Kudrow, Sorvino dumb down stereotypical 'Reunion'

'Tis the season for those long-anticipated and highly dreaded high school reunions. But before you hit the panic button and the local weight-loss center, you should be happy to know that Hollywood has been gracious enough to provide the general public with films that will ease your reunion blues.

REVIEW
	Romy and Michele's High School Reunion 2 stars At Briarwood and Showcase

If you've been fairly successful since your graduation and are in the mood for a movie that gives you a profound look at examining your life, then check out John Cusack's hit "Grosse Pointe Blank." But if you are a former high school geek who wants some brainless fluff about losers going back to their reunion as grown-up losers, then "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" should succeed in boosting your ego.

Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow play Romy and Michele, two women living in Los Angeles who are due for their 10-year reunion in Tucson, Ariz. But as a couple of blonde airheads with no real jobs or boyfriends, they attempt to cook up a plan to impress their former classmates.

Upon arriving at the reunion, they partake in such activities as pretending to be successful businesswomen, meeting up with old crushes and crushees, and having a showdown with their high school archnemesis, only to discover the importance of true friendship.

The characters of Romy and Michele are as stereotypical as the fashion-eccentric characters from "Clueless" and as silly as the boys from "Dumb and Dumber." The twosome fit the classic images of dumb blondes, whether they are working out on treadmills in platform shoes or concocting an outrageous story about being the inventors of Post-It Notes. Kudrow's character, Michele, does say more than "okay" as seen from the previews, but not much more.

The other characters are also stereotypical, from the high school bitch-queen returning 10 years later as the bitch-queen housewife, and the school science geek becoming a rich inventor who isn't half as bad-looking. The classic theme of the people from the out-group returning as more successful than the people from the in-group is designed to please everyone in the audience who wasn't a high school god or goddess.

Sorvino and Kudrow give good performances, but Janeane Garofalo's portrayal of a cynical, eyeliner-drenched social outcast steals the show. Her bitterness and sarcasm give her scenes an extra spark, but unfortunately, she's not in enough of the movie to save it from its own stupidity.

"Romy and Michele" does have occasional humor-filled moments caused by the antics of the two main characters, but overall the movie's overwhelming silliness and final descent into overpowering cheese will send people into dizzying fits of nausea.

So if you're looking for an entertaining reunion movie that will ease your fears about your own reunion, you'd better pass on "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" and stick with "Grosse Pointe Blank." It's better to see a well-done movie involving murder and a reunion, than to witness the murder of a movie about a reunion.

Romy and Michele model some classic '80s fashions.

05-14-97