Word: mona
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...refreshingly, was at least partly true for her. After numerous successes (The Rose, which earned her an Oscar nomination, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, The First Wives' Club), Midler, 54, made the bad career moves of being a woman and aging. The offers dwindled, and recent efforts (Drowning Mona) fizzled. "They don't make movies with people my age anymore," she says. "That is the hard economic truth." She and longtime producing partner Bonnie Bruckheimer had a deal, however, to develop a TV series. Midler had attempted a couple of series that never aired--one was called The Harlettes...
...problem with this well-made fairy tale lies right at its center, in the person of Minnie Driver. She plays Mona Hubbard, a young woman willing to do anything--including hiding the fact that she's an unwed mother--in order to win beauty contests. Driver's an intelligent actress, but you don't quite believe that a smart woman would spend so much time on such a dumb mission. Still, the film captures the frenzy for cheap renown with nicely curdled expertise, and Joey Lauren Adams is wonderful as Mona's faithful, hard-pressed best friend...
...eyed misfit from a dysfunctional family who has aspirations to become the next Miss America. Why a talented actress like Driver would want to waste her time on this train wreck is completely beyond my comprehension. Along with her best friend, Ruby, played by an annoying Joey Lauren Adams, Mona makes her way to the top through backstabbing and sabotaging her competitors. After a particularly vicious episode in which she glued her rival JoJo's hand to a burning baton, Mona is disqualified from competing in the county. Most unfortunately for her, she also discovers that she's pregnant, therefore...
...felt a nerve tweak in the back of my neck from the massive cringe I suffered through the rest of the movie. After being crowned Miss Illinois, Mona tries to outdo Miss Texas (Bridget Wilson) who was hospitalized for giving marrow to her foster sister in meaningless altruism. One particular scene in which she carts a pregnant woman to the hospital in a shopping cart full of marshmallows (no, it doesn't make more sense when you actually see it) had me gawking in dumbfounded amazement at the brazen act of courage which it must have taken for the producers...
...course will not be a survey of famous portraits--though the Mona Lisa won't be left out--but instead focus on major themes...