Katie Gregerstich (Jessica Simpson) is a simple, pretty girl from the small town of Minden, Oklahoma. She's always been in love with the same boy, Billy, and they've been together for 15 years and are engaged. Billy can't become the famous model he wants to be in Minden, so he heads to the Big Apple in search of his dreams. Katie's Pap Paw (Willie Nelson) decides to surprise her on Valentine's Day with a bus ticket to NYC so she can surprise Billy and visit her cousin Haley (Rachael Leigh-Cook) while she is there. Well, she surprises Billy all right, when she slides into bed with him and there's another girl on the other side! Disillusioned, she calls Haley who gladly agrees to let her stay at her place. A silly "Seven Year Itch" moment erupts when Katie sets her luggage down over an air vent, right next to a theater playing Seven Year Itch.
Haley is a struggling actress and also a courier and when she gets an audition for Cats, she asks Katie to fill in for her. Katie makes her delivery to C&C, a large architectural firm and stumbles into the plot of two scheming executives, Debra (Penelope Ann Miller) and her assistant, Freddy (Andy Dick). Debra has aspirations of going from Vice President to President, but to do this, she must unseat reigning Prez Richard "Dick" Connelly (Larry Miller). Their scheming gets his bulldog secretary fired and they push the lovely Katie in for an interview, with a doctored resume, a new wardrobe of clothes and lots of extensions courtesy of Ken Paves (sigh, I so didn't need to see his mug pushing his Hair-Don'ts in this movie). She is able to charm Dick, a little bit anyway, and lands the job, decing to stay int he Big City. She ends up doing well, but things still manage to blow up in her face and through the scheming of her "friend" and mentor, Debra, Dick gets the boot from the company, all because of a trusting mistake Katie makes. So its up to her to save the day, along with Ben (Luke Wilson), the cute guy who works in the mail room that she falls for, who also happens to be Dick's son.
Things get complicated when her loser ex-boyfriend comes back into the picture and Pap Paw shows up for a surprise visit, since she never told him about the breakup with Billy. Of course, things work out in the end, the bad guys get what's coming to them and Jessica gets her man - the good one, not the hand model turned pizza guy creep. Overall, Blonde Ambition is fluff, but it's a fun little movie. The acting is solid and there are a number of laughs in the movie. Jessica won't win any Oscars, but she does what she does best in this movie, the dumb and klutzy blonde routine. Her "thing" in the movie is the fact that she brushes her teeth when she gets nervous. I guess this is to explain her gleaming, pearly-white horsey smile, but it's amusing anyway and makes for some odd moments. Larry Miller as Dick is perfect because he is playing the same role he always does and he excels. Luke Wilson as the sort of passed over guy does a good job and Andy Dick and Penelope Ann Miller are great and over-the-top as the villains. Oh, and Rachel Leigh-Cook has awesome purple highlights. And yeah, she's good as the sidekick cousin.
Special features are there but are sparse. There's a few deleted scenes and a making-of featurette, but nothing groundbreaking. I found it interesting that this movie was filmed entirely in Louisiana, with some stock footage of NYC no doubt. Yet they change her hometown setting to be Minden, OK when it was filmed in Minden, LA. I didn't see a reason to change her hometown state, but maybe that's just me, being a native of Louisiana. Overall, this is a cute date night flick. Grab the popcorn, a cozy blanket and someone to cuddle with and enjoy it for what it is.
