To be fair, it never did, but once I saw that Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion was on, I figured I'd watch it as alertly as I could at that time of night, and that my loyal readership would understand. You do understand, don't you?
I missed Romy and Michelle in 1997 when it first came out, which is a shame, as I suspect my student self would have dug it intensely. I watched far fewer films back then, though, and so while I read a few reviews and thought it looked promising, it slipped onto my list of films I wanted to get around to sometime, where it stayed, mostly forgotten, for the better part of twenty years.
I finally got back to it a few years ago, and it was much as I'd expected - a cute, fluffy comedy along the lines of Legally Blonde but with a bit more quirk and bite, not to mention a far more interesting cast. In other words, the perfect movie for a sleepy blogger who wanted something comforting to peer at from over the duvet.
Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michelle (Lisa Kudrow) are our heroines, a couple of low-achieving twentysomethings who've been living in LA for ten years and having an absolute blast. It's only when they hear about their high school reunion back in Tucson that they start to wonder whether their perfect lives are really so great - they're both single, after all, and their employment histories tend towards the minimum wage end of the market. As they think about confronting the cool clique who made them miserable, nagging doubts start to creep in, and when it becomes obvious that they don't have time to make their goals, they hatch a plan to fake them, instead.
The good
As cute a piece of nonsense as you could hope for, dressed up prettily in sugary pastel shades and brought to life by some surprisingly spiky performances. I cannot tell a lie; as school reunion movies go, I still prefer its contemporary, the darker, punchier Grosse Point Blank, but Romy and Michelle benefits from a pleasing lack of sentiment and a healthy sense of the absurd.The two leads are great fun, with Lisa Kudrow going the full Phoebe in a year where Friends had just about attained the status of cultural phenomenon. She and Sorvino are ably backed up by the likes of Alan Cumming and Janeane Garofalo, two actors who elevate every single project they touch. Garofalo in particular is a delight here, a perfect reminder of why swearing is both big and clever. Writer Robin Schiff, meanwhile, gives them great material to work with, and her easy, breezy script is backed up by an eclectic late-80s soundtrack sure to bring back positive associations for anyone who was there at the time.
The bad
Romy and Michelle is a fun, positive movie with a fun, positive message about having a good time and not caring what other people think. It's a shame, therefore, that this is contradicted by a narrow but nasty streak of fatphobia that runs throughout the entire piece.Romy was fat once, apparently, although thankfully the production crew decided to forego the fatsuit and depict this by means of the sort of oversized jacket that I used to use to cover myself up at about that age. Other than that, however, the sole plus-sized character is Toby, the bubbly, overly-enthusiastic yearbook editor who receives nothing but scorn from the film's heroes and villains alike. We find out nothing about her or her life in high school or beyond, she's simply there to be large and a joke. Personally, I don't find this any too funny.
The verdict
I could really have loved this one if it hadn't been for the implicit fat-shaming. Apparently, the important thing in life is to be yourself, so long as your self falls within a certain narrow range of physical measurements. Beyond that, though? The important thing is to be quiet and stay out of the damned way.The fight hasn't been won yet, but I'm glad we've moved on since then.
No comments:
Post a Comment