Mean Girls (2004)

	Directed by: Mark Waters	COUNTRY USA GENRE Comedy/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Mean Girls RUNNING TIME 97 minutes
	Produced by: Tony Shimkin Lorne Michaels
	Written by (based on the novel by Rosalind Wiseman): Tina Fey

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Cady Heron	Lindsay Lohan	½
Regina George	Rachel McAdams	½
Ms. Norbury	Tina Fey
Mr. Duvall	Tim Meadows	½
Mrs. George	Amy Poehler	½
Cady's Mom	Ana Gasteyer
Gretchen Wieners	Lacey Chabert	½
Janis Ian	Lizzy Caplan	½
Damian	Daniel Franzese
Cady's Dad	Neil Flynn
Aaron Samuels	Jonathan Bennett
Karen Smith	Amanda Seyfried

Review

The influence from Heathers is almost painfully obvious throughout this familiar, well-meaning, and over-Americanised high-school film. The only thing missing in the link to Michael Lehmann's 1989 film is the Christian Slater character. The three Heathers and Winona Ryder's Veronica Sawyer are represented with almost a hundred per cent likeness.

Writers Tina Fey (script) and Rosalind Wiseman (novel) have also clearly drawn inspiration from The Breakfast Club, but the characterisations in Mean Girls are much less subtle and more stereotypical. The latter is a surprising flaw for a film that seems to be taking its target group rather seriously, because if it is one thing Mean Girls succeeds with, it is having a basic understanding of the teenage (girl) way of thinking and of the shortcomings of the educational system, which is brilliantly represented through the pinpointed Mr. Duvall character.

Unfortunately, there is too much silliness bulging between the poignant observations and the occasional hysterical comedy. In the end, very few of these girls feel like actual human beings. They should have been caricatured versions of existing types, not altogether constructed puppets. Or perhaps I'm just too used to the European school system to be able to appreciate this.