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Legally Monday
After a long week at work, I finally managed to produce another column. This week we're wrapping up the summer releases for good. Today, we have Legally Blonde 2 and before the end of the week we'll have a script review of SWAT. Make sure to read Fred's column The Weston Front too. I can't believe X-Men 2 is only 5 days away. It seemed like a lifetime away not too long ago. It's going to be amazing!
Legally Blonde 2:Red White & Blonde Script Review
ELLE
Hi, I'm looking for the perfect Congressional Hearing outfit.
SALESWOMAN
House or Senate?
ELLE
House
SALESWOMAN
Committee?
ELLE
Energy and Commerce.
SALESWOMAN
Majority or minority-sponsored?
ELLE
Minority.
SALESWOMAN
Follow me.
"Oh, how I love Elle Woods, let me count down the days! Every girl's favorite female hero since Shera will be back on July 2, 2003, and this time, she's taking over the American congress. Technically, Elle isn't supposed to be back until 2004 considering she doesn't graduate from Harvard Law until then, but hey, who's paying attention to sticky details when film studios have money to make?!
Let me first mention that my script is dated July 22, 2002, and it is obviously not the version that was finally greenlit. The greenlit project will revolve around Elle's work on an anti-animal testing bill and her relationship with an elderly doorman who coaches her through this thing called the legislative branch. My copy has Elle working on environmental legislation and her main helper is an ex-football jock turned Washington intern. Big differences, right? I suspect that there were other major character and plot changes, so don't take too much stock into my words. The final revision was written by screenwriters Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake along with Kate Kondell and Amanda Brown. Brown is the only contributor who worked on the first screenplay. And even though I did like the copy that I read, I am honestly happy to see that one of the two original screenwriters participated in the second project. Drake and Ahlert, the writers of my copy, did a pretty good job recreating Elle Woods' personality. Then again, I'm not sure how hard that would be. Ahhh. Regina King, Sally Fields, and Bob Newhart are the new additions to the Legally Blond family, and I suspect audiences won't be disappointed.
Appropriately decked out in red, white, and blue, Elle Woods pulls into Washington, D.C., the capital city of warm hearts and genuine world shakers..she thinks. In this place she's ready and willing to tackle corporate malfeasance in the form of electronic manufacturing water pollution. In this way, we would have seen Elle Woods as a weird sort of Jan Schlichtma, Boston lawyer in A Civil Action. The victims in this case only come down with green hair post-conditioning instead of leukemia. Why there hadn't been more green haired people before is an issue not touched because if it were, there probably wouldn't be any law to legislate. Anyway, the question our new characters have for Elle is the same that those at Harvard had. Is she able to hang with the bigwigs? As the the hero of the story, of course she is...duh. Elle works hard to find her place in the political circuit and in doing so, discovers that people don't have as much integrity as she thought they did, or she believes they should. So, naturally, that means that Elle has to get things done on her own..one Burbury blouse at a time.
Legally Blonde 2 is a satisfying continuation of the first, if you don't think too much about the intricacies of the plot or try to be too logical at all for that matter. All of the favorites from Legally Blonde are called back which makes for a nice familiar transition. They get about as much camera time as they had in the first film, maybe less. All of those old characters, except Margot, didn't prove to be anything worth talking about so the lack of screen time wasn't a major loss. Emmet, Paulette, UPS guy, and others hardly had any funny lines or personality so they just weren't exciting. Elle doesn't even communicate with Emmet for most of the script while he is in Boston, and they're engaged at this point. The writers do keep Emmet on our mind by casually mentioning the wedding plans at various times, but Elle didn't seem to want to talk to him over the phone at all. I guess that's a fact the audience is supposed to either dismiss or tell ourselves that the two do talk to each other over the phone, just...off screen. Hmm.
The story primarily focuses on Elle's relationship with her new coworkers. Most of those new characters aren't as lovable as the Harvard friends just because we are meant to hate them all throughout the script. Sad to say, the first 25% of the screenplay was nothing to be overjoyous about. It began as something that would be interesting to look at, but not terribly memorable. I occasionally snickered or chuckled but still found myself asking whether the script would be over soon. I don't know whether it was the writing style that failed to move me in those first pages or if there simply just wasn't many funny things being said. Whatever it was, fortunately, it didn't last for too long. When Elle is finally in action, focused on a task others think she can't do, the laughs pick up and the overall feel isn't such a bore. The last sixty or seventy pages of the script more than make up for a relatively low brow opening, but such is usually the case with stories that later bend and twist plot for an element of surprise. As magically convenient as those surprises are, they do make for a fun and interesting story that meanders down the path of formulaic. Still, I would prefer the meandering road to happy-endingville than a boring straight one. Screenwriters Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake understand that.
Elle achieves the impossible over and over again in this script, so much so that one has to sit back and say, 'Okay. Enough.' And actually, that happens. Elle's luck runs out after convoluted facts pointing at Elle's predetermined demise begin to surface. She isn't down for long. She finds strength and popularity in being herself (think Willie Stark in All the Kings Men), and finally, sets out to change the world. As luck would have it, she decides to run for congress right before the nominations are closed. Any other person would have decided to run for congress one day after ballot nominations were closed.
The script on the whole is a funny piece of work. I admit that the anti-animal testing legislation is probably going to work better because there won't be any people like me to ask why everyone in Boston didn't getting sick or come down with green hair? I could really go on for days with these sorts of questions, but because I actually like to talk about other things, I won't. What I will do is imagine how funny the final script version must be if it knocked this one out of the running. Boy, it must be a riot."
- This has been a Miss Jones production.
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
