Miss Congeniality (2000) review

Feds are trying to stop a domestic terrorist who goes by the moniker "The Citizen" and believe the next target is the Miss U.S. Pageant in San Antonio, so disheveled and uncouth Special Agent Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is asked to enter the contest, which is run by Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen) and Stan Fields (William Shatner), and they hire long-time coach Victor Melling (Michael Caine) to "spruce" up her look (and behavior).  This inane bit of puffery was a critical dud but did quite well at the box office - aside from Caine's witty mentor it's missing solid laughs ... that is, unless anyone finds Ms. Bullock stumbling and falling every few scenes to be uproarious (what I want to know is how she made it through Quantico being such a klutz).  Like The Princess Diaries and She's All That, it's another one of those crowd-pleasers that takes a clearly beautiful woman and tries to pretend she's "ugly" because she wears glasses and doesn't have her hair professionally styled, falsely suggesting that many women are models if they have their legs waxed and avoid eating carbs.  But if the message sells, so be it.