Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality is an American police comedy film, starring the beautiful Sandra Bullock. This movie can be considered as one of the girly movies, and it includes the ten common traits of the girly films that we learned in sociology class.

Define Gracie Hart

Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is FBI agent shows no signs of having any femininity in her behavior or appearance. Her appearance is a crucial aspect of her identity. She has the feeling of ambivalence about the role of romance, marriage and work in woman’s life. Thus, Gracie can be defined as the protagonist, because she is a single woman who works for a living, and whose work defines her.

Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt), is Gracie’s colleague whose assigned to lead the high profile case of a terrorist called “The Citizen” instead of her to stop the attack. Both of them determine that “The Citizen” 's next target will be the Miss United States beauty pageant. Eric assigns her to go undercover as a pageant contestant to see if she can catch “The Citizen”. This movie takes place in a large, well-known city, which is San Antonio, Texas; where the beauty contest takes place.

The Transformation

The FBI used the assistance of the previous pageant contestant coach Victor Melling (Michael Caine), to do the impossible task of transforming Gracie, not only into a woman, but into a credible beauty pageant contestant. Victor represents the consumer culture, in which everything goes right with him. There is a theme of personal transformation, as she becomes beautiful and attractive. Gracie enters the contest as Miss New Jersey. She suits the example of the Miss United States beauty pageant. She had the ability to transform which helps her lead to resolve her conflicts and to achieve her goals.

The Past.

Gracie has difficult time to proceed in the transformation. Victor continues to teach the tomboyish Gracie how to dress, walk and act like a contestant. She is not used to such behaviors. She has the sense of nostalgia or glorifying the past during the contest when she demonstrates self-defense techniques during the talent competition. She has the hard times when she can’t continue in this undercover job. She thinks she doesn’t belong to this place.

The Happy Ending

Gracie gets to know the other contestants. Then, she discovers the evil element is present at the pageant. She will do whatever it takes to crush that element and protect her new friends, namely the other innocent contestants.

Gracie displays some femininity during the movie. She begins to have more womanly feelings and that attracts the attention of men, in particular, she starts to attract Eric.

When Eric fails to support Gracie, he then realizes that Gracie’s suspicions are correct, and he returns to help her. Gracie surprises everyone, including herself by discovering “The Citizen”. She and Eric save the day, and they arrest the criminals. At the end, Eric admits his crush on her, and she starts a relationship with Matthews. She finally lead succeeds in her goal of having affair with the man of her choice.