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Legally Blonde is a 2001 comedy film starring Reese Witherspoon, produced by Marc E. Platt for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios and directed by Robert Luketic. It is based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Amanda Brown, although only a handful of characters from the book survived the transition to the screen

The film tells the story of fashion merchandising major and bubbly sorority girl Elle Woods' quest to be regarded seriously at Harvard Law School, and to win back her boyfriend Warner.

The film was a Golden Globe Award nominee for Best Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy; Witherspoon's performance also received a nomination.[1]

Legally Blonde ranks number 29 on Bravo's 2007 list of "100 Funniest Movies".

The movie's box office success spawned a 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde and 2009 direct-to-DVD sequel, Legally Blondes. Additionally, Legally Blonde: The Musical premiered on January 23, 2007 in San Francisco and opened in New York City at the Palace Theatre on Broadway on April 29, 2007, starring Laura Bell Bundy.The musical has since closed on Broadway.

Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is portrayed as the typical pampered rich girl, growing up in Bel Air, across the street from Aaron Spelling. She is president of her sorority, Delta Nu, at the fictitious CULA, the California University of Los Angeles. Nearing graduation, Elle expects her Harvard Law School-bound boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis), to propose, but he instead breaks up with her, insisting that she is not "serious" and would hinder his political future, Elle later finds out that Warner's brother, Putnam Bowes Huntington III, is marrying Muffy Walker Vanderbilt, a first-year Yale law student. Crushed, Elle decides the only way to win Warner back is to attend Harvard Law School. With an exceptional LSAT score (179), a 4.0 GPA (albeit achieved as a fashion merchandising major), and a confident application video featuring her in a bikini, Elle's application materials manage to convince the admissions board to grant her admission.

At Harvard, Elle is initially met with hostility and skepticism of her abilities, and she finds Warner is already engaged to fellow law student Vivian Kensington (Selma Blair). Vivian reluctantly invites Elle to a party, but tells her it is a costume party (which it is not) to humiliate her. Though she shows up dressed as a Playboy bunny, Elle plays it off as though she's completely cool, telling Vivian that she loves her costume, however, she was being totally sarcastic in a humourous way. She confronts Warner and finds that his perception of her is unaffected by her accomplishments.

Spurred by his dismissive remarks, Elle studies as hard as she can, and becomes an excellent student.. She still finds it hard to be taken seriously, although Emmett Richmond (Luke Wilson), the trial assistant of Callahan (Victor Garber), one of Elle's professors, is friendly to her and recognizes her potential. She also forms a bond with manicurist, Paulette, who has recently been through a divorce, giving Paulette advice on attracting the attention of the UPS guy she is interested in and also using her legal knowledge to allow Paulette to regain custody of her dog from her ex-husband.

Along with Warner and Vivian, Elle is hired as an intern at Callahan's firm. They are assigned the case of defending a young woman, Brooke Taylor Windham (Ali Larter), accused of murdering her wealthy husband. Windham is a former Delta Nu and a famous fitness instructor, which convinces Elle of her innocence (Her reasoning being that "exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy, happy people just don't shoot their husbands"). Her stepdaughter and the household's "cabana boy" Enrique Salvatore (Greg Serano) attest to finding Windham standing over her husband's dead body, Enrique even claiming to have had an affair with her.

After Windham refuses Callahan's request for an alibi, Elle visits her in jail where she confides that she was having liposuction at the time of her husband's death. Worried that this would destroy her reputation as a fitness guru, she asks that Elle keep the alibi secret. Elle complies despite pressure from Callahan. Vivian is extremely impressed that Elle kept the alibi, and the two start to become friends, Vivian even admitting that Warner only got into Harvard because his father pulled some strings.

Elle has more and more success with her trial, using her knowledge of the fashion and female intuition to help her move closer to winning the trial, most notably when deducing that Enrique is gay after he correctly identifies her shoe style; straight men have no clue about fashion. Elle rushes in the court room before the trial starts and exclaims her find to Callahan and Emmett. During the trial, Emmett begins pounding questions to Enrique, with one of them being,"And you boyfriend's name is..." Enrique slips and says, "Chuck." Realizing his mistake, he tries to cover it up by saying he thought Emmett just said friend and that Chuck was just his "friend." Chuck, who just happened to be sitting in the audience screams, "WHAT!?" and storms out of the courtroom. Callahan has a private discussion with Elle after court one day. He hits on her, and strokes her thigh. Elle angrily storms out, is met by Vivian, who witnessed Callahan touching Elle’s leg, but missed out on the aftermath, and lashes out at her, not knowing that it was not Elle's idea. Convinced that she will never be taken seriously, Elle decides to quit and return to California. Emmett attempts to encourage her, but Elle's spirits are still crushed and she retreats to the salon to bid farewell to Paulette, who has become her friend. At the salon she encounters another of her teachers, Professor Stromwell, who further encourages her, saying "If you're going to let one stupid prick ruin your life, you're not the girl I thought you were". With her confidence returned, Elle decides to return to court. Windham fires Callahan and hires Elle as her new attorney (with Emmett, who is a licensed attorney, supervising).

During her cross-examination, the victim's daughter, Chutney Windham (Linda Cardellini), claims to have been taking a shower and washing her hair at the time of the murder. Elle also asks the daughter what she had been doing earlier that day, and one of the things she includes in her answer is that she had a perm done. Elle argues that having had her hair permed earlier that day, a shower would have deactivated the ammonium thioglycolate and would have ruined her curls, which are nevertheless still intact. After Elle's aggressive questioning, the daughter finally breaks down in tears and confesses to accidentally shooting her father, believing he was her stepmother, whom she resented for being younger than her. With this, she is arrested and Brooke is cleared of all charges.

The end of the film shows that Elle graduated from Harvard as the class-elected speaker of her graduate class with high honors, and she has been recommended to one of the country's most successful law firms. Elle's best friend Vivian has called off her engagement to Warner, who graduates with no honors or any prestigious job offers. Paulette is now the UPS guy's wife, and they are expecting a baby which they will name Elle. Emmett, now Elle's boyfriend of two years, is revealed to be planning to propose to Elle the night of the graduation.

Cast

• Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods
• Luke Wilson as Emmett Richmond
• Selma Blair as Vivian Kensington
• Matthew Davis as Warner Huntington III
• Victor Garber as Professor Callahan
• Jennifer Coolidge as Paulette Bonafonté
• Holland Taylor as Professor Stromwell
• Ali Larter as Brooke Taylor Windham
• Jessica Cauffiel as Margot
• Alanna Ubach as Serena McGuire
• Oz Perkins as "Dorky" David Kidney
• Linda Cardellini as Chutney Windham
• Bruce Thomas as Kyle the UPS Guy
• Meredith Scott Lynn as Enid Wexler
• Wayne Federman as Harvard Admissions Counselor
• Raquel Welch as Mrs. Windham Vandermark
• Greg Serano as Enrique Salvatore

Reception

The film was met with a mixed to generally positive reception from critics, earning "fresh rating" of 68% positive ratings in the Rotten Tomatoes compilation of 130 reviews. Most reviews lauded Reese Witherspoon's lead performance even if they denigrated the overall merit of the film.[2] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 59 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.[3]

The movie was an unexpected hit, grossing over US$20 million in its opening weekend and ending its run with over US$96 million in the U.S. and more than US$141 million worldwide. It made Witherspoon an A-list actress and one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood (she would be paid US$15 million to star in the sequel). After this movie, Witherspoon had a string of hit movies including the sequel Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama and Walk the Line, the latter landing her an Oscar for Best Actress for playing June Carter.

In 2007, a musical adaption premiered on Broadway to mostly positive reviews, starring Laura Bell Bundy as Elle, Christian Borle as Emmett, Orfeh as Paulette, Nikki Snelson as Brooke, Richard H. Blake as Warner, Kate Shindle as Vivienne, and Michael Rupert as Callahan. Other cast members included Andy Karl, Leslie Kritzer, Annaleigh Ashford, DeQuina Moore, and Natalie Joy Johnson. The show, Bundy, Borle, and Orfeh were all nominated for Tony Awards. Later, the Broadway show was the focus of an MTV reality TV series called Legally Blonde - The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods, in which the winner would take over the role of Elle on Broadway. Bailey Hanks from Anderson, South Carolina, won the competition.

Production

Top Hip Hop choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo choreographed the famous "Bend and Snap" routine before they took off as famous dancers/choreographers for the hit FOX show SYTYCD.

Although the film's setting is Harvard University, it was actually filmed at USC[4], UCLA[5], and Rose City High School in Pasadena, California. The real Harvard only appears briefly in certain aerial shots.

The film was originally set to take place at the University of Chicago Law School, but administration at the school did not approve the film, because of a scene in which a professor places his hand on Elle's leg.[6]

The producers intentionally gave Elle a different hairstyle for every scene.

This was the second film that Witherspoon and Blair starred in together, the first being Cruel Intentions.

This is also the second film that Witherspoon and Alanna Ubach starred in together, the first being Freeway.

Comparisons

There are numerous references to The Paper Chase (which is also set at Harvard Law) including a scene in which Elle brings food to her ex-boyfriend and says, "I brought you sustenance." In The Paper Chase, the main character complains to his girlfriend that she has failed to provide sustenance.

While Elle is a sister of Delta Nu sorority in the film, the sorority mentioned in the novel is Delta Gamma.

In the original novel, Elle does not go to Harvard Law. She goes to Stanford Law School.

Goofs

The case against Brooke Taylor Windham is identified as The "State" vs. Windham. However, Massachusetts is a commonwealth[7] so this designation is legally incorrect.

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