"Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" was an amusing trifle of a movie helped enormously by Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino and Janeane Garofalo. "Romy and Michele: In The Beginning" is also an amusing trifle of a movie, but not helped much by Katherine Heigl.
Robin Schiff, returning to her characters to write and direct this TV movie with our heroines before they claimed to invent Post-It notes, delivers a pretty decent script that passes the time well - this may be the only TV movie in history where a character celebrates her man-to-woman surgery with a "coming off" party (I understand this was made for the ABC Family Channel in America; over here cable won't show it until after the watershed). The story isn't original, but at least the dreaded sitcom misunderstandings aren't dwelt on for the bulk of the movie (Romy thinks their male neighbours are gay; the one Michele falls in love with thinks they're drag queens), allowing us to get on with the 1990s nostalgia and the friendship strains, and the movie surprisingly keeps from making the evil publicist's doomed-to-failure picks for success (Richard Greico, "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane") into a strained running gag.
Though amusing and likable, the trouble with this movie is that Katherine Heigl as Romy spends more time impersonating Lisa Kudrow and doing it gratingly (she's a lot better now on "Grey's Anatomy"), and as a lot of the movie centres on her character the entire proceedings suffer. (And kudos to the other poster who pointed out that Lisa Kudrow didn't play Romy in the movie in the first place, something I admit I'd forgotten until now...) Fortunately, Alex Breckenridge is better as Michele, and it's always a treat to see Paula Abdul (although the less said about the cover of "Opposites Attract" the better). And as for Kelly Brook (!) as supermodel Linda Fashionella... well, the movie does deserve praise for having both Paula Abdul and Kelly Brook in the first place.
You could do a lot worse. And it's fun to hear my two favourite moled brunettes (Paula and Cindy Crawford) get name-checked in the same movie.
Robin Schiff, returning to her characters to write and direct this TV movie with our heroines before they claimed to invent Post-It notes, delivers a pretty decent script that passes the time well - this may be the only TV movie in history where a character celebrates her man-to-woman surgery with a "coming off" party (I understand this was made for the ABC Family Channel in America; over here cable won't show it until after the watershed). The story isn't original, but at least the dreaded sitcom misunderstandings aren't dwelt on for the bulk of the movie (Romy thinks their male neighbours are gay; the one Michele falls in love with thinks they're drag queens), allowing us to get on with the 1990s nostalgia and the friendship strains, and the movie surprisingly keeps from making the evil publicist's doomed-to-failure picks for success (Richard Greico, "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane") into a strained running gag.
Though amusing and likable, the trouble with this movie is that Katherine Heigl as Romy spends more time impersonating Lisa Kudrow and doing it gratingly (she's a lot better now on "Grey's Anatomy"), and as a lot of the movie centres on her character the entire proceedings suffer. (And kudos to the other poster who pointed out that Lisa Kudrow didn't play Romy in the movie in the first place, something I admit I'd forgotten until now...) Fortunately, Alex Breckenridge is better as Michele, and it's always a treat to see Paula Abdul (although the less said about the cover of "Opposites Attract" the better). And as for Kelly Brook (!) as supermodel Linda Fashionella... well, the movie does deserve praise for having both Paula Abdul and Kelly Brook in the first place.
You could do a lot worse. And it's fun to hear my two favourite moled brunettes (Paula and Cindy Crawford) get name-checked in the same movie.