The House Bunny

Beyond eliciting big laughs, The House Bunny's subtle wit often takes the form of understated social commentary. Consider one early scene in the newest Happy Madison comedy, where our main gal, Shelly Darlingson (Anna Faris), chats with two guys by the Playboy Mansion's infamous Grotto. Suddenly, Shelly's soon-to-be-nemesis Cassandra (Monet Mazur) walks up and asks, "Shelly, why are you keeping all the rich, good looking guys to yourself?" Shelly, being the hapless sweetheart that she is, passes the comment off with good cheer, but the audience shouldn't. The script strips the modern ideal of "attractive" bare of any veneer in this moment. The popular precept that "rich and good looking" is all that matters is a pervasive theme throughout the film, as Shelly's eventual goal is to "bring sexy back" to a sorority of nerds while preserving their identity.

The film's plot is pretty straightforward. Though it bears traces of Legally Blonde, it's certainly not a retread by any means. Shelly starts off as an ugly duckling orphan, but she manages to blossom into a gorgeous Playboy bunny. She's one of Mr. Hefner's favorites and has gotten her fairy tale ending at the ole Manse in Beverly Hills, alongside well-known personalities from The Girls Next Door. However, through a duplicitous turn of events at the hands of Cassandra, Shelly comes to believe that Hefner's kicking her out, because at 27 ("59 in Bunny Years"), she's too old to live in the mansion. So, she piles into her beat-up station wagon and roams the streets of Beverly Hills alone. After being approached by a cop and attempting to blow on something other than the breathalyzer, she lands in jail for a night. In this hilarious moment, and throughout the entire film, Faris plays innocent and sweet very convincingly. Of course, stereotypical silliness remains, but Faris' performance never devolves into something annoying, remaining endearing above all else.

Shelly ends up at a local college because the sorority houses resemble "Mini Playboy Mansions." After being turned away by the snooty MU sorority, she walks across the street to the beat-up ZETA house, which is facing a terrible predicament: they're the least popular sorority on campus, and they're about to lose their house. The denizens of ZETA resemble "The Land of the Misfit Toys;" there's a punk rocker, an overly-masculine girl, a mom-to-be, a little person, a crippled girl, and a mute. Their leader is the nerdy, cute Natalie—a fantastic Emma Stone. Shelly posits herself as the girls' new house mother, yet given her perfect visage, everyone is wary of her save for Natalie. The girls need to get 30 pledges for the next rush period in order to keep their house, so Shelly, who specializes in "boys and parties," attempts to sex-up the sisters. Resulting hilarity includes a bikini carwash, ZETA-run hotdog stand, and an Aztec-themed party complete with riotous "Virgin Sacrifice."

Admist this frivolous fun, Shelly falls in love with Oliver (Colin Hanks). Oliver runs the local nursing home, and Shelly instantly takes a liking to him and his mellow boyish charm. His character isn't overly-developed, but there are some amusing exchanges between the two. During their second date, the movie's producer Allen Covert pops up, revealing that Shelly was in Playboy. Covert's matter-of-fact mention causes Shelly to literally fall out of her seat in dread, a touch of physical comedy that Faris handles with panache.

ZETA's rival house, MU, also contributes some great comic fodder, especially when the MU girls send a live pig into ZETA house and attempt to thwart the pledge rush. You expect college girls to resort to such cattiness owing to their youth, but the same immature fights take place in the Playboy mansion between girls a decade older. Shelly's plight with Cassandra mirrors ZETA house's battles with MU. Essentially, "growing up" isn't a given with age, and the dichotomy between the smart and the pretty will always exist. However, it's comforting that the smart prevail in the end, even with help from a Bunny. Not everyone's THAT superficial.

—Rick Florino
08.21.08

Awesome, raucous, and totally hilarious, The House Bunny breaks brave new ground by being completely typical. Allow me to explain. Hollywood is just about full to the brim with heavyweight comedians who mostly make their careers on vehicle movies written just for them to show up and work their schtick. Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Jack Black -- these funnymen have brought such a sense of commonality to comedy that they're collectively known as the Frat Pack. That name probably originated with the 2003 hit Old School, but there's a much more obvious fraternal element with this collective: they're all dudes. You don't see many ladies showing up routinely to play for the big laughs -- sometimes fate shines and we get Amy Poehler in a funny supporting role, but most of the time all we get is some romcom veteran gal playing straight to the boys' wacky hijinks, and maybe providing an old-fashioned screwball romantic foil if we're really lucky. It's not often that a chick holds down the whole central premise of the movie with her mighty and irreproachable comedic chops in the same format as Ferrell in Anchorman or Black in School of Rock, but that's just what the always-hilarious Anna Faris does here. Her performance as Shelley, a despondent former Playboy Bunny-turned-geek-sorority house mother does the classic role of the cheeky dumb blonde one better -- or more like ten better. The woman just has killer timing, and an innate comedic talent that makes Reese Witherspoon's turn in Legally Blonde look like just another girly actress keeping safe within the confines of cuteness. Despite playing a toned and tanned pinup, Faris tackles the jokes with such balls-out fearlessness that she leaves no doubt she is not playing for the powder-puff league. And Faris isn't the only good thing about House Bunny; up-and-comer Emma Stone does an impressive job of playing a prototypical nerd girl, especially after appearing so convincingly as the ultra-cool sarcasm queen in Superbad. Christopher McDonald and Beverly D'Angelo also provide a few glimpses of extremely entertaining silliness as university administrators. But the movie does have its limitations. This isn't a genius script, and when the rest of the cast of sorority sisters are required to carry a scene, they can be a little flat. The movie also tries to shoehorn in a weird and pointless girl-power message that includes a very awkward music video presented over the closing credits. And, of course, this being a movie about sorority girls instead of fraternity guys, the story belies all the unapologetic goofiness of its genre by making the plot all about the pursuit of getting flowers -- rather than the pursuit of getting laid. But with all that it already is, we can't ask The House Bunny to be everything. All it really has to be is funny, and it passes that test with flying colors. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide