http://thecelebritycafe.com/movies/full_review/58.html

The film I have chosen for my Critical Essay is Legally Blonde. Now, I know some of you reading this are probably thinking "Oh boy, here we go, another blonde girl (yes, I am blonde) writing about a chick flick" and, you're probably right in feeling that. Not to long ago, I probably would have shared those same feelings, and Legally Blonde is one of my favorite movies. However, I grew a new appreciation for the film when I was encouraged to write a short essay on if for an upper level psych course. In writing the essay, I was forced to watch the film as more than a passive viewer who thought Reese Witherspoon was funny, and Luke Wilson was hot. I had to try and dissect the true intent of this film, what the writer and director was trying to get across, and what was the psychology behind what seemed on the surface to be another run of the mill chick flick. It was in doing this assignment I realized this film was very strong in satire, stereotypes, and self fulfilling prophecy. In my psych class, I was limited to a 1-2 page assignment that only called for us to analyze a few scenes. So when I heard we'd be doing a critical review in this class, I knew this was the movie I wanted to use. To fulfill the intent of this particular blog, I read a review from an online website entitled Celebrity Cafe. Take this site for what you will, the sites film reviews are geared towards your average passive viewer. If the writer of this particular review thought there was any deeper meaning to Legally Blonde it wasn't brought up in her writing. For the most part the writer stuck to reviewing the film through description and plot summary. I feel the writer almost gave away too much of the plot in doing so, but I had already seen the film several times. No surprises. This review paints the film as feel good chick flick, high in fashion (which was brought up several times), laughs, and a good looking cast, and to many, the film is just that. To a passive viewer Legally Blonde is only that. So having a deeper understanding of the film, and desiring to expand upon what I already know of this films intent, I was not a big fan of this review. For a popular audience, I think it serves it's purpose.