Believe it or not, Mark Waters’ Mean Girls is one of the most effective “teen comedies” I’ve watched in the last few years. It may have Lindsay Lohan –who isn’t an actress with a very good reputation- in the leading role but it also has Tina Fey and Rachel McAdams. Besides, this movie is certainly one of the best –if not the best- Lohan has taken part of. It manages to satirize high school life in a way which doesn’t feel moronic and that actually entertains and delivers some gags to the audience. The film is far from perfect though but that’s mainly due to weak performances from the supporting cast, some unnecessary characters and some incoherent use of “animal-like” human sequences.

Mean Girls deals with Cady Heron (Lohan), a new student in the Northwestern school. She’s actually new to any sort of high school education because she’s lived most of his life in Africa and received education from private teachers at home. Cady faces her first day gladly but ends up eating lunch sitting on a toilet. The second day is better though and she makes a couple of friends, Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese) who introduce her to high school “elite”, the plastics; Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert), and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). The plastics awkwardly invite Cady to sit with them at lunch and sort of admit her into their group. Janis and Damian see this as an opportunity to find out some details about them and “infiltrate” Heron; this infiltration will come with unexpected consequences. 

The best yet also worse thing the movie is provided with is its screenplay. Tina Fey evidences that she’s a good screenwriter by developing a story which delivers some laughter and doesn’t feel stupid. It even has some really funny moments like when Cady goes to Janis’ house after a Halloween party dressed as a zombie bride (it may not sound too funny but trust me it is, I just can’t tell you all the details). However, the story has some annoying, unnecessary and intentionally dumb characters. For example, Kevin G (Rajiv Surenda) -who is at times funny but feels used just as filling for the film- or Regina’s mother, Mrs. George (Amy Poehler), who takes some realism off the story. Some may find her sarcastic but then she’s too sarcastic. The same thing happens with the character of Karen Smith, who’s supposed to be stupid but not that stupid; I mean how on earth can she say she can predict the weather with her breasts when it’s already raining? Nevertheless, the most bothering problem isn’t this, but the jungle madness sequences which consist in silly high school students behaving like animals and fighting each other in different situations. I could accept this if they chose to use it once, considering Cady is from Africa they’d be all right (not really), but they’re used too often and are just painful to watch. What was the point of including them in the flick?

Director Mark Waters (Freaky Friday, Just Like Heaven) is sure-handed and did a decent job using split screen takes to effectively add some juvenile style o the film. In spite of this, the movie looses much of its ironical view on high school life in the final thirty minutes; the ending is too clichéd and therefore predictable. Mean Girls’ characters are a little less stereotyped than the ones in most of the motion pictures of its ilk and although any of them is fully developed, they are likeable and –at least the protagonists- believable. Fortunately, the director and the editing team managed to make the movie no longer than an hour and a half (which is for some the best running length for a comedy film) and to create a perfect pacing for it; the movie never drags and ends up at the appropriate time.

The acting department is also good and even though none of performances are outstanding and won’t be memorable, the protagonists are portrayed well enough to make the story entertaining for the audience. Lindsay Lohan is comfortable with her role and Cady Heron is believable in her two facetas, as the innocent, naïve young girl and as the evil, newest member of the plastics. Rachel McAdams is also great and is probably –alongside with Tina Fey- the best actress in the flick; her portrayal of the “queen bee” is just natural and fluent. Tina Fey as Cady’s math teacher and mentor is good and is probably the most likeable character in the motion picture and Daniel Franzese is possibly the funniest gay character to appear in a film in a long time, he has some good one-liners. Supporting performances are just average and some like Lacey Chabert are a little over-the-top, but perhaps that’s the approach the filmmakers wanted to use for her character.

Finally, I have to say I’ve watched Mean Girls more than four times and I still find the movie enjoyable. I may be a little biased when I say it’s one of the best teen comedies I’ve ever seen because it had an influence on me during my early teen years. However, its witty screenplay, decent performances and direction style are what make it more entertaining and to work better than the average dumb American comedy. No matter what they say it’s always nice to watch a comedy a little different than the regular ones which doesn’t seem to stop being released in theaters.

© Mauricio Kahn

Lima, Mar 2008

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