Legally Blonde
Summary
Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) goes through many tolls to get her ex boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis) back after being dumped on a night she expected a proposal. Warner, focused only on being a successful senator, dumps Elle because she doesn’t fit the profile of a “smart trophy wife”. Elle decides to show Warner that she can be serious by applying to Harvard. Unfortunately, over the summer Warner found a more serious girlfriend and proposed to her leaving Elle devastated. Luckily, she runs into a third year student, Emmet (Luke Wilson), that is kind to her and gives her advice on how to survive her classes. She later befriends Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge) ,a manicurist with a huge crush on the mailman. Throughout the movie Elle grows and excels at being a law student and she even gets to be an intern for a law case involving one of her idols, Brooke Taylor-Windman (Ali Larter), who is being accused of murdering her late husband, Hayworth Windman. After being hit on by her professor (Victor Garber), she quits the case. Thankfully she comes back because of some encouragement from one of her professors and ends up winning her case, and two years later she grdautes top of her class.
Story
Some events that are realistic include, but are not limited to applying to and getting into law school. Elle got into law school because she got an idea in her mind and stuck with it. She already had a 4.0 GPA and tons of extracurricular activities, not to mention she happened to be the president of her sorority. She also did meet and exceeded the requirement score of the LSAT. As the audience , we watched Elle change from a very pink Barbie into a serious lawyer. She set out to go to Harvard just for Warner to marry her, but on the way she found herslf and opened her eyes to the fact that she didn’t need him to marry her to be happy. So yes no matter how farfetched it sounds that a sorority girl from LA ends up being accepted into one of if not the most prestigious law school in the country, it sort of plausible.
Structure
The ntire movie was based in real places. The first few scenes were supposed ro be in a sorority house on the UCLA campus and the majority of the other scenes were supposed to be on the Harvard campus. Time passes relstively normally, meaning that there were no flashbacks,but it did seem like Elle was at school and then all of a sudden she was at the hairdressers’. Time passes as it does in all movies/television shows do. Days can go by in short clips in a matter of minutes.
Characters
Elle at first comes across as an stereotypical blonde party, sorority girl. It’s only clse to the end of the movie when we see her true more relateable colors. Warner comes across as a jerk from the beginning. When he makes it clear that he only dated Elle for fun and since he’s had his fun she’s no longer a part of his life. Paulette is an everyday anicurist who has it bad for the local UPS delivery guy. Upon her first appearance it’s obvious that she hears a lot of people’s issues and is flattered when Elle genuinely wants to help her. Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair), Warner’s fiancé, shows an obvious aversion to Elle. Whether it be she sees her as a threat due to her history with Warner or her looks. Professor Callahan didn’t seem like a creep until he tried to feel up Elle in his office.
Acting
Reese Witherspoon portrayed a sorority/ valley girl very effectively throughout the movie. Although the Valley girl dialect isn’t very common, at least in this part of the country, Witherspoon portrayed the Valley girl to the teeth. Her Harvard recruitment tape had me in stitches. Selma Blair had the mean lawyer attitude down. Many lawyers are very one sided and that’s important when you have to prove your client innocent and the other person wrong. Matthew Davis was very good as the jerk boyfriend that jumps from girl to girl just as it pleases him.
Language
