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. 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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want to comment on this film
