Miss Congeniality (2000)

Miss Congeniality (2000)

5/10

Starring

Sandra Bullock

Michael Caine

Benjamin Bratt

Candice Bergen

William Shatner

Ernie Hudson

Directed by Donald Petrie

This movie was much better when I saw it back in 2000. Seeing it now I can only say this movie seems to have been made for people who have nothing better to do on a Sunday. The whole plot seems like you are watching an unaired TV-series. The plot itself is disjointed and the movies seems to not be sure which pace it wants to be. There are times when things are all fired up and we are moving, then there are times when it seems that nothing better is going on.

Then the romance was so obvious, the pair did not fit in my view and their story which led to them falling for one another was like a rejected bad draft of romance novel.

I will not deny it that this movie does not have its funny moments, but if you want to sit through this movie again, just note it is ten minutes shy of two hours. It is so long, that I can see many areas which can be cut and the movie will still deliver the same message.

With such a bad script, Sandra Bullock (who solely produced this film) did very well in this story that starts with us meeting her as a tom boy working for the FBI. Her name is Gracie and we see she has some issues following orders, which landed her on desk duty at the Bureau.

The agency is alerted by a letter from a known terrorist called "The Citizen" that there will be bomb at the upcoming Miss U.S.A beauty pageant. Gracie's partner was put in charge and based on Gracie's suggestions to plant an agent undercover at the event, Gracie happen to be the said agent. She was arranged to be at the pageant to replace Miss New Jersey, who was to be disqualified.

So Grace is prepped to be the new Miss New Jersey, and soon we discover that there is more going on in the pageant than what we see on the surface.

Grace has to go against orders to be able to discover the person behind the letters and stop them.

Other than Bullock everyone else in the movie just gave an average performance as expected of actors. Even Michael Caine who first acted gay seem to have forgotten about being gay as the movie continued.

The movie was a financial hit which led to a sequel done five years later named Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Bullock's performance garnered her a Golden Globe Award nomination.