Legally Blonde

Legally Blonde

I saw a college production of Legally Blonde: The Musical once and that's all I really had to go off of when I found myself watching the original movie. What's funny is that, largely due the movie's over-the-top nature,  the characters constantly look like they're about to burst into song. If there was ever a movie made to be a goofy musical, it's Legally Blonde.

For the most part it's a slightly-above-standard studio comedy, with fun wacky performances, subversions of some cliches while leaning into some other ones, giving light to some decent characters while accidentally shading other more important ones, and overall just being generally likable. However, while the humor is generally just amusing and light, there are a handful of moments that feel like a legitimate comedian happened upon the script and just started inserting jokes. Things like Elle swerving into the middle of the road to park somewhere and seeing all the chaos behind her as she blissfully ignores it,  or her white sorority friend suddenly being able to speak Vietnamese to a salon lady, or a gay pool boy who's trying to pose as straight but accidentally pisses off his boyfriend in the middle of a court scene when it makes absolutely no sense for the boyfriend to even be there are surprisingly insane and feel more like something out of Airplane! than a film like this. I enjoyed the bizarre, unpredictable nature that these moments gave the film, even though it was quite possibly on accident.

The characters are all pretty standard, but where it gets different is their dynamics between each other. Elle goes into Harvard Law to win back her ex-boyfriend who's now back with his academic ex-girlfriend. Initially Elle and the girlfriend hate each other, but in the end they actually become friends and both ditch the jerk boyfriend. Luke Wilson is the typical nice guy who serves as a new love interest for Elle, but instead of just being generally nice to earn her love, he believes her in a moment when no one else does. Her professor who she's trying to earn the respect of suddenly starts hitting on her. These little story swerves make the film a lot more engaging than it normally might be, and they show that the screenwriters knew what they were doing in regards to structure. Dialogue maybe not so much, but definitely structure.

I had a decent enough time watching the movie. I liked some of the characters, and those couple of bizarre jokes helped keep me on my toes. Plus there's a surprise appearance by Linda Cardellini with a wacky perm straight out of Lindsay Weir's worst nightmares, and it delighted me to no end.