If you’re a millennial woman in her thirties like me, there’s a good chance that you know the script and story of Legally Blonde better than you know your own life.
Released in 2001, the movie starred Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, the ditzy but lovable Delta Nu sorority president who swapped lounging by the pool for Harvard Law School in the hope of winning back her jerk boyfriend Warner (Matthew Davis).
Set in 1995, the series follows a younger version of Elle (Lexi Minetree) as she navigates high school. In the trailer — which you can catch up with below — Elle’s parents announce that the family is moving from their home in Southern California to Seattle, and she’ll have to leave behind her picture-perfect Golden State life for the quirky, unique grunge of life in Washington state.
Elle Woods’ new backstory is at odds with Legally Blonde’s character progression
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From Bruiser the dog to the manicured lawn of her parents’ house, Elle has all the superficial trappings that are identifiable from the first movie. But here’s where the new Seattle storyline already makes no sense.
We’re now expected to believe that Elle moved, experienced character growth at a Washington State high school, moved back, regressed to who she was before, then began her Harvard Law School journey. Oh, all while her parents’ house looks exactly the same in both projects… even though they supposedly moved states in the interim.
In short, there’s a lot of belief suspension required in order to fully get into Elle, and that’s a great deal of unnecessary work. Even Bruiser having a starring role in the prequel makes no sense: he’s a young whippersnapper in Legally Blonde, but if he was around during Elle’s high school years, he’d have been an old man by the time he hit the halls of Harvard.
What has made Elle an enduringly popular character for the last two decades is how meaningful her personal development is. She defies all odds and expectations, applies herself to her work and moves through her fears of not being good enough, all the while never losing the charm and positivity that makes her so unique.
There’s the separate argument that Witherspoon is so synonymous with the character of Elle that only she can play her, but I’m not going to get into that. My expectations were already low for Elle, but somehow, they’ve now sunk even lower.
Like the people of the internet say, let’s invest our hopes in a Legally Blonde 3 movie instead, and see Elle as the Supreme Court Justice hero we know she deserves to be.
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