The result? Clueless!
(SPOILERS? As if!)
Emma Woodhouse becomes Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), a teenage girl growing up in California with her widowed lawyer father (Dan Hyeda). He is well off, meaning Cher has never wanted for anything. And neither have her friends, including best friend Dionne Davenport (Stacey Dash), Dionne’s boyfriend Murray (Donald Faison) and frenemy Amber (Elise Donovan). One of her former stepbrothers still lives with her and her father as Josh (Paul Rudd) is studying to be lawyer.
Cher successfully pairs two of her teachers (Twink Caplan and Wallace Shawn) and feels she has found her calling in life. She wants to continue pairing people. And an uncool student named Tai (Brittany Murphy) gives her the opportunity. She’s not as fashionable as Cher and definitely more shy. So Cher takes her under her wing, instructing her how to fit in.
Tai catches the eye of the class slacker, Travis Birkenstock (Breckin Meyer). But Cher believes her new friend could do so much better. Like preppy Elton Tiscia (Jeremy Sisto). But Elton soon shows that he’s more interested in Cher than Tai. She doesn’t return his feelings and drops him. Especially when transfer student Christian Stovitz (Justin Walker)shows up. She sets her sights on him and is determined to become his girlfriend. So she starts to woo herself, to make Christian jealous. It doesn’t work. But he does agree to go to a party where Cher will be. She’s determined to snag him there. To that end, she leaves Tai to stand there awkwardly. Josh goes over to rescue her and Cher snags a date with Christian.
But that date doesn’t go so well. In fact, Christian ignores her for the most of the date. Later, Murray finally clues Cher in: Christian is gay. She’s slightly embarrassed but it’s just the start of her downward spiral. At the mall, Tai has a near-death experience when she almost falls from the upper level. This makes her a celebrity at school, shooting her above even Cher on the social ladder. On top of this, Cher fails her road test.
Tai confesses to Cher she likes Josh but Cher believes Josh is out of Tai’s league. So she refuses to help her get together with Josh. Tai then insults Cher in front of the school. Cher is at her lowest.
And while indulging in some retail therapy (read: shopping), she has an epiphany: She’s in love with Josh! But she knows all the tricks she used to try and snag Christian won’t work on him either. Josh knows her too well. And she knows she’s not right for him as she is. She wants to better herself. So she starts volunteering and trying to be better. Josh notices too. And she starts to climb her way back up the social ladder as Josh admits he likes her too. Everything is right in Cher’s world.
That was Clueless. And it’s withstood the test of time. After all, Iggy Azalea paid homage to the movie in her music video for “Fancy.” People discover it each day. And it’s led to people rediscovering Emma and Jane Austen. I always consider that a good thing.
There was also a TV show, first airing on ABC’s famed TGIF block before switching to the UPN. Most of the original cast came back, with a few exceptions. Silverstone, Rudd, Hedaya, and Murphy all passed on recreating their roles for the silver screen. Rachel Blanchard was then cast as Cher while David Lascher took over as Josh. Heather Gottlieb was cast as Tai, but got written out early on. Mel was played by two different actors: First Michael Lerner and then Dough Sheehan. Though he played a small part in the movie, Sean Holland returned, this time as Sean Holliday, one of Murray’s good friends. The Cher-Josh romance was ditched in the TV show and Josh was eventually written out like Tai.
But I would definitely recommend viewing the movie if you haven’t done so. You won’t regret it.
Next month: Timmy the Tooth
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