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Legally Blonde: A Movie Review 21 Years Later
by Kevin Faber
This movie, part heartwarming feminist classic, part romantic comedy, stars Hollywood legend Reese Witherspoon, and is based on a book of the same name by Amanda Brown. She based the book on her own experiences while at Stanford Law School.
An Unlikely Feminist Icon
The main character is Elle Woods, a stereotypical Los Angeles sorority girl, majoring in fashion, who is always wearing pink and carrying her adorable chihuahua, Bruiser. The movie starts off with her thinking that her boyfriend Warner will propose to her. When he ends up dumping her because he wants to be with someone in a similar career field to him, which is law, she comes up with the idea to follow him to Harvard Law School.
A key characteristic of Witherspoon's character is that she comes from money. So while the average person would be struggling with the debt of student loans from getting a degree in fashion merchandising, then immediately entering Harvard, which is known for its steep tuition price, as a first-year law student, Elle did not.
Her privilege and seemingly shallow personality did not make her an easy character to like at first. However, as the movie went on, it was clear that she was not only kind, compassionate and full of joy, but was also incredibly intelligent in her own unique way.
Her motivation for pursuing a law degree at one of the most prestigious schools in the country may have been to win back her snobby ex-boyfriend, but she still studied incredibly hard. After getting rejected by him again, she didn't turn her back on law, but rather found a love for the field that she was now in.
Her Inspiring Win
She ended up getting the same internship as Warner with one of the school's most respected teachers. Their work would be to help on a high-profile murder case. Elle ends up stealing the spotlight when she was able to get the primary suspect, Brook, the much-younger wife of the victim, to tell her in secret that her alibi was that she was getting liposuction. Elle understands how much this could damage her career as a weight-loss consultant if it gets out, and promises not to reveal it.
After that, Elle cross-examines the daughter of the victim, Chutney. After noticing a hole in her story about getting a shower immediately after getting a perm, Elle puts her on the spot. With personal knowledge about the chemistry of perms, Elle was able to identify this lie and question Chutney.
Having been found out, she then admits to being the murderer. She accidentally murdered her own father because intended to kill Brook, hating the fact that her dad married someone her own age.
How The Film Aged
Reese Witherspoon did an amazing job in this role, bringing humor and quit-wit to an overall paradoxical character, who was written to seem both genuinely smart and incredibly dumb at the same time.
The movie does a great job of breaking down stereotypes about women. It's a piece that resonates with a foundational message of the feminist movement: women can be beautiful, feminine, emotional, romantic, and love fashion, hair, makeup, and the color pink, but still be inspiringly brilliant career women and Ivy League graduates.
While it was fun, hilarious and a nice believe-in-yourself movie, there was a big flaw that did not age into the present day well: the lack of diversity. Almost the entire cast is white, and nearly all of Elle's friends are as well. The exception is her friend Serena, played by Alanna Ubach, who is Hispanic.
The judge was played by Francesca P. Roberts, a black woman, however, she is really just a background character in the movie with few lines. The other notable person of color in this movie is Enrique Salvatore, played by Greg Serano, who is one of the witnesses. His character is problematic because he essentially is portrayed as a stereotypical gay Latino man.
Final Thoughts
Despite its shortcomings, this movie has still aged fairly well and is still considered a hilarious feminist classic by many. It is definitely worth another watch today.
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