MOVIES: Mean Girls

I watched Mean Girls a couple days ago, and mostly liked it. It had a lot of sharp and funny observations about high school life toward the beginning, as well as about female-female interactions in general. In one of the DVD extras, Lacey Chabert quotes Chris Rock (that's a strange juxtaposition): "Women would rule the world, if they didn't hate each other so much." That's the main theme of the movie, how some women (or high school girls, in this case) will cut down or destroy other women out of jealousy, spite, or just because they can. It's a dynamic I haven't seen often, fortunately, but I have seen it, enough to know it's not some kind of a Hollywood fabrication, and it's ugly.

It makes for a good movie, too. Or about two-thirds of a good one. It begins by showing these dynamics in action, and the mean-spirited, subtle and not-so-subtle ways the girls have of cutting down outsiders ("I love your [skirt/bracelet/etc.], where'd you get it?" is code for "That's the ugliest f-ing thing I have ever seen"), each other, and even themselves ("I am so fat!") is funny and appalling at the same time. The way they indoctrinate others into this backstabbing culture is fascinating, too. But then writer Tina Fey decides to get a bit preachy toward the end (in a speech that actor Tina Fey makes), and things get wrapped up a little too neatly.

Lindsay Lohan is very good in her role as the outsider who gets sucked down into the mire. I was a little surprised, though, at how much the movie sexed up her, and all of her high school classmates. The talent show scene, for example, where Lindsay and the other "mean girls" perform a naughty dance number in skimpy outfits -- a little bold for the kind of movie I was expecting.

There are a lot of other good performances in the film: Rachel McAdams is a holy terror as the lead mean girl, although her eventual reformation is a little too quick to be believable -- and the incident that leads to her reformation is surprisingly brutal, a writer's punishment that's way too harsh for the "crimes" she's committed up to that point, and, though it's played for laughs, it doesn't come across as funny at all.

Lacey Chabert is great as the beta-mean girl, as is Lizzy Caplan as the misfit who harbors a burning resentment for the mean girls. It was nice to see Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn (the Janitor on Scrubs) as Lindsay's parents; Flynn can crack me up with the smallest of gestures. Tim Meadows was actually funny as the principal; I've never liked him much, but he's very good here. (His reaction on asking the school girls if they have any "lady problems", and being confronted with a tampon dilemma, is hysterical.) Amy Poehler has a small but hilarious part as the too-permissive mother of the lead mean girl. And of course there's Tina Fey as Lindsay's math teacher. I love me some Tina Fey. Plus, there's a scene with her in her bra, right at the beginning, and you can't beat that.

Overall, it's a good movie, but with a little more effort it could've been great. Clearly, they were going for Heathers (the director is even the brother of Heathers' screenwriter), but they came up a bit short. I think the main problem lies somewhere in the schizophrenic tone of the movie -- they were aspiring to R-rated, Heathers-type material, while still trying to appeal to Lindsay Lohan's PG audience. Also, like I said, they went a bit soft at the end. But a good movie nonetheless.