"Mean Girls"
Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) has spent her formative
year living with her naturalist parents in the wilds
of Africa. When her mom gets a position teaching at a
Midwest college, Cady must move from the safety of
wild animals into the real jungle - high school - in
"Mean Girls."
We've been down this path before. New kid in school
wants to fit in but must break into the local chick
clique if she is going to be somebody at the institute
of learning. "Heathers" and "Clueless" both dealt with
the beautiful kids in high school but the former film
concentrated on mayhem while the Alicia Silverstone
vehicle showed the sweeter side of girl cliques. "Mean
Girls" takes a middle ground as it deals with fitting
in, making new friends and learning the ropes at
school. It also deals with revenge, subterfuge,
control and jealousy.
Cady is a well-adjusted young lady, home taught all of
her life by her parents. Now, back in "civilization"
she must join the ranks of all other American teens
and run the gauntlet called high school. As she
wanders around trying to find her next class she meets
Goth chick Janice Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and her fey best
buddy Damian (Daniel Franzese). These two outsiders
take Cady under their wings to try to help her adjust
to her new environment. That is, until one lunch hour,
Cady is invited to sit with "The Plastics" - the
bodacious babes led by their queen bee, Regina George
(Rachel McAdams).
Cady, at Janice's insistence in order to get all the
dirt and school gossip, joins the Plastics as their
latest recruit. She leads a double life as she clicks
with the clique during the day and regales Janice and
Damian with all the Plastics' sordid secrets after
school. The system works pretty well as Cady deftly
walks the line until she spies Aaron (Jonathan
Bennet), the hunk who sits in front of her in math
class. She sets her cap for the good looking guy only
to learn that he used to be Regina's boyfriend and the
queen does not give up anything that she considers
"hers." Cady ignores the warning givens and a Plastics
power struggle is in the making.
SNL alumnus Tina Fey adapts author Rosalind Wiseman's
popular guide, "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your
Daughter Survive Cliques, Boyfriends and Other
Realities of Adolescence" for the big screen and hits
one out of the park. Director Mark S. Waters takes the
well-crafted adapted material and, with a terrific
cast, provides a briskly paced, well-rounded tale that
should hit a bull's-eye with its teen target audience
and beyond.
Lindsay Lohan rebounds from her unfortunate foray into
territory best left to Hilary Duff with "Confessions
of a Teenage Drama Queen," a pathetic piece of work
that Lohan should have steered well away from.
Luckily, she teams up again with helmer Waters - their
earlier collaboration in "Freaky Friday" was a
tremendously popular hit - and they, with a little
help in front of and behind the camera, done real
good.
Lohan is a likable and pretty young actress and she
does a fine job as the anchor for "Mean Girls." But,
she is not alone as she is joined with a long list of
characters that help make this one very entertaining
flick. Tina Fey is believable and three-dimensional as
Ms. Norbury, Cady's math teacher and mentor who
encourages the girl to become a member of the
Mathletes - the school's competitive math team. Fey
writes credible characters and Norbury is just one of
many.
Rachel McAdam is letter perfect as rich bitch alpha
Plastic who lauds it over the rest of her clique and
holds everyone (except herself) in disdain. McAdam
plays ice queen Regina with just the right note of
superiority and selfishness that is her comeuppance
but is also the catalyst for her next level of
evolution in queendom. Her Plastics posse, Gretchen
(Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried), are both
in awe and in fear of their leader as Regina lords
over the girls, getting her way with everything.
Chabert plays the frightened wannabe bee with a
tenuous note as she gives in to any and all demands by
the queen. Seyfried is amusing as the ditzy, pretty
member of the Plastics who is happy just to be a
member.
Usually in a movie like "Mean Girls" short shrift is
given to the other supporting characters, but not
here. Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzene give full
dimension and a lot of humor to their Janice and
Damian, the outsider characters - she a Goth chick and
he openly gay - that make care about what makes them
tick. Tim Meadows, as school principal, Mr. Duvall, is
suitably cynical as an educator who has seen and heard
it all. Even Regina's mom (Amy Poehler) gets to shine
as she tries to be friends with her daughter and the
Plastics. "I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom," she
explains to Cady. Even little roles, like to members
of the student body and the Mathletes, are given
weight through Fey's detailed scribing.
Techs are straightforward and solid.
"Mean Girls" is a lot of fun and entertaining even for
an old curmudgeon like me. I give it a B.
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
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