Mean Girls (starring Lindsay Lohan)

I doubt if I would ever have chosen 'Mean Girls', which is marketed as a teenage film… but my son gave it to me, and said that I would probably like it.

He was correct.

Lindsay Lohan is extremely good as the home educated teenager Cady (pronounced Katie) who grew up in the African bush, but finally starts American high school at the age of sixteen. She finds it bewildering at first, with so many different cliques, but is adopted by two rather strange people. Then she  finds herself part of the ‘plastics’ set. These are attractive but not particularly intelligent girls who consider themselves to be role models and fashion leaders.

The entire thing was completely alien to me, so I could fully understand Cady's reservations. She begins by laughing at the idiocies of the ‘plastics’ but gradually finds that peer pressure makes its mark, and becomes drawn into their world. Unfortunately this even includes being nasty about some of the other students and teachers.

The plot is a bit bizarre, and I find it hard to believe that any high school could actually be that unpleasant. But Cady’s development as a character works well, and it was encouraging that a popular teen film is (basically) so positive about homeschooling.

Cady appears to be the most well-balanced and interesting person in her entire grade, seeing much of the behaviour of her classmates as barely distinguishable from the wild beasts she has come across in Africa. It was a pity that her parents are portrayed as so weird. But then again, they were less so than some of her new friends’ parents.

There were some moments in this film that made us laugh aloud, and we were glad that we saw it - it was very different to the kind of movie I would usually choose. So, all in all, I thought it an enjoyable and well made film... albeit not very deep.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews