Pros: Fey and other SNL-ers, very funny, true-to-life for the most part
Cons: horrible ending, a few over-the-top characters and moments
The Bottom Line: Joining the bottom line is social suicide.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie''s plot. The problem with most Saturday Night Live skits and SNL-based films is that they have one joke that they beat to death, and you find yourself yelling at the screen, “Please, end! This isn’t funny anymore!”
With the exception of the brilliant Wayne’s World, all of the SNL projects have suffered from a dreadful lack of material. I think we have all blocked out the traumatic memory of the Ladies’ Man movie. Mean Girls, on the other hand, is consistently funny for the first 90% of the film with several hilarious characters along with realistic, supporting “straight men.” I felt that the characters would have been strong enough to sustain the concept through a Freaks and Geeks style television series. In fact, Mean Girls falls apart only when it tries to wrap everything up into a cute, 100-minute film with an ending that left me with that sickly sweet feeling in my mouth that I get when I put too much Sweet-n-Low in my coffee.
The first feature film from SNL head writer Tina Fey, Mean Girls examines high school social structure with the fresh eye of Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), who has spent all of her life being educated by her scientist parents. Living in Africa and observing lions and tigers has also given Cady an interesting perspective on the mating rituals and rivalries that characterize high school life.
On her first day of school, Cady can’t find anywhere to sit. Cady’s voiceover takes us through a brilliant diagram of all the cliques at the school, which is presumably taken from Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes, the book on which Mean Girls was based. For anyone who has attended a diverse, American public school in the past ten years, the map of the cafeteria will ring true. After humiliating herself by trying to speak in an African dialect to the “good-looking black girls,” Cady winds up eating lunch in the bathroom alone.
The only students who take an interest in Cady are Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (David Franzese), an art geek and a guy who’s “almost too gay to function.” Despite this description, Damian’s character was one of the most realistic gay high school characters I’ve seen on screen. Janis Ian (a few knowing souls laughed at that tasty detail) used to be friends with Regina George, the leader of the popular (or “plastic”) clique at school until Regina began spreading rumors that Janis Ian was a lesbian (ha!), thus destroying her social standing. One day, the Plastics invite Cady to eat lunch with them since she is so pretty and has such a great rack, which, rumor has it, has been enhanced. Recognizing an opportunity, Janis and Damian convince Cady to infiltrate the Plastics and take them down from the inside. Predictably, once Cady has become “popular,” she forsakes her original friends and has to discover where she really belongs. Gag me with a varsity letter.
While the plot is rather lacking and leads up to a dismal, clichéd finale at the school dance, the brilliance of Mean Girls is in the details. Most of the interactions are true-to-life, and Fey and SNL veteran Tim Meadows are fierce, as Damian might say, as well-meaning teacher and principal, respectively. I loved the awkward but hilarious scene when Damian, Janis, and Cady run into Ms. Norbury (Fey) at the mall. The Sex Education class scene also elicited funny-cuz-it’s-true laughs as the gym teacher yells, “Don't have sex! Because you will get Chlamydia... and die!” before handing out condoms.
The “Mathletes” and most of the other kids, like those on Freaks and Geeks, seem like real high school students. The Plastics, on the other hand, were as over-the-top as Mrs. George’s boob job. As much as it saddens jacksommersby, high school girls do not look and act like that.
The Herons are remarkably “normal” for having been away from the United States for so long. Cady’s parents (Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn) play it straight, while most popular student Regina George’s mother (Amy Poehler) hams it up. Poehler is funny on SNL, but I found her face slightly disturbing projected on the big screen.
Apart from her faux pas involving the black girls in the cafeteria, Cady seems a little too polished for someone who has never attended public school before. At first, she struggles a little with slang and is confused when Regina uses “Shut up” to mean “That’s incredible,” but she catches up just a bit too quickly, in my opinion. Sure, she thinks that a current song is by the Spice Girls, but I once went out with someone who couldn’t name the four Beatles. Cady knows just what to wear, and pretends to be bad at math so a cute guy will tutor her, something that girls learn from Western media. Fey does emphasize, however, that all the Plastics have body image problems, while Cady has healthy self-esteem, an important point.
One notable odd choice is that Fey makes the boys in the film very kind compared to the cruel girls. As any post-high schooler can tell you, it’s not just the catty girls who torment people who they think are gay. Cady’s love interest Aaron (Jonathan Bennett) is so perfect -- apart from his lack of mathematical ability-- that you can expect to see a halo around his head in certain shots.
Despite its flaws, I enjoyed Mean Girls immensely. However, when I started to tell my mom about it, she accurately predicted how the film would end. If I’d walked out twenty minutes early, I might have given Mean Girls five stars.
Recommended:
Yes
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8
