Story of movie Mean Girls :
Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. The film is partially based on Rosalind Wiseman's 2002 non-fiction self-help book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which describes female high school social cliques and the damaging effects they can have on girls. Tina Fey also drew from her own experience at Upper Darby High School as an inspiration for some of the concepts in the film.
| Mean Girls | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mark Waters |
| Produced by | Lorne Michaels |
| Screenplay by | Tina Fey |
| Based on | Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman |
| Starring |
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| Narrated by | Lindsay Lohan |
| Music by | Rolfe Kent |
| Cinematography | Daryn Okada |
| Edited by | Wendy Greene Bricmont |
Production company |
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $17 million |
| Box office | $129 million |
Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels produced the film; Tina Fey, screenwriter and co-star of the picture, was a long-term cast member and writer for SNL. Although set in Evanston, Illinois (a wealthy Chicago suburb), the film was mostly shot in Toronto. The film stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Jonathan Bennett and Amanda Seyfried (in her film debut) and features appearances from SNL cast members Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer and Amy Poehler. The film marks Lohan's second collaboration with director Waters, the first being Freaky Friday, released a year earlier.
The film was released on April 30, 2004 and grossed $129 million worldwide, it has developed a cult following. A direct-to-video sequel, Mean Girls 2, premiered on ABC Family on January 23, 2011. The musical adaptation of Mean Girls premiered in 2017.
Screenplay
Sixteen-year-old homeschooled Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) and her zoologist parents return to the United States after a twelve-year research trip in Africa, settling in Evanston, Illinois. Attending a public school, North Shore High School, for the first time, Cady meets new classmates Janis Ian and Damian. Janis and Damian educate Cady on the school's various cliques and warn her to avoid the most popular and infamous one, the "Plastics", who are led by queen bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and include insecure rich girl Gretchen Weiners (Lacey Chabert) and sweet but dimwitted Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). The Plastics take an interest in Cady and invite her to sit with them at lunch. Seeing that Cady is getting along with the Plastics, Janis devises a plan of revenge against Regina for some past slight, using Cady as the infiltrator.
Cady soon learns about Regina's journal, "The Burn Book". It is filled with rumors, secrets, and insults about other girls and some teachers at school. Despite this discovery, Cady doesn't carry out Janis' scheme for ethical reasons. Meanwhile, Cady becomes attracted to Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels. Cady purposely fails math tests in order to have an excuse to talk to Aaron. Regina, jealous, steals Aaron back at a Halloween party by kissing him in front of Cady. This spurs Cady to fully commit to Janis' plan to cut off Regina's "resources". This involves breaking Regina and Aaron up, tricking Regina into eating Swedish "nutrition bars" that actually make her gain weight, and turning Regina's fellow Plastics against her. In the process, Cady unwittingly remakes herself in Regina's image, becoming spiteful and superficial, and abandons Janis and Damian.
When Regina is finally made aware of Cady's treachery, she retaliates by spreading the contents of the Burn Book all over the school, quickly inciting massive socially motivated brawls throughout the school. To avoid suspicion, Regina inserts a fake libel of herself in the book in order to blame Cady, Gretchen, and Karen, the only female juniors not mentioned in the book. Karen convinces Principal Duvall that they did not spread the book. The principal soon quells the fighting and gathers all of the junior girls in the gymnasium. Math teacher Ms. Norbury, whom the Burn Book defamed as a drug dealer, makes the girls face the ways they all treat each other and apologize to each other and the teachers; the plan sees success, as friendships are rekindled. When Janis' turn comes, she defies Ms. Norbury, confessing her plan to destroy Regina with Cady's help and openly mocking Regina. Pursued by an apologetic Cady, Regina storms out of the school and is struck by a school bus, breaking her spine.
Without any friends, shunned by Aaron, grounded by her parents, and despised by her peers at school, Cady takes full blame for the Burn Book and becomes an outcast. After she makes amends with Regina, Cady's guilt soon dissolves, and she returns to her original personality. To make up for the math tests she failed, she joins the Mathletes in the state championship finals. Cady answers the tie-breaker correctly, and they win the championship for the school. At the Spring Fling dance, Regina's new boyfriend is elected King, while Cady is elected Queen. Onstage, Cady declares that all of her classmates are wonderful in their own way, snaps her plastic tiara, and distributes the pieces to some other girls. She then reconciles with Janis, Damian, and Aaron, and reaches a truce with the Plastics.
The Plastics disband over summer vacation: Regina joins the lacrosse team to deal with her anger, Karen is the school weather reporter and Gretchen joins the "Cool Asians" clique. Aaron has graduated from high school and attends Northwestern University in Chicago. Janis has begun dating Mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, whom she initially disliked. As Cady reflects on the societal peace that has taken over North Shore High, a group of new "Junior Plastics" has arisen, and Cady imagines them being hit by a bus.
- Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron, a 16-year-old girl who transfers to a public high school after being homeschooled her whole life in Africa
- Jessie Wright as 5-year-old Cady
- Rachel McAdams as Regina George, a rich popular teenager. Regina is Janis's ex-best friend and the leader of The Plastics
- Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Wieners, a member of the Plastics who only wants Regina's acceptance
- Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith, the airhead best friend of Regina and Gretchen
- Lizzy Caplan as Janis Ian, a goth artistic girl who befriends Cady and hatches a plan to take down Regina. Janis is Damian's best friend and Regina's ex-best friend.
- Daniel Franzese as Damian Leigh, Janis and Cady's gay best friend who is flamboyant and musical
- Jonathan Bennett as Aaron Samuels, Regina's ex-boyfriend, and Cady's love interest
- Rajiv Surendra as Kevin Gnapoor, the "hormonal Mathletes president" who is attracted to Janis
- Tina Fey as Ms. Sharon Norbury, the school calculus teacher
- Tim Meadows as Principal Ron Duvall
- Amy Poehler as June George, Regina and Kylie's irresponsible mother
- Ana Gasteyer as Betsy Heron, Cady's mom
- Neil Flynn as Chip Heron, Cady's dad
- Daniel DeSanto as Jason, Gretchen's unfaithful boyfriend
- Diego Klattenhoff as Shane Oman, a football player who has an on-and-off relationship with Regina
- Alisha Morrison as Lea Edwards
- Brooke Bell as Liza Bell
Development
Tina Fey read Rosalind Wiseman's Queen Bees and Wannabes and called Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels to suggest it could be turned into a film. Michaels contacted Paramount Pictures, who purchased the rights to the book. As the book is nonfiction, Fey wrote the plot from scratch, borrowing elements from her own high school experience and her impressions of Evanston Township High School, upon which the film's fictional "North Shore High School" is based. The real Janis Ian was one of the musical guests on the first Saturday Night Live episode, in which she sang the song "At Seventeen", which can be heard playing in the background when the girls are fighting at Regina's house. Other characters bullying Caplan's character persistently call her a lesbian throughout the film; the real Janis Ian is an out lesbian.
Casting
Lindsay Lohan first read for Regina George, but the casting team felt she was closer to what they were looking for in the actress who played Cady, and since Lohan feared the "mean girl" role would harm her reputation, she agreed to play the lead. Rachel McAdams was cast as Regina because Fey felt McAdams being "kind and polite" made her perfect for such an evil-spirited character. McAdams was cast during the time as Allison Hamilton in The Notebook. Amanda Seyfried also read for Regina, and the producers instead suggested her for Karen due to Seyfried's "spacey and daffy sense of humor". Both Lacey Chabert and Daniel Franzese were the last actors tested for their roles. Lizzy Caplan was at first considered too pretty for the part of Janis, for which director Mark Waters felt a "Kelly Osbourne-like actress" was necessary, but Caplan was picked for being able to portray raw emotion. Fey wrote two roles based on fellow SNL alumni, Amy Poehler (whom Fey thought the producers would not accept because of being too young to portray a teenager's mother) and Tim Meadows, and the cast ended up with a fourth veteran of the show, Ana Gasteyer. Evan Rachel Wood was offered a role in the film, but turned it down.
Filming
Although set in Evanston, Illinois, the film was mostly shot in Toronto at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute and Malvern Collegiate Institute, as well as at Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey. Notable landmarks include the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall and Sherway Gardens. Principal photography commenced on September 27, 2003, and concluded on November 21.
Box office
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $24.4 million from 3,159 screens at 2,839 theaters in the United States, ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $8,606 per venue. The film closed on September 9, 2004, grossing $86.1 million domestically and $43 million internationally for a total worldwide gross of $129 million.
Critical response
Mean Girls received generally positive reviews; critics lauded McAdams' performance and labeled the film as Lohan, Seyfried and Caplan's breakthrough roles. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 83% based on 179 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus states that the film is "funnier and more smartly written than the average teen comedy." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post stated that it "boasts a one-two-three punch in star Lindsay Lohan, screenwriter Tina Fey and director Mark Waters, and, indeed, it delivers a knockout". The screenplay was highly praised by critics with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone calling it "comic gold". In November 2012, Rotten Tomatoes named it in its 'Top 50 Greatest Teen Comedies'.
The film won and was nominated for a number of awards throughout 2004–05.
