Reese Witherspoon plays Beverly Hills-bred sorority girl Elle Woods in this summer confection that never quite lives up to its fizzy premise but has a giggle trying. It should wildly entertain teen girls and some preteens if they get permission. A slightly naughty PG-13, the movie contains nonexplicit but clearly sexual language and innuendo and occasional profanity. The movie blabs the usual message about not judging people by appearances, while it shoves Elle’s perfection at us and pares various supporting characters, several of them quite intriguing, down to nearly nothing.
A sweet-natured but fanatically groomed and treadmilled college princess, Elle can also wield her 4.0 like a new Kate Spade bag. She is accepted at Harvard Law, following her ex-boyfriend (Matthew Davis) there after he drops her because she’s too much of a stereotypical blonde to fit with his political ambitions. After a shaky start, Elle surprises students, professors and a nice young lawyer (Luke Wilson). Witherspoon, as always, is a delight, insanely perky yet likable.
The Score (R, 123 min.)
For high-schoolers with patience, The Score proves a handsome heist movie with a good payoff, though it meanders wildly along the way. Robert De Niro, Edward Norton and especially Marlon Brando at times riff in what’s clearly improvised dialogue.
The result occasionally crackles but just as often stalls the action. Brando expertly dominates his scenes, even if he knows he’s holding up the works. The Score is reasonable fare for most film-savvy high-schoolers. Its R rating reflects a stream of fairly ordinary profanity, brief nonfatal violence, a mild sexual situation, sexual innuendo and marijuana use. As is true with most caper comedies, the script hints that crime (the nonviolent kind, anyway) pays.
De Niro plays mellow second-story man Nick, a safecracker who’s ready to settle down with his love (the underused Angela Bassett). Then his old fence, Max (Brando), talks him into one last job, the brainchild of a brash young thief (Norton), who worries Nick.
