Legally Blonde (2001) – 4/5

Hats up!

„Legally Blonde“ is an American English-language live action film from 2001, so this one already over 20 years old. I watched this film last night, a film that runs for over 1.5 hours, but stays under the 100-minute mark. The people who made it will probably not ring super familiar for most, but they surely also deserve a mention. The director was Robert Luketic who turns 50 this year, which means he was still very young back then, not even 30, and given the success of this movie, it is maybe even a bit of a disappointment that he did not have a huge breakthrough in the years/decades now since then and that this movie is still his most known work. Amanda Brown wrote the novel this is based on and she is linked to a few more films connected to the universe of Elle Woods. Interestingly enough, I see she also did some voice work for American dubs of anime projects? Now that is something I did not expect. The other two writers here are Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith and they also collaborated on the screenplay for „10 Things I Hate About You“ from two years earlier and that is another classic and I watched that film and this one here actually as part of the same series. Close call maybe which of the two films is more known as of now. I saw this one here for the first time and 10 Things I already watched on some other occasions and it is a good film too, bit my favorite from the two is definitely „Legally Blonde“. Anyway, McCullah and Smith are still collaborating and while they have not been super prolific in recent years, especially McCullah, there is still quite a bit upcoming for them if it gets made. This includes elaborations on K-Pop, the Spice Girls and maybe even a third „Legally Blonde“ movie. We will see what of all this will get made. If it gets made, then I hope the quality will not be a disappointment. As for the aforementioned director Luketic, his focus now seems to be on small-screen projects and he is actually fairly successful there.

The big name attached to this project here is of course Reese Witherspoon. She went on to become an Oscar winner less than five years later and has been among the biggest Hollywood actresses since then and it did not stay her only Oscar nomination and I just have to mention June Carter (Cash) and „Walk the Line“ here because it is one of my very favorite films and I just adore Johnny Cash as much as I can. Witherspoon has also enjoyed a fairly successful (awards-wise) time at the small screen afterwards as well. She turned 47 this year, which is actually fairly old, but I probably only say that because she still has that youthful charm going for her so much. Fairly surreal that ten years from now she will be not far away from 60 anymore. But oh well, this also means that she was 24 or so in this movie and it means that it is half a lifetime back. Which also makes it a fairly old film already. No denying there. In the official title, they went with the law component, but here in the title from my country Germany, they basically called the film „naturally blonde“. It’s okay. Both is catchy, both not a superb title, but also not bad. I am just wondering if there is maybe some play of words to the original title that I am not fully getting. Anyway, Witherspoon is the film from beginning to end and she is really as good as it gets. Deserving Golden Globe nomination for her and the film and honestly, as you can see from my rating, I would have been okay with the movie winning both categories. I have a feeling I will still think so after finally seeing „Moulin Rouge!“, but we will see about that. In any case, „Legally Blonde“ was appreciated and also commercially successful enough for a sequel getting made, even if that one did not turn out a success, but oh well. Let’s not get into detail there. It was fine they tried and maybe I will watch that one one day too. How much I liked this one here is certainly increasing the chances.

I guess I will just do some brainstorming now about specific cast members, their characters and individual scenes where this film was really at its best as those stayed in my mind: Let’s start with the maybe funniest moment overall for me from the movie and this would be one that is part of the courtroom proceedings, namely then the pool boy is exposed as a liar and he says that his boyfriend is merely his buddy and the one is in the audience and he reacts in an outraged fashion, stands up and storms out of the room while swearing. That was so hilarious honestly. And I am pretty sure that I was not the only one in the crowd who would say this was their favorite moment from the movie. There was so much laughter in this scene. The actor there does not have any other inclusion in this film, but still he stayed memorable this way and it was also totally not important why the pool-boy was lying in the first place and that the elaboration there in terms of his motive was a bit on the shoddy side. This was also a great example of an elaboration on homosexuality that some self-proclaimed justice warriors now in the 21st century might have a problem with, also the assumption how certain character traits or mannerisms mean you are a gay person, but it is so refreshing to see that scenes and talk like this could get included back then and people were not whining right away because of alleged discrimination. The discrimination that almost actually happens here is then linked a bit more towards men because the initial boyfriend was the antagonist from the very start and it was clear they would not get together again and also pretty expected that he would want her back towards the end and she is not interested anymore and it was also expected that she would get together with the other lawyer. But it came a bit surprising that the star lawyer also turned into an antagonist then in the last third of the film. I had a feeling that he might actually try something in terms of getting closer to Witherspoon’s character, but an escalation like this I did not expect.

However, these man-related thoughts also came to my mind because Selma Blair who seemed like a key antagonist early on, maybe even a bigger antagonist than the (former) boyfriend does become a friend of Witherspoon’s character and this I did not really see coming. But it does fit with the star lawyer being turned into a villain and he was not treating Blair’s character in a nice fashion. I still kinda felt that the scene in which the two women were bonding for the first time was just staged by Blair’s character to maybe find out about the alibi from the defendant, but no such thing. She was really impressed by the main character’s integrity. Of course, then at court, it was also hilarious when all the main character’s friends enter the room, first of all Jennifer Coolidge who has become such a star now that people were not only applauding when we see her on the screen the first time, but also when her name was shown at the beginning of the film. Good for her as I like her. It is not just the recent small screen awards success (as she has basically been steamrolling Emmys and Globes and more) that did so much for her popularity. Of course, I must mention „2 Broke Girls“ here. She is also awesome there. But yeah, it is her character who enters there to support her friend, i.e. Witherspoon’s character and also the initial two good friends of Witherspoon’s character who come there to cheer her on and they are very vocal and expressive in showing us what they (dis)like about certain moments there. Comedy and courtroom? Not even Boston Legal always did it so well. Another scene I liked was from pretty early in the movie, namely the one where the council members have to decide whether they should allow Witherspoon’s character in and that was hilarious, the entire scene no matter if we are looking at the Ricky Martin music video reference or everything else.

Then Holland Taylor deserves a mention here. She was already an Emmy winner for a role in a law-themed series, so this certainly had to do with her getting cast here and the result is the maybe most-remembered role of her career, even if her screen time is limited. But the moment she then shows up out of nowhere at the beauty place where Coolidge’s character (who of course also get her man, and her dog) works was quite something. Crucial role there to change the main character’s mind. Holland by the way scored many further Emmy nominations afterwards for working on a show that starred Charlie Sheen and Selma Blair has her own history with the man considerably later. It’s a small world, also apparently for the actors of this movie we have here. There was so much more I really dug with this movie. I honestly did not expect I would like it this much. Positive surprise. It was also cool for example to watch Witherspoon’s character during this scene when she exposes the arrogant fashion store saleswoman because she knows about garments and what is possible and what isn’t. There are other familiar names in here, at least for me those were Linda Cardellini, Ali Larter, Luke Wilson, Victor Garber and even style icon actress Raquel Welch, who died really recently, plays a little role here. Good cast. Oh and Oz Perkins as Dorky David was such a revelation. In literally every single scene and moment he was in this film. I wanna watch a spinoff movie about his character now. I laughed so much about how they included him and I also liked how he was basically the main character’s assistant there towards the end before she wins the case and makes sure her friend and idol would not go to jail for a crime she did not commit. This is pretty much it then. From my big enthusiasm throughout the entire review, you realize quickly how glad I was that I went wand watched this film. I give it a must-see recommendation and it’s not even close. One of the best films I have seen all year. Don’t miss out and don’t wait as long as I did until I finally went for it.