Everyone knows that high school
reunions can be fraught affairs. A mere four years of our lives, the
high school experience hogs a disproportionate share of our lives'
memories. Who among us hasn't spent the idle moment wishing we could
revisit those days as the more polished person we are now, knowing
what we know now?
Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michele (Lisa
Kudrow), a pair of bleach-blonde, L.A. ditzes, are psyched to get the
invitation to their 10-year reunion. The BFFs were considered nerdy
in high school, but now they don't wear braces on their backs or
their teeth, they've matured their fashion sense a bit, and they
truly are cuter than they were in high school. They hit the dance
clubs every night, share an apartment, and to these girls, to quote
Charlie Sheen, “This is winning!” It's only when they start
filling out the reunion questionnaire that their confidence falters.
Unmarried, childless, and with dead-end jobs, the girls realize that
their lives may not impress the old cool crowd after all. There's no
time to create fake families, so the girls get some business suits
and concoct a story about how they invented Post-It Notes.
The movie is incredibly silly, but
somehow it works. Kudrow and Sorvino give their characters the right
blend of idiocy and heart. Janeane Garofalo puts in a sturdy
supporting turn as one of their old classmates, and Justin Theroux
makes an appearance as well.
The point of the film is basically
that being young sucks. Every character has grievances from high
school, but at the reunion, they all discover that there was someone
they were mean to back then,
without realizing it. It's actually a pretty deep revelation for
such a silly movie, and it may explain part of the film's lasting,
culty appeal. Also, people just like the main characters. Romy and
Michele are a couple of nitwits, but you can't help wanting to
hangout with them. I guess they did end up becoming the cool kids
after all!
3
stars out of 5
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