Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Mirkin
Produced by	Laurence Mark Robin Schiff Barry Kemp
Screenplay by	Robin Schiff
Based on	Ladies Room by Robin Schiff
Starring	Mira Sorvino Lisa Kudrow Janeane Garofalo Camryn Manheim Alan Cumming
Music by	Steve Bartek James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Reynaldo Villalobos
Editing by	David Finfer
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	April 25, 1997 (1997-04-25)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$29,235,353

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is a 1997 comedy film starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Alan Cumming directed by David Mirkin. 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.

Plot

Romy White (Mira Sorvino) and Michele Weinberger (Lisa Kudrow) are two airheaded 28-year-old friends living together in a beachfront apartment in Los Angeles, California. Romy works as a cashier in the service department of a Jaguar dealership; Michele is unemployed. They are both single and live a life of partying and fun. Romy encounters former high school classmate Heather Mooney (Janeane Garofalo) at the dealership, who informs them of their upcoming 10-year high school reunion in their hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

Desperate to make good impressions, Romy and Michele make last-ditch attempts to get boyfriends, better jobs, lose weight, and hopefully avoid a second round of the torture they endured during their days at Sagebrush High, mostly at the hands of the "A-Group", led by cheerleader Christie Masters (Julia Campbell). The most humiliating incident happened at their high school senior prom, when Romy asked her crush, Billy Christenson, Christie's jock boyfriend, to dance. He promised her he would, if she would just wait a minute. Instead, he rode off on his motorbike with Christie, leaving Romy tearfully waiting all night.

Failing in their attempts to get jobs and boyfriends, Romy and Michele decide to pretend to be successful by showing up in an expensive car and business suits. They then think of what they believe is a highly impressive story; saying 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 and Rhoda) and who would be clever enough to think of the idea of Post-it notes, and their friendship dissolves.

When they arrive at the reunion, Romy says that she invented Post-its all by herself, while Michele looks on in disdain. Michele then discovers that the A-Group girls that picked on her in high school have stayed in touch. Michele convinces the four girls that she invented a special kind of glue. Sandy Frink (Alan Cumming), the nerd who had a crush on Michele in high school, 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, though still refusing to speak with each other.

Seventy years later, a severely ancient Michele learns that Romy is sick and near death and calls her up to make amends only to rehash the same argument they had in the car those many years ago. Romy dies 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, and realizes that it was all just a dream. At the reunion, Romy has begun to spread around her story about Post-its; Michele, on the other hand, only talks about her recent falling-out with Romy. Heather Mooney arrives and unknowingly reveals that Romy didn't invent Post-Its, causing the A-Group girls to mock her.

Humiliated, Romy and Michele resolve their fight and decide to just be themselves and not care about other people's opinions. They change out of their businesswomen's clothes and into sexy, handmade club outfits, and return. They confront Christie for all of the teasing they had to endure in the past and at the reunion. Just as Christie attempts to mock their clothes (which Romy and Michele designed and sewed), classmate Lisa Luder (Elaine Hendrix), a former member of the A-Group who has long changed her ways and became an associate fashion editor for Vogue, announces her professional opinion that the outfits are actually very well done. Christie is left in the dust and everyone congratulates Romy and Michele on their great designs.

Then, in a fairly coincidental parallel of Michele's dream, Sandy arrives in a helicopter and turns out to actually be a billionaire who made his fortune from a special rubber he invented. When he comes in to the hotel, Christie immediately tries to approach him, but he ignores her advances and goes over to talk to Romy and Michele. Michele remarks to Sandy that he must be the most successful person in their class; Sandy responds that despite all the wealth and success he has, the one thing he doesn't have is her, and asks her and Romy to dance with him. After an interpretive dance to Cyndi Lauper's hit "Time After Time" that receives huge applause from the rest of the class, he escorts them to his helicopter and the three prepare to fly away together. On their way out, they encounter Billy Christensen, who is now Christie's husband. Far from being a handsome jock, he has become an overweight alcoholic and is living a very poor, miserable life with Christie, and is doubtful the baby Christie is carrying is actually his. When he tries to proposition Romy for sex, she tells him to go to his hotel room and wait for her with his clothes off. He excitedly shuffles off, and Romy revels in her revenge for when he made her wait for him at the prom. Everyone at the reunion comes out to wave goodbye as they take off, except for Christie, calling out for Billy, has her dress blown up by the chopper, further humiliating her to Romy and Michele's delight.

Six months later back in L.A., Romy and Michele use money loaned to them by Sandy to open their own clothing store. Heather Mooney has stayed in touch and has become friends with the girls, shopping in their boutique.

Cast

• Mira Sorvino as Romy White
• Lisa Kudrow as Michele Weinberger
• Janeane Garofalo as Heather Mooney
• Camryn Manheim as Toby Walters
• Alan Cumming as Sandy Frink
• Julia Campbell as Christy Masters
• Mia Cottet as Cheryl
• Kristin Bauer as Kelly
• Elaine Hendrix as Lisa Luder
• Vincent Ventresca as Billy Christensen
• Justin Theroux as Cowboy
• Jacob Vargas as Roman
• Mark Pasqualone as Mark
• Tate Taylor as Casey

Reception

The film was positively received by critics, and maintains a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[1]

Box office

The film opened at #2 at the North American box office making $7.4 million USD in its opening weekend behind Volcano.^[2]

Foreign titles

In Germany, the film was known as Romy und Michele: Alle Macht den Blonden ("Romy and Michele: All Power to the Blondes"), 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"), while in Denmark it is simply called Blondiner har det sjovere ("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. The Croatian title is Prijateljice ("Friends") - a reference to the TV show starring Kudrow.

Prequel

A prequel television film, Romy and Michele: In the Beginning, premiered May 30, 2005 on ABC Family. It was critically panned and received low viewership.

Television series

An even earlier incarnation of the Romy and Michele characters appeared in a sitcom pilot entitled Just Temporary. Based on the stage play Ladies Room, this pilot was written by its author Robin Schiff. Both Lisa Kudrow and Christie Mellor reprised their roles from the play for this pilot. Although the show wasn't picked up for the fall schedule, NBC did air the pilot on September 1, 1999.

References

1. ^ Romy and Michele's High School Reunion at Rotten Tomatoes
2. ^ Romy and Michele's High School Reunion at Box Office Mojo

External links

• Romy and Michele's High School Reunion at the Internet Movie Database
• Romy and Michele's High School Reunion at AllRovi
• Romy and Michele's High School Reunion at Box Office Mojo
• Romy and Michele's High School Reunion at Rotten Tomatoes