legally blonde

The film, which is seen by many to be part of the Girl Power movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s, is the fictional story of a valley girl's quest to be regarded seriously at Harvard Law School.

The film was a Golden Globe Award nominee for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and Witherspoon's performance also received a nomination.^[1] It is number 29 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

The movie's box office success spawned a 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde.

Taglines:

• This summer, go blonde!
• Boldly going where no blonde has gone.

Synopsis

Legally Blonde stars Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, a typical pampered valley girl and president of her sorority at the fictional California University of Los Angeles. Nearing graduation, Elle expects her Harvard Law School-bound boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis), to propose to her, but he instead breaks up with her, citing that her frivolous lifestyle will hinder his political future. Crushed, Elle decides she must revamp her image by attending Harvard Law and thereby winning back Warner. With an exceptional LSAT score and an unusual application video of her in a bikini, she wins the approval of the admissions board.

Elle is initially met with hostility and skepticism of her abilities at Harvard, and she finds Warner is already engaged to fellow law student Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair). At a faux costume party that Vivian invites Elle to with the intent of humiliating her, Elle confronts Warner and finds that her admission to the school has failed to alter his perception of her. Spurred by his dismissive remarks, Elle immerses herself in her studies and becomes one of the top students in her class.

Along with Warner and Vivian, Elle is hired as a temporary legal assistant in the firm of one of her professors, Callahan (Victor Garber). They are assigned the case of defending a young woman, Brooke Windham (Ali Larter), accused of the murder of her older, wealthy husband. Windham is incidentally a former member of Elle's sorority and a fitness instructor, facts that convince Elle of her innocence. Her step daughter and the household's "cabana boy" Enrique Salvatore attest to finding Windham standing over her husband's dead body.

After Windham refuses Callahan's request for an alibi, Elle visits her in jail where she confides that she was having liposuction at the time of her husband's death. Worried that this would jeopardize her reputation as a fitness instructor, she asks that Elle keep the alibi secret. Elle complies despite pressure from the firm.

To further discredit Windham, Salvatore testifies that he and Windham had been having an affair. Elle reasons that Salvatore is actually gay, given that he is able to correctly identify her shoes as "last season Prada". Although Callahan dismisses her claim as speculation, one of his full-time employees, Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson) is convinced and coaxes Salvatore into admitting this on the stand.

Callahan has a private discussion with Elle after the session. To her disgust, he reveals he finds her attractive and begins to caress her thigh. Elle angrily storms out and, convinced that she will never be taken seriously, decides to return to California. However, after encouragement from one of her female professors and with Emmett's support, she decides to stay. Emmett informs Windham of Callahan's transgression, whereupon she decides to fire Callahan and place Elle in his stead.

Elle takes over the case under Emmett's aegis. During her cross-examination, the victim's daughter, Chutney Windham (Linda Cardellini), claims to have been taking a shower at the time of the murder, but Elle argues that having had her hair permed that day, a shower would have deactivated the ammonium thioglycolate and ruined her curls. Perturbed by Elle's aggressive questioning, the daughter confesses to accidentally shooting her father believing he was her step mother, whom she resented for being the same age as her.

The end of the film shows Elle graduating two years later at the top of her class with an offer to work at a prestigious Boston law firm. It indicates that Emmett has since quit Callahan's firm to form his own practice, and that he will propose to Elle that night.

Critical and Box Office reception

The film was met with varied reception from critics, earning "fresh rating" of 67% positive ratings in the Rotten Tomatoes compilation of 130 reviews. Most reviews lauded Reese Witherspoon's lead performance even if they denigrated the overall merit of the film.^[2]

The movie was an unexpected hit after grossing over US$20 million in its opening weekend and ending its run with over US$96 million in the U.S. and more than US$141 million worldwide. It made Witherspoon an A-list actress and one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood (she would be paid US$15 million to star in the sequel). After this movie, Witherspoon had a string of hit movies including the sequel Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama and Walk the Line which landed her an Oscar for Best Actress for playing June Carter.

Cast

• Reese Witherspoon – Elle Woods
• Luke Wilson – Emmett Richmond
• Selma Blair – Vivian Thelma Kensington
• Matthew Davis – Warner Huntington III
• Victor Garber – Professor Callahan
• Jennifer Coolidge – Paulette Bonafonté
• Holland Taylor – Professor Stromwell
• Ali Larter – Brooke Taylor Windham
• Jessica Cauffiel – Margot
• Alanna Ubach – Serena
• Oz Perkins – 'Dorky' David Kidney
• Linda Cardellini – Chutney Windham
• Bruce Thomas – UPS Guy
• Meredith Scott Lynn – Enid Wexler
• Raquel Welch – Mrs. Windham Vandermark
• Wayne Federman – Harvard Admissions Counselor

Music

• "Perfect Day" by Hoku is the theme and opening title music.

Trivia

• Although the film's setting is Harvard University, it was actually filmed at USC^[3] and UCLA. The real Harvard only appears briefly in certain aerial shots.

• While Elle is a sister of Delta Nu sorority in the film, the actual Delta Gamma is the sorority mentioned in the novel. Similarly, the novel takes place at Stanford Law School rather than Harvard.

• A stage musical titled Legally Blonde: The Musical will premiere at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco on February 6, 2007, and then open in New York at the Palace Theatre on Broadway on April 29, 2007, with actress Laura Bell Bundy playing "Elle Woods." The show will be presented by Hal Luftig Fox Theatricals and Dori Berinstein, producers of the Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. The score is by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe. O'Keefe is the composer/lyricist of Bat Boy: The Musical and is no relation to the English bassist Laurence O'Keefe.

• In Elle's application video, she proves her ability to recall information "at the drop of a hat" by relating a Days of our Lives storyline in which heroine Hope Brady is brainwashed by "the evil Stefano," which roughly corresponds to the timeframe in which the movie was filmed.