Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde

A decidedly inferior sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde follows Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods as she joins a politician’s (Sally Field’s Congresswoman Rudd) staff in order to pass a bill to ban animal testing. There’s little doubt, ultimately, that Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde improves considerably as it progresses, as the movie, written by Kate Kondell, suffers from a sluggish and mostly obnoxious first half that emphasizes Elle’s less-than-friendly encounters with various Washington-based figures. (This is especially true of the protagonist’s dealings with Regina King’s hateful Grace Rossiter, with the majority of their scenes together just about as frustrating and annoying as one could possibly envision). It’s clear, then, that the picture relies predominantly on its star’s ample charm to hold the viewer’s interest even through its more overtly ineffective stretches, with Witherspoon’s engaging work here certainly matched by a roster of affable periphery players that includes Bob Newhart, Luke Wilson, and Jennifer Coolidge. (The latter is, as expected, responsible for the lion’s share of the movie’s laughs.) The feel-good, uplifting third act finally does transform Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde into precisely the sort of agreeable comedy one might’ve reasonably anticipated, which cements its place as a just-good-enough followup that generally feels like it could (and should) have been so much better.

**1/2 out of ****