FilmBlather.com

"I'd have to say April 25th."

Sandra Bullock is a terrific comic talent when her abilities are left unharnessed. Her last few projects have flopped because the plot required her to conform to certain stereotypes and dilute her screen presence. But after a string of failures, Bullock has finally hit a home run, or at least a ground-rule double. Miss Congeniality is a delightful, endearing little comedy with a wonderfully clever script and great performances from Bullock and Michael Caine. This is perfect counterprogramming to all the heavy-handed Christmas Oscar hopefuls; a nice, easygoing two hours.

Miss Congeniality is, to a certain extent, a satire of beauty pageants but that is thankfully not its main objective. The protagonist is Gracie Hart (Bullock), a rogue FBI field agent whose heroics recently led to an agent getting shot. She has since been placed on probation and buried under mounds of paperwork. But a case comes up that's tailor-made for her. It seems that a serial killer, who, like all movie serial killers, likes to send the authorities cryptic clues, has set his sights on the Miss USA pageant to take place in the great state of Texas. The FBI needs to have an undercover agent infiltrate the pageant and the only woman for the job is Hart, who is to become Miss New Jersey.

But Gracie is an unpolished, utterly unfeminine woman who has a lot of work to do if she wants to become a beauty pageant contestant. Gracie and her superior (Benjamin Bratt) obtain the services of Vic (Michael Caine), a pageant trainer who gives Gracie a two-day crash course in being gorgeous. When she gets to the pageant, she quickly befriends Miss Rhode Island, an ambitious, naive, slightly slow young woman who has that most ridiculed of talents -- baton twirling. The pageant is run by Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen) and hosted by a guy named Stan (William Shatner), both of whom may have ulterior motives.

I didn't think the sight of Sandra Bullock stumbling and falling could be so gutbustingly funny, but the film gets the timing so right that it's hard not to laugh. Miss Congeniality wrings laughs from the concept of Bullock's tomboy demeanor; the character's attempts to act like a pretty girl are hilariously miscalculated. There's a great moment when Gracie tries to make small talk with Miss Hawaii: "Doesn't 'Aloha' mean both hello and goodbye? So when you're on the phone with someone and you want to get off, how do you get rid of them?"

Michael Caine takes some time off from filming John Irving adaptations to play the "pageant trainer," who may or may not be gay. Just to see him stroll down a city street to demonstrate how a pageant contestant should walk is worth the price of admission. Like Christopher Walken, Caine manages to be funny without ever cracking a smile himself.

The film's climax, involving the grand finale of the pageant and an explosive crown, ranks as one of the year's funniest single scenes, as the proceedings deteriorate into riotously funny mayhem. And the final scene avoids the temptation to become sappy and sentimental and instead ends on the slightly cynical note the film maintained from the beginning. Director Donald Petrie, recovering from his My Favorite Martian debacle, has made a remarkably consistent comedy, one that never derails or eases up on the laughs.

I don't know if Miss Congeniality can compete with the Christmas heavy-hitters but it deserves a chance. If Cast Away sounds too somber and Quills too bizarre, give this surprising Sandra Bullock vehicle a try.