Light headed

>> Reese Witherspoon bubbles over in Legally Blonde

By GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT

 The neon fuschia opening credits of Legally Blonde tip you off right away. They flash across the screen like so much electric candy as a sequence of California campus scenes parade by. Shirtless frat boys play tug-of-war, cheerleaders practice their kicks, sorority girls apply nail polish, a Chihuahua frolics about. Turn off your brain please, you've just entered planet-Hollywood-college-campus-comedy territory.

 Enter Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon), sorority queen and stereotypically perfect, perky, shopaholic blonde. Elle's major is in Fashion Marketing, but her main ambition is to marry her rich East-Coast-born boyfriend, Warner Huntington III. Unfortunately for our fair-haired heroine, there's a gruesome conflict standing in the way of her marital aspirations: Warner needs a less flamboyant life partner if he's gonna be a senator by the time he's 30 ("A Jackie, not a Marilyn," he tells her over dinner). And off to Harvard law school he goes, to reunite with his prim, brunette, prep-school flame.

 Elle, being the smartest, most tenacious dumb blonde around, decides to win him back by getting accepted to Harvard law herself. And herein lies the comic crux of the film: West Coast bimbo with a brain goes east and is discriminated against by all those frumpy, dark-haired, eastern intellectuals for being so unapologetically blonde. But Elle triumphs despite all the hardships and helps those dumpy, cynical Bostonian meanies see the lighter side of life.

 Not only does manicure-junky, Cosmo-girl Elle excel in law school, but she scores a coveted internship too, and then--activate belief-suspension shields--single-handedly solves a murder case after standing up to her sexually predatory prof. Wow! All this in perfect lipstick, a constrictive skirt and ultra-high heels. Plus, she rescues her manicurist friend's dog from a jerky ex-boyfriend, helps a nerdy guy get a date, and teaches everyone to trust their intuition and believe in themselves!

 Despite the dime-a-dozen cliches, the stereotypical characters, the predictability and an almost unforgivable dance sequence in a hair and nail salon, Legally Blonde does have more than one laugh-out-loud moment. Simply put, an innocuous, mindless romp, like a bubblegum-snapping stroll through the mall. Sweet! :

 Legally Blonde opens Friday, July 13

 

Bread and Roses opens Friday, July 13