Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Romy and Michele's High School Reunion | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | David Mirkin |
| Written by | Robin Schiff (play and screenplay) |
| Starring | Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow |
| Music by | Steve Bartek James Newton Howard |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 25, 1997 (USA) |
| Running time | 92 min. |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | Romy and Michele: In the Beginning |
| IMDb profile | |
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is a 1997 comedy film starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Alan Cumming. The plot revolves around two 28-year-old women who appear to have achieved very little success in life and decide to invent fake careers to impress former classmates at their 10 year high school reunion. The characters are taken from the stage play Ladies' Room, which also featured Kudrow.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Michele Weinberger (Kudrow) and Romy White (Sorvino) are two 28-year-old friends living together in Los Angeles, California. They are both single. When the story begins, Romy works as a cashier in a Jaguar car dealership; Michele is unemployed. They live a life of partying and fun and don't take life too seriously. After 10 years of this laid-back lifestyle, they receive an invitation to their high school reunion in their hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Desperate to make good impressions, they make last ditch attempts to get boyfriends, get better jobs, and lose weight. This is interspersed with clips showing the social torture they endured during their high school days, mostly at the hands of the "A-group," headed by cheerleader Christie Masters (Julia Campbell). The torture comes to a head at the end of high school prom, where Christie's jock boyfriend, Billy Christiansen, tells Romy that he'll dance with her, if she'll just wait for a few minutes. In reality, he and Christie ride off on his motorbike, leaving Romy waiting all night.
Failing in their attempts to get jobs and lose weight, they borrow an expensive car and decide to attend the reunion with made-up stories about their lives. Coming up with what they think is a highly impressive story, they decide to claim that they are very successful businesswomen who invented Post-it notes. However, during their drive, they get into an argument about who is cuter (by comparing themselves with Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern) and who would be clever enough to think of the idea of Post-it notes (Romy claims it would be her) and their friendship dissolves.
When they arrive at the reunion they discover that the "A-group" girls have stayed in touch. Romy remarks that Christie wanted Jane Pauley's job in high school, and she asks her if she is a big news anchorwoman now. Christie says that she is a weathergirl. Romy tells her that she invented Post-it notes. Cheryl remarks that she must be the most successful person in their graduating class.
Billy is gorgeous as ever and hits on Romy. Sandy Frink (Cumming), the nerd who had a crush on Michele, turns out to be incredibly wealthy and gorgeous (with the help of cosmetic surgery) and hits on Michele. Soon both Romy and Michele are winning awards as most successful members of their graduating class. They then part ways with their respective new lovers.
Cut forward 70 years and Romy is on her death bed. Michele calls her up to make amends only to rehash the same argument they had in the car those many years ago. Romy dies, as Michele puts it, "an old hag on her death bed," and they never get a chance to resolve their issues.
...That is, until Michele wakes up in the car, parked outside the hotel where the reunion is being held. The entire sequence following the argument was a dream.
Michele enters the conference and begins to spread around her story about Post-its. Unfortunately, Romy and Michele's lie is found out when alum Heather Mooney (Garofalo) exposes that in business school she learned that Arthur Fry from the 3M Company invented Post-it notes.
Humiliated, Romy and Michele resolve their fight and decide to just be themselves and not care about other people's opinions. However, Christie Masters mocks their lie during a presentation over microphone. Horrified, they flee the hotel. Outside, though, they reaffirm their decision to be themselves. They change out of their "businesswoman outfits" into sexy, funky club clothes, and return. They confront Christie and accuse her of being a "bad person with an ugly heart" for all of the teasing they had to endure in the past and at the reunion. At the climax of the confrontation, Romy tells Christie, "We don't give a flying fuck what you think," which shocks everyone in attendance.
Just as Christie attempts to mock their clothes (which Romy and Michele designed and sewed), classmate Lisa Luder (Elaine Hendrix), an associate fashion editor for Vogue, announces that she thinks they have nice lines and a fun, frisky use of color. Christie is left in the dust as everyone congratulates Romy and Michele on their great designs. Then, in a fairly ironic parallel of Michele's dream, Sandy Frink arrives and turns out to actually be a millionaire. After a ridiculous interpretive dance with Michele and Romy (poking fun at the convention in high-school movies for an entire prom to go quiet while the lead characters dance and resolve a lot of the film's issues), he escorts them to his helicopter so that they can fly off together. On their way they encounter Romy's former football crush; he is drunk, fat, unsuccessful, and married to Christie (though this doesn't stop him from hitting on Romy). Romy sends him up to his hotel room with the promise of sex, but abandons him, saying that now he can "see what it feels like to wait." As they fly off, they see Heather making out with a cigarette guy (who had been too shy to talk to her in high school), and Christie calling out for Billy.
Back in L.A., Romy and Michele use money loaned to them by Sandy to open their own clothing store.
[edit] Foreign titles
In Germany the film was known as Romy und Michele: Alle Macht den Blonden ("Romy and Michele: All Power to the Blonde"), while in France the film was called Romy et Michelle: 10 ans aprés ("Romy and Michelle (sic): 10 Years Later"). The Swedish title was Romy & Michele: Blondiner har roligare ("Romy & Michele: Blondes have more fun"). In Norway it was known as Blond og Blondere ("Blonde and Blonder"), a conscious nod to the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.
[edit] Sequel/Prequel
A prequel TV movie, Romy and Michele: In the Beginning, premiered May 30, 2005 on ABC Family. It was critically panned and received low viewership.
