Table of Contents Back Issues Homepage February 2, 2001       FEMINIST FILM TAKES By Laura J. Weinstock Weinstock takes on two films this month, Miss Congeniality and What Women Want.   "Miss Congeniality" directed by Donald Petrie. Starring and Produced by Sandra Bullock. A Must-See. Funny, irreverent, feminist. Ms. Bullock's self-reliant performance in "The Net" convinced me she could play a credible action figure. But, in "Miss Congeniality," she outdoes herself. Since Xena first graced our TV screens with her unapologetic attitude and fighting moves, the world has changed. Gone are the days when women never punched or kicked on-screen. We have stepped forward to movies such as this one, where Sandra Bullock's Gracie Hart wrestles, knees and beats up her macho FBI co-worker, Eric (Benjamin Bratt). Gracie is a smart, feisty, no-holds barred feminist who has a great left hook and comic timing that left me howling. She uses words like "misogyny," disdains beauty pageants, doesn't own a dress, and is pro-lesbian. When forced to go undercover in a beauty pageant to save the contestants from a mad bomber, Gracie has to, well, transform a bit. In a large swipe at Hollywood, Producer Bullock shows that it takes an army of well-trained government cosmetic experts to make her look glamorous. She screams in agony as they wax off even the hair on her fingers. They pluck her eyebrows, whiten her teeth, put green goop on her face and make her wear stiletto heels she cannot maneuver. Victor (Michael Caine), a gay beauty consultant, tries to teach her how to walk, talk and give up jelly donuts. This is what makes girls into women and the results aren't pretty. One of the contestants had been attacked by a professor and never reported it. Gracie is so incensed when she hears that she finds a way to teach audience and contestants the rudiments of self-defense. What a fantasy! Though this movie exposes sexism everywhere (Gracie has all the smarts at the FBI but is demoted, while the men are promoted and heard), it does fall short in a few places. Bullock's character, pre-beauty pageant, is too extreme - too full of stains and unbrushed hair. Why not have her be tough, brainy and not a complete social outcast? Do the moviemakers really believe that if a woman can't look ultra-feminine some of the time, she is a filthy, imitation man? Is it OK for men to take large bites of gooey donuts, talk with their mouths full, and be all about the job? Or is it just socially acceptable for men to act like Neanderthal slobs (they still get the pretty girls) while women who don't at least look neat, get no one? Gracie goes from deriding beauty pageants to feeling chummy with the contestants. They're just women who want to make a difference she tells us. That's fine, as far as it goes. But the movie was more powerful when it showed us how these pageants cripple women and also reflect their second class status. It's great that Gracie is the big hero in the end. But, it would've been better, if she'd allowed some of her new friends in on the action. Instead of the female solidarity we had begun to see, Gracie is shown struggling to rip the crown off the winner, imparting the tired old female catfight cliché. I wish she had been promoted and toasted at the FBI for her efforts, instead of winning romance and making a teary-eyed speech with the girls. At least the romance is only a few seconds of the flick and Gracie retains her unsinkable self, even with her makeover. 94% of "Miss Congeniality" is not standard Hollywood fare. It's a movie not to miss. "What Women Want" directed by Nancy Meyers. Starring Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt. Backlash film. A female director who gives all women a bad name. Ms. Meyers begins with a premise of great potential: that a macho, womanizer can try on panty hose and exfoliating cream, get electrocuted and wake up, suddenly able to hear women's thoughts. Mel Gibson's Nick Marshall is funny and spouts a few good lines. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is a reactionary travesty. Somehow it hurts worse, when women peddle misogyny. Women, we learn, are weak, trivial and in need of rescuing. And men make better women than women (remember "Tootsie?"). Nick overhears women worrying about salads and how to be noticed so they won't commit suicide. He never overhears a woman determined to feed the hungry or, say, overturn patriarchy. A heterosexual man, we're shown, can be a good lover only when he can hear the woman's unspoken needs. Marisa Tomei plays the lucky recipient, so stunned by Nick's lovemaking (such a contrast from her former bed-mates) that she is smitten for life. This may be an honest commentary on how straight women are short-changed in bed. However, the movie itself inspires no one to change. Women allow themselves to be mistreated but don't wake up and demand better. Their only hope is for a sexist jerk to become a sensitive mind-reader. Not likely. Helen Hunt, whom I typically like, detracts terribly from the movie. How could someone as brave as she was in "Twister" snivel so much? Her Darcy Maguire, a cutthroat competitor, is hired to head Nick's advertising division, a position Nick covets. Yet she teeters around in high heels and tight dresses and doesn't fight for her ideas or her job. Even when she is supposedly rescuing Nick, he dips her backwards on the stair. How can we believe she's the top of her field? Is Hunt acting helpless and ultra-femme to "compensate" for her age or to assure us that she isn't a dyke? Or is this Meyers' touch? Ultimately, this movie is a terrifying statement about the token powerful women in Hollywood. Imagine what it must take for a woman to make it in this patriarchal citadel. Being smart but threatening none of the men in charge? Are women directors in Hollywood less willing to portray women positively? Is this the equivalent of untried actresses feeling they must bare their boobs? Why else would a female shrink (Bette Midler) urge Nick to use his new power to rule the world? As if his straight, white, male privilege wasn't enough. Why not encourage him to make the world a better place? Maybe because the director herself hasn't yet learned to do so. Still, she did teach me two things: More women should speak their minds and What women want is to steer clear of this film.