Mean Girls (2004)

"Mean Girls"

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) has spent her formative

year living with her naturalist parents in the wilds

of Africa. When her mom gets a position teaching at a

Midwest college, Cady must move from the safety of

wild animals into the real jungle - high school - in

"Mean Girls."

We've been down this path before. New kid in school

wants to fit in but must break into the local chick

clique if she is going to be somebody at the institute

of learning. "Heathers" and "Clueless" both dealt with

the beautiful kids in high school but the former film

concentrated on mayhem while the Alicia Silverstone

vehicle showed the sweeter side of girl cliques. "Mean

Girls" takes a middle ground as it deals with fitting

in, making new friends and learning the ropes at

school. It also deals with revenge, subterfuge,

control and jealousy.

Cady is a well-adjusted young lady, home taught all of

her life by her parents. Now, back in "civilization"

she must join the ranks of all other American teens

and run the gauntlet called high school. As she

wanders around trying to find her next class she meets

Goth chick Janice Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and her fey best

buddy Damian (Daniel Franzese). These two outsiders

take Cady under their wings to try to help her adjust

to her new environment. That is, until one lunch hour,

Cady is invited to sit with "The Plastics" - the

bodacious babes led by their queen bee, Regina George

(Rachel McAdams).

Cady, at Janice's insistence in order to get all the

dirt and school gossip, joins the Plastics as their

latest recruit. She leads a double life as she clicks

with the clique during the day and regales Janice and

Damian with all the Plastics' sordid secrets after

school. The system works pretty well as Cady deftly

walks the line until she spies Aaron (Jonathan

Bennet), the hunk who sits in front of her in math

class. She sets her cap for the good looking guy only

to learn that he used to be Regina's boyfriend and the

queen does not give up anything that she considers

"hers." Cady ignores the warning givens and a Plastics

power struggle is in the making.

SNL alumnus Tina Fey adapts author Rosalind Wiseman's

popular guide, "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your

Daughter Survive Cliques, Boyfriends and Other

Realities of Adolescence" for the big screen and hits

one out of the park. Director Mark S. Waters takes the

well-crafted adapted material and, with a terrific

cast, provides a briskly paced, well-rounded tale that

should hit a bull's-eye with its teen target audience

and beyond.

Lindsay Lohan rebounds from her unfortunate foray into

territory best left to Hilary Duff with "Confessions

of a Teenage Drama Queen," a pathetic piece of work

that Lohan should have steered well away from.

Luckily, she teams up again with helmer Waters - their

earlier collaboration in "Freaky Friday" was a

tremendously popular hit - and they, with a little

help in front of and behind the camera, done real

good.

Lohan is a likable and pretty young actress and she

does a fine job as the anchor for "Mean Girls." But,

she is not alone as she is joined with a long list of

characters that help make this one very entertaining

flick. Tina Fey is believable and three-dimensional as

Ms. Norbury, Cady's math teacher and mentor who

encourages the girl to become a member of the

Mathletes - the school's competitive math team. Fey

writes credible characters and Norbury is just one of

many.

Rachel McAdam is letter perfect as rich bitch alpha

Plastic who lauds it over the rest of her clique and

holds everyone (except herself) in disdain. McAdam

plays ice queen Regina with just the right note of

superiority and selfishness that is her comeuppance

but is also the catalyst for her next level of

evolution in queendom. Her Plastics posse, Gretchen

(Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried), are both

in awe and in fear of their leader as Regina lords

over the girls, getting her way with everything.

Chabert plays the frightened wannabe bee with a

tenuous note as she gives in to any and all demands by

the queen. Seyfried is amusing as the ditzy, pretty

member of the Plastics who is happy just to be a

member.

Usually in a movie like "Mean Girls" short shrift is

given to the other supporting characters, but not

here. Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzene give full

dimension and a lot of humor to their Janice and

Damian, the outsider characters - she a Goth chick and

he openly gay - that make care about what makes them

tick. Tim Meadows, as school principal, Mr. Duvall, is

suitably cynical as an educator who has seen and heard

it all. Even Regina's mom (Amy Poehler) gets to shine

as she tries to be friends with her daughter and the

Plastics. "I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom," she

explains to Cady. Even little roles, like to members

of the student body and the Mathletes, are given

weight through Fey's detailed scribing.

Techs are straightforward and solid.

"Mean Girls" is a lot of fun and entertaining even for

an old curmudgeon like me. I give it a B.

For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com

robin@reelingreviews.com

laura@reelingreviews.com

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