Miss Congeniality – 2 stars (average)
“Miss Congeniality” had a real identity problem as a film. Unfortunately for Sandra Bullock, who stars in the film as FBI agent Gracie Hart, Miss Congeniality couldn’t take her as far as her performance deserved.
She earned a second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy; her first was the same nomination for her role as Lucy in “While You Were Sleeping.”
Released in 2000, Miss Congeniality is not a drama, action adventure, crime movie, comedy, or romantic comedy. He is a mismatch of all and a master of none. When you add in the cheesy, juvenile, and inappropriate dialogue, the movie is lucky to have Sandra Bullock as its centerpiece because without her, it would have been beyond depressing.
In other words, Miss Congeniality writers Marc Lawrence, Katie Ford, and Caryn Lucas (and these may be the only ones willing to take credit for the script) didn’t add much beyond plot.
Gracie Hart stars as an unattractive, scruffy and clumsy FBI agent who has no life beyond her 24/7 commitment to her job. When it’s determined that a mad serial killer has set his sights on her in a Miss America beauty pageant, Agent Hart is the last reluctant choice to go undercover.
Hart is such a poor choice that beauty consultant Victor Melling (played by veteran Michael Caine) is hired to polish her appearance and performance as Miss New Jersey. Melling has 2 days to do the job; this is just one example of an incredibly bad script; even in this wannabe comedy, nothing rings true. It’s like having a chair without legs.
When the real serial killer is caught before the contest is over, the FBI up and leave. Hart realizes something is wrong and is left alone, suspecting that the killer’s most recent letter is written by a copycat killer out of convenience. You’ll have to watch the movie for the rest.
Even director Donald Petrie couldn’t fully control the amount of excess in the script for Miss Congeniality. There were enough sidesteps, missteps, and sight gags for a novelist to write a trilogy, and none of them worked quite right. Petrie cut out some of the crap, but the writers were trying to make a career out of writing a screenplay.
Enough of the complaints. Miss Congeniality had some good moments, but she wouldn’t see her a second time. One really positive aspect was the final still image of Sandra Bullock at the end of the film: she has never looked better.
Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley
