THE HOT CHICK
US, 2003, 105 minutes, Colour.
Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, Rachel Mc Adams, Matthew Lawrence, Adam Sandler, Lee Garlington.
Directed by Tom Brady.
The Hot Chick is a comedy from Adam Sandler’s company, Happy Madison. He himself appears in a cameo role as a bongo player. However, this is a Rob Schneider vehicle. He had worked many times with Sandler as well as having his own comedies like the Animal and the Deuce Bigelow films. This one is funnier than the other films – and avoids much, not all, of the crass humour of those films. Schneider obviously enjoys himself in this role reversal performance.
A corny beginning set in Abyssinia fifty years BC introduces a mysterious pair of earrings which enables people to change personalities and enter into other characters. In the present, the arch mean girl of the high school steals the earrings and undergoes a change with a thug who robs them at a service station. Schneider portrays the thug. However, for most of the film, Schneider has to act as if he is the girl inside – which leads to all kind of jokes about men, their behaviour, sexual relationships, bodily functions… For a few scenes, Rachel Mc Adams has to act with male swagger.
The film is also a high school film, about cheerleaders, football teams, romances. Anna Faris has a good lead as Mc Adams’ best friend, rather ingenuous, being attracted towards the newcomer who gets a job as a janitor at the school. Michael O’ Keefe has a role as her father, and both father and mother confide in their daughter, without realising she is inside the man.
All’s well that ends well, and the film is entertaining in a very broad way in looking at how men and women cope with role reversal.
1.Broad comedy? Humorous touches, crass touches?
2.The body exchange, the genre, the variation on the theme?
3.The introduction, Abyssinia, the earrings – and the girl being a slave forever?
4.The modern city, malls, shops, school, cheerleaders, football teams, homes, domestic scenes, nightclubs? A sense of realism for this fantasy? Musical score and songs?
5.The introduction to Jessica, a mean girl, her friends, talking about the others, catty tongue, humiliating people in public, her love for Willy, her sexual reticence, stealing the earrings?
6.The encounter with the thief, at the service station, the farce of their mistaking him for the man working there, the earring and the change?
7.The change and the effect, the female in the male body, bodily functions, shape, shaving, voice…? Waking up in the morning, calling April, persuading April of the truth at the track? Hiding from her parents? Her brother and his wearing women’s clothes, his recognising her? Keeping away from school? Telling her friends, going to the various candidates who might have been responsible for the change, testing them, the big girl at the lab, the girl they thought of as a witch, the explanation of Santeri and voodoo, the Latin- American girl and the club and dancing? The friends learning the truth?
8.The parents, the father employing Jessica to mow the lawn, a poor gardener, the feminine behaviour, the father and his rough talk, man’s talk, explaining his marriage and its collapsing, the mother and her flirting, Jessica inside giving advice to both parents?
9.The sketch of April’s parents, the father and his laidback attitude, the mother and her continued anxiety, finally crashing the car?
10.Jessica becoming the janitor, the interview with the principal, using the same flattery about tuba-playing, her hair? In the locker room, listening to Willy and Jake? Hearing the truth about them, Willy’s declaration of love?
11.The cheerleading, the competition, their winning, the bee head falling off Jessica? The rules, the victory? Jessica dressing in the suit, accompanying April to the dance? Trying to create jealousy? The encounters with Willy, his fear, running away?
12.Jessica in the male body, stealing, Willy and taking his money, his father’s car? Becoming an exotic dancer, greedy for money?
13.The comedy of change, the stern man at the bar – and later picking the thief up at the end? The toilet janitor and his puzzle, the young man in the toilet? The jokes about bodily functions, male manner? Jessica’s behaviour with the barman at the club?
14.The climax, everybody going to the club, the role reversal, the happy ending?
15.The guest spot from Adam Sandler, his laidback style of comedy?
16.The Happy Madison comedies and their style, their appeal to a broad audience, popular themes, popular humour?
