If you have not yet seen this film, please go and do so before proceeding.
Okay so remember how I said that I don't really care for most chick-flicks? Well...this film is the exception that the word 'most' implies. It is honestly one of the best things I have ever seen and it holds up to repetitious viewings just as well as The Lord of the Rings or The Incredibles does. I just love this premise and story to death!
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- Right from the opening credits I knew this was going to be a good film. I love the way that Gracie takes down those bullies and tries to be nice to that kid only to have him turn on her...not because I'm a sadistic, heartless monster but because that is the way kids and humans in general tend to act. No good deed goes unpunished, they say.
- During the bar stake-out, I love the way that they use 3 Stooges references when they're waiting to take out the Russian goons (Did we ever learn what they were on the hitlist for?) and I also appreciate Gracie making her choice because "...his victims didn't have the option of choking on a peanut!" It just goes to show what kind of person she really is under all that snark and dirt.
- Did you know that Sandra Bullock also produced this film? I just noticed that tonight when I was watching the credits.
- Oh...and that POOR waitress from the bar. First she's hugged by a creepy loiterer and then she's threatened at gunpoint. What a night!
- Gracie's apartment with the convenience-stocked kitchen and collection of cassettes is definitely something I can admire. I can also identify with the way she treats her microwave...I've been there.
- The way she lays into that punching bag and ends up half-crying really tells you volumes about how she feels about her team and about the slip-up she made tonight. I would have done away with the pigtails before the beating session, though. With hair that thick they're bound to get in the way!
- Does she know the Winchesters by any chance? No? How about Ianto Jones? I ask because using the FBI badge to express-order coffee is something I think that lot would do. Absolutely hilarious...makes me laugh every time!
- I like how the film showed that there were real consequences to Gracie disobeying an order. It would have seriously ticked me off if they had played that for cheap drama (i.e. the unfairly stern boss who just doesn't understand their think-outside-the-box subordinate) or completely glossed over.
- They did an excellent job of making the lovely Sandra Bullock look absolutely skuzzy. Gracie's not dirty, per say, (she takes her job seriously and is dressed completely professionally) but she's certainly not putting a whole lot of thought into her appearance. The scene where she dripped that sauce on her shirt and paper made me cringe in sympathy. It only ever happens whenever you're wearing white...- "I forgot the Alamo..."
- I like how the agents are all cool with explosions and gunfire and all that, but mention a beauty pageant to them and they don't know where to start with their research. That is until the idea of an undercover agent comes and they have to find the girl who can pull it off. Then we have a little scene where they gather around the computers with popcorn and dress each woman under 35 up in clothes from a Barbie-knock-off website.
- "...a search for all female field agents under 35..." And we all knew where that is leading...but that knowledge just made it all the funnier, even if Gracie doesn't think so.
- I agree with Gracie when she asks why on earth anyone would ever want to join a beauty pageant. I know a couple of people who have done them and I'm still at a loss (Yeah, yeah...scholarship money and a chance to travel...you couldn't get me in a thong for that!) It takes a certain amount of personal confidence and bravery, I'm sure. Although, if it is really just a 'scholarship program' like Miss Morningside claims (rather emphatically) why don't they do away with the swimsuit competition? Huh.
- Oh God save us - it's Captain Kirk! Shatner is in fine form as the corny co-host - hamming it up as effectively as ever.
- I love Gracie's comment about having a bad hair decade. "I'm kind of having a bad hair day. A bad hair decade is more like it."
- Michael Cain is amazing as usual. I have loved him ever since I first saw him in The Muppet Christmas Carol way back when I was a kid and he has never disappointed me. In this film he is a delightfully elegant and snarky gentleman whose chemistry with Bullock is as impeccable as his comedic timing.
- The whole transformation makeover sequence is both painful and hilarious. Painful because most of those advanced beauty treatments sound like Tower of London torture ideas to me and hilarious because of the many movie references and the way the actors play off of each other.- I really hope the FBI compensated her for the bikini wax...OUCH! *shudders*
- With the mask and big hair she looks like something from a horror film monster. Funny how that monstrosity is supposed to make her more beautiful...
- Whenever I try to flip my hair like that it always ends up over my face and in my mouth. Gracie Hart has more grace and swagger than I do...
- That music is pretty awesome too. It really sets the mood and provides a nice transition to the next scene.
- This quote needs to be made into a teeshirt:
- Miss Morningside is a piece of work! She's officially gone over the edge from merely stuff-shirty to arrogant and annoying. And the forced sing-along she puts the tributes (sorry...contestants) through on the bus is both funny and hellish.
- Cheryl; one of the few loveable 'dumb' blonds of television. She isn't really dumb, though, as we learn that she's a nuclear physicist in training and going for her Master's degree. I love it when a film or television show can take a trope and subvert it with a clever twist. Cheryl here is a real person. In fact, all of the girls are. Some of them represent stereotypes on first glance, but then as the movie goes on they are developed beyond that initial impression. In a film like this - achieving that for everyone is extremely rare!- During the scene where Gracie (hideous costume and all) dive-tackles some poor guy because he was carrying a gun, it is so, SO funny when she is reprimanded with "...this is Texas; everyone's got a gun!"
- I agree with her about the swimsuit. Why couldn't she have worn a one-piece?
- Gracie's opinions on what this world most needs just cracks me up! "That would be harsher penalties for parole violators, Stan." Even Shatner looked a bit nonplussed.
- Poor Cheryl had brain freeze without the pleasure of ice cream whenever she was asked to describe her perfect date:
- Still...that was a fairly original answer.
- "Girl talk...yech!" I hear ya, Gracie. It can't be pleasant to consider that your new friend might be a terrorist and that you have to act normal while also getting info from her.
- That club with all of the glow-paint looks awesome. Headache-inducing...but awesome. The discussion between Cheryl and Gracie is a lot of fun too. Cheryl's mother called red underwear 'Satan's Panties'?! Is she somehow related to Prudy Pingleton from Hairspray?
This film is just a delight to watch. The characters are all fully-realised people and it manages to play with stereotypes and yet subvert them. The film does a beautiful job of showing the artificialness and silly concept of beauty pageants while at the same time saying "Hey - these are REAL people with REAL minds, not just empty beauty husks!" It's very hard for any type of story-telling medium to strike that balance, but here it is done about as well as I think it'll ever get. Miss Congeniality is definitely a 5/5 and one of the most enjoyable things I have ever seen.
What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not -
what would you say differently?
No comments:
Post a Comment