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Starring: Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo
Director: David Mirkin
Running Time: 92 mins
Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion is an American film about two women living together in Los Angeles who invent new, successful personalities before they attend their ten-year high school reunion.
Expecting this movie to be a bit of a ditzy high school affair, I was pleasantly surprised by Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion, as funny a film as it is genuinely kind-hearted. With a sharp screenplay, recognisable characters and two delightful lead performances, this film is a real winner.
There’s a lot to love about Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion, but the best part of it all is Romy and Michele themselves. It would be easy to write dur-brained Napoleon Dynamite–esque characters for cheap laughs, but the two main characters here are a far more enjoyable blend of ditzy and delightful.
In those lead roles, Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino are effortlessly lovable from start to finish, with immense chemistry that means you fall in love with their friendship from the start, and so it genuinely hurts when they fall out with one another.
Kudrow and Sorvino are a brilliantly dynamic duo who I’m surprised people don’t talk about more, and their chemistry and peppy energy throughout makes them an absolute delight to spend 92 minutes with in this movie, and even more so once they come up against their old high school enemies.
High school reunions are always a great way to get a bit of nostalgia flowing for the viewer, and this movie does a brilliant job of condensing all of the stereotypical high school personalities into a couple of characters, with whom Romy and Michele spar over the course of a difficult evening.
It’s all in good jest, and the movie throws up a collection of hilariously awkward situations and fun-loving comedy, but there’s also a lot of sharp writing that makes the pair’s ordeal on returning to meet their classmates and trying to impress that makes the story relatable and engaging beyond a level of pure comedy.
And that brings us back around to the fact that Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion is far from the ditzy comedy you might expect at first glance, rather proving a genuinely funny, clever and often even touching affair, complete with two wonderfully lovable lead performances. So, that’s why I’m giving the film a 7.7 overall.
