Half a Clue

It's not award material, but Clueless was a fairly influential movie in the "high school comedy" genre. And until recently, it had also slid through the cracks for me. I was in the mood for something lighter, so I gave it a go.

Clueless does have good scenes, and its fair share of laughs. But it's a meandering mess when it comes to storytelling. It's based on the Jane Austen novel Emma, which I have never read, but seeing this movie compelled me to go skim the synopsis, and quiz a friend of mine who has read it. Were the flaws moments when the movie strayed in its adaptation, or were they baked in the original?

The problem with Clueless, as I see it, is that it's littered with subplots. It begins with the lead character (played by Alicia Silverstone) fixing up two teachers at her school, an "inciting incident" to make her see herself as a potential matchmaker for all sorts of people in her life. But the teachers don't reappear until the final moments of the movie.

It moves on to our heroine and her best friend trying to makeover "the new girl" at school so they can fix her up with a guy. But after maybe 20 minutes and one comic misunderstanding, she too fades into the background, and not long after also vanishes until the final act.

There's a guy interested in our heroine, but she's not interested in him. Follow that story? No, dump him from the movie entirely after 45 minutes.

Instead, the lead wants to pursue a different guy of her own, who only arrives in the story to begin with at the start of act two. That takes another 15-20 minutes, then he's gone from the movie.

And so the movie progresses, like a procession of four or five half-hour sitcom episodes stitched together to form a feature film. My Emma-reading friend told me the book was much the same way. I suppose one could praise the faithful modernization of the movie. I don't think the "warts and all" approach was the right one here.

The thing is, these little sitcom episodes aren't unfunny. There aren't many laugh out loud moments in Clueless, but it does bring a smile to your face. Alicia Silverstone is fantastic as the lead, and Paul Rudd entertains as her often sardonic step-brother. The "world" of the film is strong and vivid, and the dialog weirdly authentic within that setting.

But the whole is less -- far less -- than the sum of its parts. I found Clueless to be a C+ overall. Not a waste of time, but nothing to get excited about.