Think Ms Dumb & Ms Dumber. Or Wilma And Edine's Excellent Adventure. Romy And Michele's High School Reunion is a buddy comedy starring the gorgeous Mira Sorvino (Romy) and that mistress of adorable witlessness, Lisa Kudrow (Michele). These California lasses, who've roomed together since school, are cocooned in a rose-tinted world where girls make gaudy clothes, watch Pretty Woman "like a million times" and rely on each other with unshakeable innocence. They're both going on 30, single and looking for Mr Right, although they'd settle for Mr Okay and might even be tempted by Mr Average With A Large Hooter - - as long as he's loaded.
The plot is suitably predictable. A decade before, Michele and Romy were bullied by bobby-socked cheerleaders (Julia Campbell, Mia Cottet and Kristin Bauer), Romy had an unrequited crush on football player Billy Christianson and Michele had to fight off the attentions of amorous geekoid Sandy Frink (Alan Cumming). Now, of course, the roles have been reversed: Christianson is a two-timing drunk, the cheerleaders are up the duff and Sandy Frink has become a Bill Gates-style billionaire. Along the line, we also get a dream sequence, a broken friendship, a host of girlie one-liners, some pleasingly short dresses, a ridiculous dance number and the chance to ogle Kudrow in her underwear.
Part Cinderella fairytale, part buddy movie, Romy And Michele is an utterly unoriginal comedy that's somehow hard to dislike. You should really hate it: the plot is as airheaded as the characters Kudrow and Sorvino play, the dialogue is dominated by Beavis And Butt-head-type sniggering, and, although there are some funny moments (Kudrow gets hit by a limousine and takes about a minute to tumble over the long roof), it's fundamentally a girl's film - - the sort most blokes will soon tire of.
On the plus side, Sorvino and Kudrow play amiable and (rather more important) beautiful dimwits. Sorvino (best known for her role in Mighty Aphrodite) quickly masters a slurring Bill & Ted accent, while Kudrow is content to give us another Phoebe, her Romy suspiciously like the cheery, bubbly lobotomy case she plays in Friends. The other actors are competent but of precious little importance in the film, although Janeane Garofalo (The Truth About Cats And Dogs) stands out as the chain-smoking class misfit who finally blows the whistle on R & M.
Ultimately, Romy And Michele is unashamedly the Mira And Lisa Show. Occasionally witty and sexy but utterly stupid in every way, it's panto American-style. Expect nothing; simply roll with it.
A Valley girl blend of Clueless and Bill %26 Ted, this offbeat comedy isn't designed for blokes. Nevertheless, Sorvino and Kudrow make for an attractive double act, and there are some bona fide funny lines. A more fleshed-out plot and less "woah" and "er, okay" would have helped.
