Beautiful

So says Webster, and given that, Mona Hibbard of Naperville, Illinois does not embody that quality on the inside. Mona has had a drive to be beautiful and from her pre-teen years, has worked hard, getting her teeth straightened, going to a grace school, and befriending Ruby, who has learned to sew from her grandmother. From watching beauty pageants on TV, she herself enters a beauty pageant and wins for best costume. The trouble is, her parents are far from supportive, and she herself shuts them out of her life. Her mother keeps saying she's getting aggravated from her behaviour, and even when Mona gets a consolation medal reading "participant," she merely says that she didn't get anything. On the other hand, the egocentric Mona's no angel either. She has a room with posters full of beauty pageant memorabilia, and a sign on the door reading "knock first" When her mother asks her if she wants some pizza, Mona refuses to answer because her mother didn't knock first.

Years later, Ruby and Mona are firm friends. Ruby and her grandmother still help make costumes for Mona, who still has the same dream, and will do anything to get it. In one scene smacking of black humour and slapstick, she sabotages a rival's equipment when that girl steals Mona's routine and is lucky enough to go first. This has grave ramifications later on, which I won't reveal. However, when Mona discovers she's pregnant, it's bad news, because women who are mothers or legal guardians are disqualified from entering the Miss American Miss competition. But she's so desperate to prove herself beautiful, she has Ruby pose as the mother of her child, a girl named Vanessa, while she becomes her own child's aunt. This helps her win Miss Illinois, which makes her a contestant for Miss America Miss pageant. In the meantime, there are the expected public appearances to promote her.

However, fate plays a cruel trick on Ruby, leaving Vanessa in Mona's care, something neither is chuffed about. Mona sees her own daughter as A) an inconvenience, and B) someone to take photos of her to mold her image as a caring, heroic, role model. But what makes a real role model? Mona's "campaign slogan" is "empowering America's youth for a brighter America." A pity she doesn't embody that ideal toward her own soccer-loving seven year old daughter.

In Mallrats Joey Lauren Adams played the smarter advice-giving girlfriend to Claire Forlani. As Ruby, Adams is the hard-working, grounded, patient friend who works hard to help Mona reach her goal even to the extent of being the mother to Vanessa, and treating her like a real mother would, making this her best role since Chasing Amy. Hallie Kate Eisenberg (Vanessa) is quite the delight here as the very insightful girl who ends up being more mature and abler than her birth mother. Indeed, when she asks Mona how come she looks so much like her, it's more than just physical appearance, but more on personality. One only has to look at the way Mona's own mother treated her to see how Mona treats Vanessa, with lack of sympathy, support, and as somewhat of an inconvenience. Her other question to Mona, "where do I belong?" is something that Mona herself is struggling with, to belong somewhere. Adams and Eisenberg really make this movie worth it.

Actress Sally Fields' feature film directorial debut was much panned by critics, and perhaps it's Minnie Driver's character, who isn't that likeable until the final twenty minutes or so of the movie. All the same, one is aggravated by her egotistical self-centered behaviour, while at the same time wanting her to not only grow up, as Ruby tells her in a moment of exasperation, but to be, in the words of Webster, to become beautiful.

The "Miss America Miss" pageant contestants were classic- it makes you realize just how ridiculous those things are!

Yes, it was cheesy and overly dramatic, definitely unrealistic, but it was clearly intended to be this way. This satire was also very sweet with the very young Hallie Kate stealing the show!