Miss Congeniality Had an Identity Issue, Sandra Bullock Saved It From Disaster

"Miss Congeniality" had a real identity problem as a film. Unfortunately for Sandra Bullock, star of the film as FBI agent Gracie Hart, Miss Congeniality could not take her as far as her performance deserved.

She has won a second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a musical or comedy, her first was the same nomination for her role as Lucy in "While You Were Sleeping".

Published in 2000, Miss Congeniality is not a drama, an action adventure, a police flick, a comedy or a romantic comedy. It is a mismatch of all, and a master of none. When you add in the corny, juvenile, inappropriate dialogue box, the movie is lucky it was Sandra Bullock as its center for without her, it would have been beyond dismal.

In other words, (the authors of Miss Congeniality, Marc Lawrence, Katie Ford and Careen Lucas and these may be the only one who was willing to take credit for the script)-did not add much to the plot.

Gracie Hart is designed as an uninteresting, disheveled, bumbling FBI agent who has no life without her 24 / 7 commitment to her job. When it is determined that a wacko, serial killer has set sights on a Miss USA beauty contest, Agent Hart is a reluctant last choice to go undercover.

Hart is such a bad choice that beauty consultant Victor Milling (played by veteran Michael Canine) is brought in to polish its appearance and performance as Miss New Jersey. Melling has 2 days to get the job done, and this is just one example of an incredibly bad writing, even in this wannabe comedy, something rings true. It is like having a chair without legs.

When the real serial killer is caught before the festival ends, the FBI gets up and leaves. Hart discovers that something is wrong, and hang around on her own suspicions that the latest letter from the murderer was written by a copycat killer of convenience. You'll have to see the movie for the rest.

While director Donald Petrie was unable to completely control the amount of the glut in the Miss Congeniality script. There were probably overlooked, missteps and sight gags for a writer to write a trilogy, and none of them worked so well. Petrie cut some of the crap out, but the writers tried to make a career out of writing a script.

Enough carping. Miss Congeniality had a few good moments, but we would not see it a second time. A real positive was the final still image of Sandra Bullock at the end of the film, she never looked better.