Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion

Perpetually uneven but affable enough, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion follows the two bubbly title characters (Mira Sorvino’s Romy and Lisa Kudrow’s Michele) as their friendship is tested during the buildup (and road trip) to their high school’s ten-year reunion. Directed David Mirkin immediately establishes a sprightly, fast-moving atmosphere that proves an ideal complement to Robin Schiff’s lighthearted screenplay, and there’s little doubt that the film’s pervasively agreeable vibe is heightened by Sorvino and Kudrow’s solid work as the airheaded protagonists – with the picture also benefiting substantially from the efforts of an almost unusually strong supporting cast (which includes Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Alan Cumming). It’s just as clear, however, that Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion does suffer from a decidedly erratic sense of pacing, as Schiff delivers an oddly disjointed narrative that contains a couple of prolonged flashbacks and a bizarre, padded-out dream sequence – with such moments, entertaining as they may be, resulting in a palpably hit-and-miss vibe that (somewhat negatively) affects the movie’s overall impact. Still, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion is, in the final analysis, a difficult film to wholeheartedly dislike due almost entirely to the completely (and consistently) engaging work of its two stars.

**1/2 out of ****