Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is a 1997 American comedy film directed by David Mirkin and starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim and Alan Cumming. The plot revolves around two 28-year-old women who appear to have not achieved much success in life, and decide to invent fake careers to impress former classmates at their ten-year high school reunion. The characters are taken from the stage play Ladies Room, which also featured Kudrow.

Plot
Romy White and Michele Weinberger (Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow) live together in Los Angeles, California. Romy works as a cashier at a car dealership and Michele is unemployed. They are single, unambitious, and enjoy a casual lifestyle. Romy encounters former high school classmate, Heather Mooney (Janeane Garofalo), who informs Romy about their upcoming ten-year high school reunion in Tucson, Arizona.

Romy realizes their lack of achievements will not make a good impression at the reunion. Desperate to impress their former classmates, Romy and Michele make last-ditch attempts to improve themselves, hoping to avoid being bullied again.

As high school students in 1987, they were picked on by the "A-Group", led by cheerleader Christie Masters (Julia Campbell), who humiliates them repeatedly. Finally, at the prom, Christie tricks Romy into believing that her boyfriend Billy Christensen (Vincent Ventresca) was in love with Romy, and had dumped Christie to be with Romy. Romy waits all night to dance with Billy, who had already left with Christie. Michele dances with her instead.

Having failed to secure jobs and boyfriends, Romy and Michele decide to fake success by showing up in an expensive car and business suits. Romy borrows a nice car from her workplace, and Michele makes their outfits. En route to the prom, they decide to claim to have invented Post-it notes, believing no one will know better. They argue over the details of their lie, which escalates into an argument about their friendship. They decide to go their separate ways once they reach the reunion.

At the reunion, Michele hears Romy claiming she invented Post-its by herself. Michele convinces the A-Group she invented a special kind of glue. Sandy Frink (Alan Cumming), the nerd who had a crush on Michele in high school, has become wealthy and attractive since high school, and hits on Michele. Billy and Romy reunite and hit it off. Both Romy and Michele win awards as the most successful members of their graduating class, but still refuse to speak with each other. Seventy years later, an elderly Michele learns Romy is on her deathbed, and calls her to make amends. However, they rehash the same argument. Romy dies without resolving their issues.

Michele wakes up alone in the car, realizing she was dreaming. At the reunion, Romy has begun to spread the Post-it story, but Heather Mooney spoils the lie by revealing the real inventor's name. Christie and her friends taunt Romy and Michele ineptly defends her. Romy runs out, and Michele chases after her. They reconcile and decide to have fun as themselves instead of trying to impress other people. They change into brightly colored homemade outfits and return to the reunion.

They confront Christie, who makes fun of their clothes. Former A-Group girl Lisa Luder (Elaine Hendrix), now a fashion editor, announces that the outfits are actually "not bad". Christie verbally attacks Lisa, who coolly dismisses her. The other A-Group girls abandon Christie, while everyone else congratulates Romy and Michele. Heather apologizes to Romy and Michele and admits she was miserable in high school because she was in love with Sandy, who was in love with Michele. Romy and Michele comfort her by reminding her that she was always successful at making classmate Toby Walters (Camryn Manheim) miserable.

Sandy Frink, who turns out to be an actual billionaire, arrives via helicopter. He confesses that he still loves Michele and asks her to dance with him. Michele agrees, as long as Romy can dance with them too. After their interpretive dance to Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" receives huge applause, Sandy escorts them to his helicopter. On their way out, they encounter Billy Christensen. Once a fit and handsome athlete, he is now an overweight alcoholic with a dead-end job and an unhappy marriage to Christie. He hits on Romy, who tells him to wait in his hotel room for her.

Six months later, back in Los Angeles, Romy and Michele use money loaned to them by Sandy to open a successful fashion boutique.

Cast

 * Mira Sorvino as Romy White
 * Lisa Kudrow as Michele Weinberger
 * Janeane Garofalo as Heather Mooney
 * Camryn Manheim as Toby Walters
 * Alan Cumming as Sandy Frink
 * Julia Campbell as Christie Masters
 * Mia Cottet as Cheryl Quick
 * Kristin Bauer as Kelly Possenger
 * Elaine Hendrix as Lisa Luder
 * Vincent Ventresca as Billy Christensen
 * Justin Theroux as Clarence the Cowboy
 * Jacob Vargas as Ramon
 * Rick Pasqualone as Mark
 * Tate Taylor as Casey

Reception
The film was positively received by critics. It maintains a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 58 reviews (42 fresh and 16 rotten) with an average rating of 6.2/10. Its consensus reads: "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion has an admittedly slight premise, but it's elevated by ample heart, an infectiously playful spirit, and the buoyant chemistry of Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino." It opened at number two in the North American box office, making $7.4 million in its opening weekend behind Volcano. It grossed a total of $29 million in North America.

Television pilot and prequel
An earlier incarnation of the Romy and Michele characters appeared in a sitcom pilot entitled Just Temporary. Based on the stage play Ladies Room, the pilot was written by the play's author, Robin Schiff. Both Lisa Kudrow and Christie Mellor reprised their roles from the play for the pilot. Although the show was not picked up for the fall schedule, NBC did air the pilot on September 1, 1999.

A prequel television film, Romy and Michele: In the Beginning, premiered May 30, 2005, on ABC Family.

A musical adaptation premiered at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle, Washington in Summer 2017. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

Soundtrack
Two soundtrack albums featuring music from Romy and Michele's High School Reunion were released in 1997 courtesy of Hollywood Records. The first album, titled "Original Soundtrack", was made available ten days before the official North American film release, while the second album, "More Music From the Motion Picture", was released four months later. Due to copyright issues, several songs which featured in the film, did not appear on either soundtrack album; songs omitted include the film's opening song "Just a Girl" by No Doubt, "Y.M.C.A." by Village People, "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer, "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper, "Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)" by Sub Sub, featuring Melanie Williams, "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins, "Hello Trouble" by The Desert Rose Band, "Don't Get Me Wrong" by The Pretenders and "Have a Good Time" by Talawah Crew. Both albums were reissued as a 2CD set as part of the Double Features series.


 * Original Soundtrack


 * More Music from the Motion Picture