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| Starring
Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow; with Janeane Garofalo Screenplay by Robin Schiff Directed by David Mirkin |
IN SHORT: The ladies loved it. The guys went, huh?
Romy And Michele's High School Reunion is based on a stage play called "Ladies Room" by the film's screenwriter, Robin Schiff and, as always, Cranky makes no comparison to the source material.
Three weeks ago, Cranky wrote that a certain flick "should put an end to the incredible feelings of insecurity that come up around the time of a high school reunion; the time when you think that you haven't accomplished anything with your life and have to lie to the friends you haven't seen in ten years. No, it isn't necessary to be impressive." Sonofagun if that isn't the point of Romy And Michele's High School Reunion, perhaps the most colorful and visually stimulating piece of screenwork not to feature explosions that I've seen in the last ninety minutes.
It isn't that Romy and Michele isn't funny. Some of it is, and the clothes are decidedly colorful, but all the best jokes can be seen in the trailer. Then again, what the hell does Cranky know? I'm just an ordinary guy. All the conversations around me, and afterwards, at the sneak of Romy and Michele confirm that the flick draws a wide line of demarcation between what the men and the women present found funny about two blondes with a boisterous sense of fashion. The women next to me, and they were not out of sync with the other ladies present, were bouncing in their chairs chattering to each other under their breath in complete sympathy with the characters and situations playing out on screen. My jaw hung low.
Let's cut to the chase. In a sentence: Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michele (Lisa Kudrow, who created the role onstage) have little to show as their tenth High School reunion approaches, so they decide to lie about how successful they've become. Romy and Michele isn't 90 minutes of blonde jokes, it's more like 90 minutes of the blondes telling the joke. Director David Mirkin, who won an Emmy for his work on The Simpsons seems to know that the gag is thin, 'cuz he uses swooping camera movements and clever transitions from the get-go to keep the gags coming. They come so fast, it's like watching a stand up play out his routine -- Mirkin was a standup as well -- and once the routine gets old, it's a long shlep to the ball. The whole journey to the discovery that you don't have to be impressive to be impressive needs a real kicker to be funny, and that kicker isn't blonde.
The kicker is Janeane Garofalo as Heather, a mean spirited, foul mouthed, cigarette sucker who, miraculously, never took gun lessons and climbed a water tower. Heather was lower on the pecking order than, and is the only one who can destroy Romy and Michele's well thought out (sic) plans for the reunion. Garofalo explodes with nasty energy and steals every scene she's in. Black clothing and surly demeanor is a grand counterpoint to the explosive color and California style talk of the lead girls. The best joke is that this outcast wasn't even top of the z-list in the aforementioned pecking order.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Romy And Michele's High School Reunion, he would have paid . . .
$3.00
That's a guy's viewpoint. Ladies will rate it much higher. Romy and Michele looks like a good TV comedy, from a hand who knows how to make great TV comedy. Gentlemen, pray for a date that shows no interest. Otherwise, shut your yaps and hold tight 'til almost the very end. One intricately choreographed scene will have you gasping for breath between the whoops of laughter. If you're not hooked from the beginning, it's a long wait.
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