Robert Manners

Think Pink

I saw Legally Blonde 2; Red, White, and Blonde last night with JB and Caroline, and enjoyed it immensely. It was so cute, so frivolous, so fantastical. The costumes! The little unexpected jokes! The immeasurable good cheer! The cute boys and that adorable little dog! Granted, it required a suspension of disbelief on a rather grand scale, but that's precisely what fantasy is about. Once you try to force any sort of sensible reality onto it, it loses its specialness.



Most of the critics whose reviews I read seemed to think that there was supposed to be some sort of logical progression, politically correct and/or darkly sly humor, perhaps a lesson in politics or social redemption... I think those critics need to conduct the Snap Cup Ceremony (film reference... you have to see it) and stop taking themselves and the world so seriously.



The truth is, the movie (and its predecessor) is a monument to frivolity, fun, and feistiness. It's like a Disney Channel movie with a PG-13 rating and a high-end production budget. It's no more pointless a fantasy than any given Jimmy Stewart film, if you come down to it, where the underdog always wins simply because he's honest and good. It's no more unbelievable than any action-adventure or science-fiction flick, which defy logic and reason and probability on just as grand of a scale.



Furthermore, inside all the silly fun, there is a socially redeeming message encrypted... a rather good message, too: that cynicism dies under its own weight; that The Game is played merely because people continue consenting to play it; and working against people you don't agree with is harder and ultimately less efficacious than working for something you believe in. The message was the power of positivity, I think, not just positive thinking, which tends to be self-centered, but positive movement as opposed to negative obstruction; and that everything works better with a little sugar on it... scented poo-bags, feather-headed pens, pink paper, and adorable shoes can, if properly utilized, cure the ills of the world.



On an almost completely unrelated note, I also just finished reading Scott Heim's Mysterious Skin, and am not sure whether I enjoyed it or not. It was beautifully written - I absolutely delighted in the exquisite choices of words, the lyrical cadence, the quite elegant imagery. But like Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which was also exquisitely written, it left me with this feeling of grim desolation at the end. I'm not sure what it is or why it is, but I feel this sense of vague dissatisfaction now that it's done.



That leaves me bookless again for the time being. I guess I need to stop off at the bookstore and pick something up. Oh, no, wait... I do have the latest installment of Stephanie Barron's "Jane Austen Mysteries," which is a series I have enjoyed since they started with Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor. I also have some classics gathering dust on the shelf... and several newer things in various bags that are secreted somewhere under my mess. But after that I'll need a new book. Any suggestions?