Parents' Guide to Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

This is a pleasant enough diversion, but it falls into the category of stupid people struggling with their stupidity. Some may find this taxing even in the face of solid performances and occasional clever plot turns. The moral, if this movie has one, seems to be that ignorance can be bliss and that bliss, rare as it is, should not be dismissed lightly. But parents may be concerned about the main characters' obsession with the superficial: looks, body size, clothes, attracting cute guys, driving fancy cars, and having impressive jobs. Romy and Michele lie to their classmates about their work, claiming they invented Post-its, to show their lives have amounted to something since graduation 10 years before. Their lies are exposed and, to their credit, they maintain their dignity in the face of ridicule, but the Post-it story is so outrageous that you may feel ridicule is deserved. Nevertheless, one main character seems to achieve a happily-ever-after with a rich suitor who used to be the class nerd. Somehow the girls ultimately take pride in knowing that they're basically happy souls who didn't really know that they had reason to be disappointed in themselves until the reunion raised the issue.

Mira Sorvino as Romy is funny, a Harvard graduate in real life playing someone decidedly slow on the uptake. Lisa Kudrow, also known for her intelligence, is covering familiar ground, her performance reverberating with her Phoebe character, a hilarious but slightly different kind of dope she played in the long-running sitcom Friends.

Perhaps this is all meant to be a send-up of living the shallow life, but children will have to be exceptionally sophisticated to see this as social satire.