SYNOPSIS
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous catches up with FBI Agent Gracie Hart (SANDRA BULLOCK) shortly after she successfully disarmed a threat against the Miss United States Pageant while working undercover as a contestant in Miss Congeniality and became an overnight media sensation.
Things haven’t been going so well for her lately. Reeling from a broken romance and frustrated to find her newfound fame is jeopardizing the undercover work she loves, Gracie reluctantly lets her boss, Agent McDonald (ERNIE HUDSON), talk her into serving the Bureau in the only way now possible: coifed and styled for the talk show circuit as “the face of the FBI.” Capitalizing on the greatest PR coup in agency history, the FBI presses their new poster girl into a whirl of photo ops where she re-enacts her pageant exploits to an adoring public, with the help of personal stylist Joel (DIEDRICH BADER) to smooth her rougher edges.
Though resistant at first, Gracie soon warms to the attention and it’s not long before she’s getting into her new role a little too much. Her new partner Sam Fuller (REGINA KING), a tough, ambitious agent who is clearly not her biggest fan, is the first to point out that the pampered Bureau star is turning into FBI Barbie.
But when Gracie’s best friends, pageant winner Cheryl Frazier and emcee Stan Fields (HEATHER BURNS and WILLIAM SHATNER, reprising their Miss Congeniality roles) are kidnapped in Las Vegas, Gracie’s crime-fighting instincts kick back in.
Not wanting to risk losing their high-profile mascot, the FBI top brass sideline her to press conference duty in Las Vegas and send Sam along as her bodyguard, leaving local FBI supervisor Collins (TREAT WILLIAMS) to spearhead the rescue effort while junior agent Jeff Foreman (ENRIQUE MURCIANO) tries to keep Gracie and her entourage safely out of the way till its all over.
Review by
MELINDA LEDMAN
Miss Congeniality 2 was definitely worth my money. I’m always a little skeptical when it comes to sequels, but this one held true to its predecessor in humor. It developed a surprisingly mature theme and carried the storyline through realistically from the first film. After all, what do you do with an undercover FBI agent who enters a beauty pageant and saves the world? Give her publicity! What else?
This film picks up where the pageant leaves off and transforms Gracie Hart’s (Sandra Bullock) still rough edges into smooth, refined lines. The story explores what glamour, fame and star training can do for a person: primarily nothing other than trade one’s inner beauty for an exterior face lift. Learning the phrase, “People care about people who care about themselves,” Gracie defies her true nature of caring for others in order to become the new “Face of the FBI.” Although her initial intent is to help the FBI by giving them good publicity, she quickly morphs into a less than human show poodle whose main concern is staying in the spotlight. Even her book signings become meaningless events where she minimizes individuals and passes on the lies she has believed.
Sam Fuller’s (Regina King) hostile character serves as a fantastic whetstone for sharpening Gracie’s dulled convictions back into useable material. Sam provokes her, challenges her, and reminds her of why she ever began working with the FBI. Add to that the kidnapping of her one friend Cheryl Frasier (Heather Burns), and Gracie finally faces who (or what) she has ultimately become. Sam does not hesitate to hold up the mirror either. Her repeated provocation chips away at Gracie’s Hollywood façade and strips her down to the bare elements again.
I admire the fact that this movie deals legitimately with the emptiness brought on by self-preservation. The Bible says much of humility vs. pride, loving others more than self, and the danger of developing one’s outer beauty while corrupting the inner spirit. Ultimately, the pursuit of self leads to solitude and destruction. And yet, we are often taught the very opposite. We are taught to fear any future that we have not built for ourselves. Who will care for us? What company, what parent, what spouse will selflessly sacrifice for our benefit? What can we rely on in such a shifting culture if not ourselves? We are the only ones who can save us. We are the sole providers of our own security…and so we pursue that security with desperation, at the expense of others around us. But, in truth, a life spent serving self and pursuing false security ends with no genuine value.
God’s Word offers an alternative, an adventure, if you will. When we pour out our lives for others as Christ poured out his life for us, we live in need of divine intervention. King David understood that therein lies the only hope of true security. Psalm 121 reads, “I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber…the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” It is self-sacrifice and not self-preservation that forces dependence on a perfect God. Christ also understood this concept and poured out his own life, admonishing his disciples and all who would come after to do the same.
Near the end of the film, Gracie Hart says, “People care about people who care about themselves, but I don’t care about those people.” The idea is that people care about people who love others. She says what we really want is, “World Peace, strength to hold fast to your beliefs while the world tries to force you to conform to some Barbie doll image, but mostly, World Peace.” Jesus agreed. After washing the feet of his disciples, he said, “A new command I give you; Love one another… All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35). What greater vision of “World Peace” could anyone imagine?
