A young woman left heartbroken by her boyfriend leaving to go to Harvard law school concocts a plan to get him back, and inadvertently becomes a lawyer in the process.
Some films don’t age well. Whether it’s the humor or the subject matter, times change and certain films just don’t fit into the new normal standards of society. The opposite is true of Legally Blonde. Originally discredited as a “girly movie” with an implausible storyline and fantastical plot, it’s finally being seen now for what it really is; a harsh truth about beauty standards, sexism, and the power of women banding together. Addressing some really important topics that have come into the spotlight more in the last decade than in 2001 when the film was released, Legally Blonde calls attention to the insidious ways that men of high rank use their power, and how they utilize competition between women for their own exploitative gains. It’s an incredibly #MeToo movie from years before the movement came along.
Directed by openly gay and beautifully progressive Robert Luketic, Legally Blonde is an incredibly female forward movie. With a screenplay by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, based upon the novel of the same name by Amanda Brown, the film takes every chance it gets to be not only incredibly cute and adorable, but also to touch upon the importance of women supporting women. Instead of competing with one another, they excel when they work together, and adding into the mix the fact that our protagonist, Elle Woods, decides to better herself instead of continuing to chase the guy who broke her heart, it’s a super empowering film from every possible angle.
And I can think of no one better to embody that empowering character than Reese Witherspoon. She’s gorgeous, funny, and endearing in every way, subverting the stereotypical beliefs that a confident woman is a dumb one. Her intelligence regularly surpasses her competition, and while this is played as being humorous, it’s actually very true to life. Luke Wilson is great as her ally in the mix, and does a good job of taking a backseat to Elle as she shows the world what she can do. Selma Blair is the perfect choice for her catty and disbelieving female competitor, and perfectly illustrates the kind of behavior that women regularly exhibit towards one another when we should be uniting and gassing each other up. Not to mention Ali Larter, who is always fantastic, and the scene stealing Jennifer Coolidge as the most lovable of side characters. Even Victor Garber is spectacular as the slimy power tripper who feels all too real in this modern era. Ask almost any woman and they’ll tell you their story about a man not unlike his character somewhere in her life.
The cinematography is as stylish as the outfits and makeup, and the bright bubblegum pink palette is perfect for painting the female powered picture. There’s nothing wrong with pink being a “girl’s” color, and Legally Blonde makes that incredibly apparent. The soundtrack is totally on point, too, with pop hits of the time period that still get your toes tapping.
While it may look cutesy and unbelievable upfront, Legally Blonde is a fantastically empowering and true to life depiction of what women face as a result of sexism and misogyny, and even through the light-hearted laughs and fun, you’ll still get your very own lesson out of this Harvard set story. And not just how to use the bend and snap!