|
Cast
Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock)
Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt)
Victor Melling (Michael Caine)
Stan Fields (William Shatner)
Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen)
Directed by Donald Petrie Written by Caryn Lucas, Katie Ford
and Marc Lawrence
Rated PG-13 for sexual references, language, violence
Running Time: 105 minutes Distributed by Warner Brothers
Buy
the Poster!
Miss
Congeniality is for the most part an amusing beauty pageant
comedy. Gracie Hart (Bullock) is a “tough-as-nails” FBI agent
that is easily considered one of the guys on the force. She
is called into a new type of undercover work after a bomber
has eyed the Miss United States pageant for the next act of
terrorism. Gracie must go undercover as one of the contestants
in the pageant and try to reveal the "who" and whereabouts
of the bomber. The transition to being a contestant is uneasy
for Gracie, so the FBI hires pageant consultant Victor Melling
(Caine) to revamp Gracie into a beautiful and socialized contestant.
The closer Gracie comes to finding the bomber, the more comfortable
she becomes with her new look and style.
Miss
Congeniality is one of those comedies that is not superior
in many elements, but the movie is totally fun. Caryn Lucas,
Katie Ford and Marc Lawrence wrote the script for Miss Congeniality.
I found the story to be a spoof of beauty pageants mixed in
with the recognizable story of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.
The script’s main character is predictable, as is much of
the film, but you still love her because of all of her quirky
tactics. On the other hand, the supporting characters are
very original and add a good blend of humor from many different
angles. Examples are the pageant consultant Victor Melling,
who lives for the beauty crown and the perfection. Then there
is Stan Fields, who is the pageant host that reminded me a
lot of Dick Clark and Wayne Newton. The jokes and character
actions of Miss Congeniality overshadow all the clichés and
most of the predictability in the film. This script reminded
me of the way Meet the Parents was written, in which it is
something that you have seen before, but the characters and
jokes will keep you laughing.
Also like Meet the Parents, the direction of this comedy is
modest and nothing special. Director Donald Petrie for the
most part let his actors rip with the jokes and some scenes
that seemed to improvise by Bullock. Petrie does hold you
attention and captures the glamour of beauty pageant contests.
There are some corny scenes in this film, but Petrie sews
them up discreetly.
Sandra
Bullock gives one of her best performances as the FBI agent
turned pageant contestant Gracie Hart. Bullock’s comedic acting
is genuine and full of energy. In the future, I hope she will
continue to grasp roles like this one, because this performance
proves she is capable of doing comedy. Michael Caine steals
every scene that he is in as the perfectionist consultant
Victor Melling. Caine is such a great character actor that
lets his facial and body language shape his character, who
is either always teaching or analyzing. William Shatner returns
to the silver screen and serves up a comical performance as
the pageant host Stan Fields. Lastly, Benjamin Bratt does
a decent job as Gracie’s fellow FBI agent, Eric.
Miss
Congeniality is a movie that I really couldn’t say too much
about, except that it is funny. Like previous funny films
this year (Meet the Parents), this film has fresh humor, predictability,
but most of all entertaining.
Report
Card Grade: B-
Beastman’s
Movie Reviews
Copyright, 2001 Joseph C. Tucker
|
