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LEGALLY
BLONDE 2, UNSURPRISINGLY, TRIVIALIZES POLITICS
 The
film Legally Blonde was a hit in
2001 because Elle Wells (played by Reese Witherspoon), an intelligent
yet flamboyant girl from Bel Air, was not only admitted to
Harvard Law School but also made inroads into Washington politics.
In Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde she
triumphs in Congressional passage of important animal rights
legislation. The story begins as she is making plans to marry
her former law school professor, Emmett Richmond (played by
Luke Wilson). She wants to send a wedding invitation to the
mother of her pet Chihuahua, but she has to hire a private
detective to find her. When Boston's top private detective
discovers that her mother is at a research laboratory, Elle
goes to the facility, only to learn that the material canine
is being used to test cosmetics and cannot be released by the
lab. Shocked that animals are being used to test the toxicity
of cosmetics, Elle decides to go to Washington to have Congress
pass a law banning animal testing in the cosmetics industry.
Her Congresswoman, Victoria Rudd (played by Sally Field), arranges
to have her sign on as a legislative aide, and Grace Rossiter
(played by Regine King), her principal Administrative Assistant
takes her to a subcommittee meeting so that she can speak her
mind on the subject before hearings get underway. When committee
members immediately pooh-pooh her idea of banning animal testing,
Elle shifts gears. With the aid of Sid Post (played by Bob
Newhart), the doorman of her apartment, she locates one committee
member in a beauty parlor and obtains intimate details about
the pets of other committee members. When she testifies before
the full committee, she persuades them to support her. But
just as the committee is about to end deliberations, Congresswoman
Rudd withdraws her support, thus killing the bill (presumably
for lack of a sponsor). Her chief financial backer is an executive
in a cosmetics firm, so he threatens to support her opponent
in the next election.
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However,
Rudd tells Elle that she made a deal to drop support for
the animal rights bill in exchange
for getting a vote on her pet bill regarding housing while
getting the Boston lab not only to drop all animal testing
and release the mother of Elle's dog but also to offer Elle
a job as legal counsel. But Elle will not be bought off. Meanwhile,
all but one member of the Congresswoman's staff, initially
hostile to Elle in view of her excesses, quits when she rescinds
her support for the bill; her Administrative Assistant is the
only remaining member of her staff. With the aid of her friends
and sorority sisters, Elle mobilizes a Million Dog March to
get the remaining signatures on a discharge petition to force
a vote on the bill on the floor of the House of Representatives.
In need of only one more signature, the Administrative Assistant
quietly threatens to expose Rudd's secrets if she does not
sign. Then Rudd arranges for Elle to address a Joint Session
of Congress to push her bill. Rather than doing so, Elle gives
members of Congress a pep talk about democracy and honesty,
which carries the day for her bill. And her fiancée
goes to Washington for the wedding ceremony. As she drives
away after the wedding, he asks whether she would prefer to
live in Los Angeles, Boston, or Washington, but she simply
nods at the White House, thus telling what is in store in Legally
Blonde 3. Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, Legally
Blonde 2 tries to establish a lineage with Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which her future
husband is watching in one scene. Similar to Head
of State (2003), which also shows excerpts from
the Jimmy Stewart classic, Legally Blonde 2 tries to argue
that the ills of Washington will be cured if people will just
behave with complete honesty. Yet none of the films comes close
to most profound recent diagnosis of Washington's maladies
in The Distinguished Gentleman (1992).
In Legally Blonde 2 we learn nothing
new--that campaign contributors call the shots, that bills
pass or fail on the basis of back-room deals, and that seriously
idealists can be easily bought off. Legally Blonde
2, however, points out that the mobilization
of popular support for legislation is perhaps the only way
to short-circuit political games and ensure that Congress will
respect the will of the people. Unfortunately, that is not
how plutocratic Washington works. The film's preposterous premise
that silly costuming and naïve rhetorical masturbation
will win the day is an insult to those who seek real change.
MH
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