1 of 3

Mean Girls Our rating: Your rating:   MPAA rating: PG (for sexual content, language and some teen partying) Theater release: April 30, 2004 by Paramount Pictures Directed by: Mark S. Waters Cast: Lindsay Lohan (Cady Heron), Rachel McAdams (Regina George), Daniel Franzese (Damian), Lizzie Caplan (Janis), Tim Meadows (Mr. Duvall), Tina Fey (Ms. Norbury) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Two things surprised me when I learned teen comedy Mean Girls was based on Rosalind Wiseman's book Queen Bees and Wannabes. First of all, the book isn't a narrative but a sociological study on teenage girls. Let's face it: A how-to-manual for parents of teenage daughters is unusual film fodder.

The second surprise about the comedic Mean Girls is that it's, well … comedic. True, Queen Bees is no stuffy sociological term paper. Wiseman, the founder of a non-for-profit group to stop teen violence, does write with a winsome, casual tone and sparks of humor. But it's odd to think someone read her chapters on what to do if your daughter is lying, drinking, or manipulating friends and thought, "Man, this sure would be a funny teen popcorn flick!"

SNL's Tina Fey wrote and starred in the film

That brings us to Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live writer and the show's Weekend Update anchorwoman, who wrote the Mean Girls screenplay. (Note: SNL producer Lorne Michaels is producer of the film, which casts at least three SNLers besides Fey.) It feels like Queen Bees was basically background material for Fey on the social dynamics of female popularity—where cliques rule with manipulation, judgment, and cruel harassment.

Readers of Wiseman's book might see various case studies in the film if they look hard enough. But to say that Mean Girls is based on Queen Bees would be akin to saying that background material on safecracking might have gone into the writing of The Ladykillers. The plot is Fey's own creation and weaves pieces of the book with 1989's Heathers and a stack of other high school flicks.

Lindsay Lohan in the lead role

Fey's plot follows Cady (Lindsay Lohan of Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen) on her first day of public school. Cady has grown up home-schooled in Africa because her parents are zoologists—not, she says, because she's "weirdly religious." Because Cady knows nothing of American teenage culture, she's the perfect neutral guide to the world of teen politics.

Cady quickly makes two quirky friends (Janis and Damian), but is accidentally accepted by The Plastics, the school's most popular three-girl clique. Because Janis hates the group's queen bee, Regina, she talks Cady into being a Plastic spy. Eventually, Cady chooses to use her vantage point to destroy the mean, manipulative Regina by robbing her of her hot bod, hot boy (whom Cady likes) and hot followers. As she does, Cady forgets who she really is.

The good news: The film is fun and hip; it will attract lots of teen audiences. The story is engrossing. Perhaps most surprising is the level of the acting. Lohan is clearly on her way to establishing herself not as a bubblegum teen-movie princess but a legitimately talented actress.

Now, with the not-so-good. The movie's biggest problem is its uneven tone. Mean Girls tries to mix Queen Bee's poignant observations with dark comedy. Fey and director Mark S. Waters (Freaky Friday) bobble the combination. Yes, dark comedy can work in film when the tone is consistent, but Mean Girls wants to be both mean and touching.

Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert

This results in mixed messages. The movie tries to make a statement about negatively treating peers based on appearance or social standing—while freely doing it for most of its jokes! Most of the comedy—like for any high school's popular kids—comes from mean teasing, cruel jokes, and easy jokes about homosexuals, Christians, and the handicapped. When the film then tries in the end to make an important statement, the audience is confused.

I saw Mean Girls in a screening with about 250 teenagers (mainly girls). They loved the movie, and laughed at everything. But some of the things they laughed at weren't intended. At the end of the movie, Cady realizes she's gone too far and "like a snake bite, I tried to suck all the poison from my life." She apologizes to those she hurt and learns an insightful, poignant lesson. She says, "Calling someone fat doesn't make you skinny. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you smart. The best we can do is focus on the problem in front of us day to day."

next page... |  1 of 3 | last page