This movie is a funny and light, if you just want to relax with your date. Directed by Donald Petrie, this movie is about an FBI inspector who has to go undercover and in the process she really goes under her cover of tough attitude and discovers that she also has a feminine side.
Sandra Bullock is Gracie Hart who is more like a tomboy. She is tough and has been for a long time who does not beat around the bush instead she beats the bush if it pricks her. Right from a young age she stood up for what she thought was right and did not let anyone bully her. This made her peers treat her like someone who was a geek. She in turn shut down her feminine urges and behaved like a man and that too a clumsy and a man with no manners. She is shown to have no etiquette and she eats literally like a pig, snorts when she laughs making it a very embarrassing laughter… You would think that such a person does not exist. She is just the opposite of what defines a lady and I must applaud Sandra for playing this character with such aplomb.
Gracie is a tough lady FBI agent who takes flak from her boss, as she is not the best at following orders. As a result her intelligence is ignored and a case, which, she was working on for a long time, is given to her colleague and temporary boss Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt). This case involves a serial killer who leaves a cryptic note threatening violence at the Miss United States Pageant.
To find the culprit and nab him redhanded an agent needs to go undercover. None except Gracie fits the bill and well she is not at all thrilled to be a part of the beauty pageant which she thinks is a waste of time.
Anyway she goes undercover as Miss New Jersey. The pageant’s leader ( Candice Bergen) and the master of ceremonies ( William Shatner) laugh when they are presented with Gracie as the undercover agent. Then to train her enters Vic ( Michael Caine), a beauty consultant. Michael Caine is as delightful as ever. He reminded me of Pygmallion where henry Higgins turned Elizabeth from a clutz to a beautiful and sophisticated lady. Caine, though in a supporting role packs quite a punch.
The whole pageant is a spoof and well it’s a good spoof at that. The whole process of talent competition, choosing the best five, the questions, etc are very funny.
Gracie becomes very friendly with other contestants whom she thought had no brains… she in turn learns a lot from them and stops taking herself for granted.
In due course she learns about the actual criminal and like the good FBI agent saves the day and the people from the beauty pageant … and Gracie earns a lot of respect and lot of friends.
There is quiet and fast humour is most of the scenes and though the movie is unremarkable you will enjoy it. The best way to watch this with your date where you don’t need to concentrate hard and well the story flows smoothly as the movie progresses.
The movie retains the practicality of a character… where Gracie though flowers into a beautiful lady, she does not miraculously loses her flawed personality ( the snorts and the clumsiness) which would be the usual case how a character is treated in movies. She enchants the audience with her acting. She is one of the few people who is not afraid to look and act like a fool and well it does not take much to realize why Sandra Bullock is liked so much.
There is a small sub plot which creates a romantic angle between Sandra and Bratt but this does not create any splashes . Its very low key and if you are not careful you might just miss it. There are only a few scenes where there is an effort to create human chemistry between both of them but it’s very feeble.
Compared with Sandra and her co-star in Hope Floats or in Speed this was nothing.
Anyway, all in all it’s a good watch, nothing out of the ordinary but a good watch all the same… do check it out. This movie can also be watched by kids from 9 yrs above