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Legally Blonde review – Reese Witherspoon law school comedy recycles Clueless to lame effect

Witherspoon is the dippy-yet-smart sorority girl who gets a place in her ex-boyfriend’s class at Harvard law school to win him back.

It's no fault of Reese Witherspoon's that she gave such a terrific starring performance in one of the most brilliant satires of modern times, Election, the Animal Farm of American sexual politics. The problem is that anything she does that even vaguely looks like that is going to seem lame. This so-so comedy has Witherspoon as the dippy-yet-smart sorority girl whose ambitious Wasp boyfriend dumps her because she's a natural blonde, and he's looking to marry "Jackie not Marilyn"; so she gets a place in his class at Harvard law school to win him back.

This recycles an awful lot of Alicia Silverstone's Clueless: right down to the mall treats, the fashion-victim hysteria and shyly helping a love-interest/older-brother type with legal depositions. It has the Bunny Girl joke from Bridget Jones's Diary - and of course there are the Election echoes, watered down. Witherspoon is such a fiercely bright screen presence with a kind of Colgate ring of over-confidence; she needs a savvy director with firm fingers on the brightness and contrast dials. Sadly, Robert Luketic isn't the man.

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May 25, 2026 Film Culture Reese Witherspoon

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