Legally Blonde

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * * )

Reese Witherspoon bubbles as Elle Woods, LA campus queen who moves in a cloud of pink, offering advice on grooming, hair care and accessorising. Well, her major is fashion. She thinks Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis) is about to propose to her but he wants to break up. He wants to be a senator by age 30 so "I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn".

Elle decides to follow Warner to Harvard law school and pass with grades that will prove she is not A-Bimbo but A-Smart Blonde. The famous Professor Callahan (Victor Garber) takes her on as an intern and assigns her to help him in the case of a weight-loss consultant accused of murdering her older husband.

Elle uses her knowledge of fashion to disguise her intelligence. For example, she wins her client's trust by visiting her in jail with Calvin Klein sheets, Clinique products and the latest Cosmo, which shows that labels are a matter of life and death, even on Death Row.

Terrifyingly, Legally Blonde is based on a book by Amanda Brown about her experiences in law school. She says that she choose Stanford because "they had a really good mall in that town".

Much, much sharper than your usual LA comedy, and Witherspoon has overcome the burden of that most un-Hollywood name to become a genuine star.

Rental video, DVD: Today

• DVD features: movie (96min); two commentary tracks, one by director Robert Kuketic, Witherspoon, and producer Marc Platt, the other by six members of the film crew; trivia track; eight deleted scenes; featurettes, Inside Legally Blonde and The Hair That Ate Hollywood, about the hairdos and the hairdresser; trailers; music video, Hoku's Perfect Day.