Name: Film Review: Miss Congeniality (2000)
Item: Miss Congeniality
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

When actors who have reached stardom by playing a specific type of character try to do something different, results often leave much to be desired. Sandra Bullock was one of those few and fortunate stars who had much more success in such experiments, at least judging by Miss Congeniality, 2000 comedy directed by Donald Petrie.

Bullock plays Gracie Hart, FBI agent that approaches physical aspects of crime fighting with such enthusiasm that many of her colleagues often forget that she is a woman. But it is her being a woman that would get her the most demanding and difficult mission of her career. Mysterious bomber, signing himself as “Citizen”, has sent number of threatening letters to number of institutions, including Miss United States beauty pageant. Gracie’s superiors believe that the terrorist can be caught if the undercover agent is brought among pageant contestant and Gracie happens to be the only female agent available at short notice. Kathy Morningside (played by Candice Bergen), pageant organiser and former beauty queen, very reluctantly agrees to this kind of cooperation with FBI because Gracie, with her not so glamorous looks and crude manners, represent complete opposite of what American beauty queen should be. Image consultant Victor Melling (played by Michael Caine) is brought together with small army of beauticians, stylists and choreographers to try do something about and his efforts in 48 hours result in Gracie being transformed from ugly duckling into a swan. Gracie survives the ordeal and meets other contestants, soon realising that she would have trouble adapting to the world she knows nothing about while at same time trying to stop the bomb plot.

Today’s critics would have been hostile towards Miss Congeniality because its depiction of beauty pageant conforms to gender stereotypes that are unacceptable for today’s “woke” sentiments. Critics at the time of premiere weren’t exactly friendly either, and this was mostly due to the film being built on rather thin “high concept” premise that somehow exhausts all of the film makers’ creativity. In this particular case, script by Marc Lawrence uses idea that isn’t exactly original – it could be described as combination of Pygmalion and Calamity Jane. Lawrence, who is good friend of Sandra Bullock, has worked before in utterly disappointing Forces of Nature. Lawrence here acquits himself well and manages to fill the film with enough gags for Bullock’s formidable comedic skills to shine. Bullock is helped by a very diverse cast which includes Benjamin Bratt as her FBI partner, charming Heather Burns as one of beauty contestants and regal Candice Bergen. But the most valuable among supporting members of the cast are legendary veterans like Michael Caine and William Shatner and their presence alone lifts this film above mediocrity. Although not very deep nor particularly memorable, Miss Congeniality represents a pleasant experience to those who watch it. The film received very good results at the box office leading to 2005 sequel Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Dangerous.

RATING: 5/10 (++)