Does it throw my credibility into question if I state that the first few minutes of this film are some of my favorite of the year? It doesn't, does it? I'm a pretty sophisticated dude when it comes to movies, but even I can be easily won over by a plethora of scantily clad Playboy playmates frolicking at a party. I'm not hard to please.
There's something about Anna Faris that makes me like her in pretty much anything she does. Even if the material is weak, she somehow rises above it with her doe-eyed expressions and keen comedic timing. Here she plays Shelley, one of a myriad of playmates staying at the Playboy mansion. Well, she wishes she was a playmate. She's more like a roommate, as she's never actually been in a pictorial. But she's looked up to by the girls and especially Hefner, who absolutely adores her. On Shelley's 27th birthday, she wakes up to an ominous letter from Hef telling her to please leave the premises. Turns out 27 is a smidge too old to be shacking up with the ancient playboy. Distraught, Shelley finds herself checking out the local sororitys as a place to live because they "look like little playboy mansions". As good a reason as any.
After being rejected by the alpha females on campus, she stumbes upon the misfit sorority helmed up by Natalie, played by Superbad's Emma Stone. Natalie is an obviously attractive girl but a bit on the bookish side. The rest of the crew include your usual collection of outcasts: a Goth girl, a midget, a silent girl, a handicapped girl, and the mannish girl who puts even Ann Coulter to shame. Shelley stumbles her way into the sorority as a house mother, and proceeds to teach the girls how to use their feminie charms to seduce men and become popular.
It's all pretty standard stuff here. The plot bears a striking resemblance to another film with a prominent position in my DVD case, Sorority Boys, obviously without the cross-dressing aspect. The basic premise remains the same, however. Shelley teaches the girls to have confidence in themselves, and ofcourse along the way there are a few bumps. There's some poorly developed stuff here about the girls possibly losing their license due to a lack of pledges, but the threat never really seems legit.
That's not really a problem because this is clearly just a vehicle for Faris to show off her stuff. She is in practically every scene and it's clear she and the cast were having a blast making this film. Plenty of guest-stars show up(most are known Playboy mansion regulars) and the tone is kept light throughout. While the plot is somewhat of an afterthought, it's hard not to get caught up in Shelley's plight. The credit for making Shelley more than just a blonde bimbo goes to Faris and a surprisingly effective script. That should come as no surprise since the co-writers of this film previously worked on such films as Legally Blonde and 10 Things I Hate About You, both films which focused on beautiful women with surprising depth of character. I think if you're looking for something fun that you and your girl can both enjoy(for different reasons) then you can do worse than setting a date with The House Bunny.
6/10
