another stupid blonde joke extravaganza. What I got was an endearing movie about relationships and realizing what you think you want out of life isn’t necessarily what you need. It was a movie with spunk, a lot of heart and a very clever script. So naturally when I went to see the sequel “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, & Blonde” I was expecting a lot of the same. Unfortunately I didn’t get it.
This second helping is fun and has some clever political jokes, but it fails to capture any of the magic the first one possessed. Reese Witherspoon recreates her role as Elle Woods, the California blonde sorority gal who becomes a Harvard graduate lawyer. In “Red, White, & Blonde,” Woods is planning her wedding to Emmett (Luke Wilson) and decides to invite her dog’s (Bruiser) mother. She finds the dog in a cosmetics testing facility, and loses her job as a lawyer when she tries to make a stand for animal rights.
So our precocious blonde packs up and moves to Washington, D.C., as a legislative assistant for Senator Victoria Rudd (Sally Fields). Once there she works the “Elle Woods” magic in an attempt to pass Bruiser’s Bill, a law that would make animal testing illegal. Along the way she meets a political savvy doorman (Bob Newhart), has to wend her way through the political maneuvering and backstabbing that is Washington, and recruits her friends from the first film to help her take Washington by storm.
Witherspoon herself was great. Her Elle Woods is one of the roles that are charming and treat to watch. But even that couldn’t compete with the flat characters she was surrounded with. Perhaps the one exception is conservative Senator Stanford Marks (Bruce McGill) who has to deal with the knowledge that his rottweiler has chosen to live an alternative lifestyle. The rest were all stiff stereotypes with no real purpose or depth. They were there for Witherspoon to react off of.
The script was also a shoddy attempt of trying to conceal a screenwriter’s agenda with lackluster humor and corny jokes. A “Legally Blonde” sequel should have been a good idea, but it ended up as a dovecoted attempt at riding the shirttails of the first film’s success in hopes that it would generate the same box office receipts as the first one did. In essence it was an endeavor that should have been vetoed before it was even begun.
If you loved the first film, just watch it again. Don’t sour yourself by taking in this second term in office. You only end up voting for the other guy next time.
Grade: C