Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

reviewed by
Brian Takeshita


ROMY AND MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

A Film Review by Brian Takeshita
Rating:  **1/2 out of ****

I've got a couple more years until my ten-year high school reunion. I therefore have that much time to lose fifteen pounds, make twenty million dollars, become famous, and marry Sandra Bullock. But let's face it, I'd be lucky just to lose the weight. Movies made about high school reunions are very sympathetic toward this predicament. The plot is pretty much always the same: The main characters get an invitation to their ten-year reunion, and realize that they are not what they wanted to be by this time. They make up an elaborate ruse to fool people into thinking they are more successful than they really are, only to have their cover blown at the reunion itself, causing significant shame. However, through a process of learning that certain other classmates are also not doctors, lawyers, corporate heads or movie stars, while still others who have achieved "success" are not leading the fantasy life they thought they would, our heroes find that just by being happy, they are success stories after all.

ROMY AND MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION follows this formula to a tee. Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michele (Lisa Kudrow) are friends who have stayed together since high school, having moved from their hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to Venice Beach, California. Romy is a cashier at the service department of the local Jaguar dealership, while Michele is one of California's gainfully unemployed. They find out through a classmate (Janeane Garafolo) that their reunion is a couple of weeks away, and while filling in an informational survey for the event, realize that they have not come nearly as far as they had expected. After failed attempts to lose weight (how much more stick-thin could they get?) and find good jobs and dreamy boyfriends, they hatch a scheme to show everyone up by agreeing to pretend to be successful businesswomen.

>From the beginning of the film, Romy and Michele are so full of themselves and their appearances, I thought I was watching a movie about the reunion for the high school class from CLUELESS. Needless to say, I didn't start viewing this movie caring for the characters very much at all; Romy and Michele are quite simply annoying, with annoying ways of talking and annoying little laughs. We only start identifying with them as protagonists because we find out through a series of high school flashbacks that there were other students even more self absorbed than them. Once that is made plain, the two women become a little more likable.

The film does a good job of characterizing some of the cliques which comprise the teen social strata, and it's fun to watch them on screen. There's the "A Group", made up of the debutantes and the handsome jocks, the "B Group" comprised of the drama people, the "C group" consisting of your various kinds of nerds, and then there are your loners. The representation of each group is pushed just the right amount over the top so you can have a nice laugh reminiscing. Too much would have made them utterly ridiculous and unidentifiable. Too little would have probably caused horrifying flashbacks of your own. Romy and Michele decide they don't quite fit into any of those groups, but I'd say "airhead" transcends many categories.

As astonishing as it is, there is actually some decent character development. By the end of the movie, the two women not only find out something about themselves, which is always the case is this formula, but also about each other. Take, for example, their plot to tell everyone at the reunion that they developed Post-It Notes as a team. Michele is horrified to learn that Romy doesn't think anyone would believe that Michele would do more than suggest they make the notes yellow. "You're more of a design person," she tells Michele, implying that she doesn't have the brains to do much more than express feelings. To the credit of screenwriter Robin Schiff, the conflict between the two friends is not suddenly laid in our laps to give us drama at the right point. Instead, the first allusions to a possible falling out occur shortly after they find out about the reunion, and it builds from there. This not only fleshes out the characters in a more believable way, but also results in a nice way of showing how reunions can bring out the worst in everyone.

Mira Sorvino does a competent job playing Romy, who is annoying and vacuous but not completely hopeless. Lisa Kudrow is basically playing the character she plays on "Friends", but for an hour and a half. She is definitely the heir apparent to the ditz queen title previously held by the likes of Goldie Hawn and Teri Garr. Janeane Garafolo is the one who really steals the show as the highly successful but mean-spirited classmate who's spite is indiscriminate. Unlike the "A Group", she is just mean to everybody, and her interactions with other characters is absolutely hilarious. Although she's not on camera for much of the film, any more screen time would have seen diminishing marginal returns.

True to formula, the reunion goes exactly as you'd expect. You're given a message about human nature and society, and you take it with a grain of salt. I suppose it's because so many of us have faced or will be faced with a situation similar to Romy and Michele's that by the end of the film, you're actually hoping things will work out for those who deserve it, even though you know they will. That's in the formula too, you know.

Review posted December 1, 1997

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