At a college in Los Angeles, a young woman named Elle Woods is the president of her sorority. She loves fashion and is very, very popular amongst her classmates. She even has a chihuahua named Bruiser that she takes everywhere.

She is particularly excited about her date with Warner Huntington III that evening. She is confident that it will go well.

Despite Warner’s hints of taking his and Elle’s relationship to the next level, he reveals to her that he is breaking up with her. That is because he is transferring to Harvard to attend law school and follow his family’s footsteps – including his brother marrying a Vanderbilt. In addition, he doesn’t think Elle is that serious.

Poor Elle is so heartbroken that she cries loudly in the restaurant. She even refuses a ride home from Warner and decides to walk – until she changes her mind due to Warner pressuring her.

Desperate to get Warner back, Elle decides to apply to Harvard law school. When others disagree with her decision because it doesn’t sound like something she’s interested in, she still gets accepted.

That fall semester, Elle arrives at Harvard campus, even bringing Bruiser along. While she’s bubbly and wearing a pink dress, everyone else is serious and in neutral colored outfits.

Not surprisingly, Elle has trouble fitting in. She even gets kicked out of her first law class because she has trouble answering questions correctly.

But when she sees Warner again, she discovers that he has a new girlfriend named Vivian. Vivian doesn’t like Elle and is unkind to her.

Not only that, but Warner doesn’t believe that Elle is smart enough for any internships. To prove him wrong, Elle takes her studies very seriously. She even gets better grades.

Sometime later, one of the law professors, Aaron Callahan, hires some students to assess a high-profile case. It involves a fitness instructor called Brooke Windham.

Brooke has been accused of murdering her husband and is even in jail for it. Yet she constantly denies doing it.

Throughout the case , Elle has her ups and downs. On the bright side, Vivian begins to respect her. Additionally, her junior assistant Emmett is becoming friendlier with her.

However, things go downhill when Elle finds out the real reason she was hired for the internship. So, she refuses to believe that she is good enough for it and regrets leaving California and her fashion interest behind.

What will happen next?

Because I have seen a live musical production of this movie (not on Broadway, but at my brother’s college), I already knew the story. Of course, some changes were made in the live show.

One is how the characters act more like young adults and less like middle school kids. Even though Elle is naive at first, and should have known better than to cry loudly in public if she wasn’t in severe physical pain, I really liked her.

In fact, there were many traits about her that I enjoyed. She was enthusiastic, popular, relatable, determined, and intelligent. I admired her relationship with her 2 best friends from California, Emmett, and Bruiser.

For some reason, she was allowed to bring Bruiser everywhere, including the university dorms. That would never be allowed in real life unless Bruiser was a service animal and Elle had a disability where she needed one – which is obviously not true.

I also admired that I learned about law and how to apply it. I actually like discovering unbiased facts for movies – as long as it’s not overdone.

Despite the strengths, I’ll admit that the pacing was a bit slow at times. Yet, that is a minor issue.

Overall, I enjoyed Legally Blonde. It was a good early 2000s comedy that had a great concept and lots of twists and turns.

I give this film 4 out of 5 stars.