Tags: Luke Wilson | Matthew Davis | Reese Witherspoon | Robert Luketic | Selma Blair | Victor Garber

This film begins, continues and ends with a one-line situation comedy joke: Bubble-headed blonde enrolls in Harvard Law School to win back her boyfriend. But Elle Woods (played by Reese Witherspoon) is far smarter than anyone gives her credit for.

The movie's two jokes, repeated over and over, consist of Elle proving that she's smarter than people think, and Elle sticking out like a sore thumb in the hallowed halls of Harvard. A couple of these struck me funny, most of the others did not. Any fish-out-of-water story like this has plenty of potential to work.

For example, the movie could have played more with the cultural significance of blondness and the restrictions and advantages thereof. But Hollywood is content sticking with the easy, conventional fish-out-of-water formula established years ago, circa 1982. Legally Blonde (check out the Special Edition) had the responsibility, the obligation, to be clever enough to deserve Reese Witherspoon, and it fails.

Thinky says: Legally Bland. (Get it?)