Wow, has it been 15 years since this hit theaters? (Late Spring 1997, right before the Summer Blockbuster season.) I think the movie was a partial success/partial flop with the $29 million (about $40 today) it made at the multiplexes. I can confidently say that Romy & Michele lived on successfully through cable and rentals. Enough to get Disney to gamble with an ABC Family Channel prequel eight years later starring…Katherine Heigel, the queen of comedy buzzkill.
On the surface this was another film in a string of Mira Sorvino’s failures before she faded into lesser TV roles. Another victim of the Oscar® curse. Personally I like Mira yet I must confess bias: she’s close to my age (a year older), she’s part Italian (like me!), very intelligent in real life (way more educated than yours truly) and has starred in The Great Gatsby (a favorite novel!).
R&M can also be seen as one more cynical marketing vehicle to sell yet another compilation of Eighties hits, see Grosse Pointe Blank and The Wedding Singer. Hollywood knows the power of musical association with memory well.
Lastly, the front half of Generation X (1965-1980) was starting to reach its collective thirties so here was an attempt to make its version of The Big Chill. A movie I think should be buried at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean along with all the other self-congratulating Boomer crap.
Put those accusations and theories aside, along with the odd looks I get when defending R&M. Poor marketing hurt its chances, namely the blonde jokes in the bylines. A more daring and honest campaign would’ve gone with John Hughes themes in its DNA. Blasphemy! some might reply.
I’m not going to waste any time over the story, either you know it or don’t care. What I did rediscover during the Quote-Along was another moral lesson I missed upon previous viewings; I hadn’t watched R&M in its entirety for a decade. What was it? Regardless of high-school social standing, teenagers torment each other directly/indirectly, intentionally/unintentionally and gleefully/unknowingly. Examples:
- Michele torments Heather over Sandy.
- Heather torments Toby and the Cowboy through her anger.
- Christie and her gang torment Romy because they’re the Alpha Females.
The last illustration is obvious and to some extent, the others probably were but it never sunk in. I guess I related too much with Heather in my late twenties (what Paul Bellini coined in a funny song called “Long Dark Twenties”).
Was it a good time as a joint Quote-Along/Girlie Night? Yes even though R&M‘s key lines aren’t in the same league as The Princess Bride, Caddyshack or So I Married an Ax Murderer (next week!), a good chunk are memorable. The props were clever: gummi bears and a rave ring for the club scenes. The host had some ladies do a dance off to the Cyndi Lauper tune. Lastly the pre-show fare was mostly Eighties music videos which skewed toward the ladies.
Has R&M held up after 15 years? For its core audience it does and not much more. Younger people will see it as dated, especially the technology used. Could it be revamped or worse…remade? Easily, the themes never change only the scenery, inside jokes (“I’m the Mary you’re the Rhoda!” gets puzzled looks from anybody under 30) and stereotypes. It’s not an endorsement for rebooting, I’m stating how the universality of its story continues to work.
Do I recommend watching it again? Yes with a slight condition. It’s best if you haven’t sat through it in at least five years. People who hated R&M then will probably continue to hate it. The ultimate test will be if R&M gets cycled through in the next two years for an Alamo signature event.