Feel-good bunny fun

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Oct 10, 2008

THE HOUSE BUNNY

(12A, 97 mins) Comedy. Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Lauren Hill, Kellan Rhude, Kiely Williams, Monet Mazur, Rumer Willis, Colin Hanks, Katharine McPhee, Beverly D'Angelo *****

BLESSED with a tour-de-force performance from Anna Faris, pictured, as a Playboy Bunny with a heart of gold, Fred Wolf's feel-good comedy promotes the age-old message of solidarity and individualism.

It succeeds solely on the strength of its leading lady.

The screenplay is flimsy at best, using Legally Blonde as a framework for its ditzy heroine. And the director pads out the running time with cliched musical montages including - that old chestnut - the makeover.

Yet whenever Faris totters into shot, on her outrageously high heels, you can't help but smile. You fall head over heels in love with her innocent character, who believes: "kindness is just love with its work boots on."

Faris plays Shelley Darlington, popular resident of the Playboy mansion, who holds the affections of all the girls there, except jealous rival Cassandra (Mazur).

Made to believe that Hugh Hefner no longer requires her services, Shelley tearfully flees the mansion and lands the position of house mother to the Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority, which is threatened with closure unless it can attract 30 pledges by the end of the semester.

The dowdy house residents - Carrie Mae (Goodman), Harmony (McPhee), Joanne (Willis), Lilly (Williams), Mona (Dennings), Natalie (Stone) and Tanya (Makkouk) - are resigned to their fate, but Shelley inspires the girls to pull out all the stops in a bid to stop Zeta Alpha Zeta falling foul of the bulldozers.

The former Bunny wins the heart of nursing home manager Oliver (Hanks) in the process, but frets that she isn't smart enough for him.

Should she undergo a makeover too?

Should she cram at the college library?

The House Bunny is a guilty pleasure - a harmless piece of comic fluff that tickles our fancy despite glaring shortcomings. And Faris is a one-woman comic dynamo.

Without her impeccable timing and boundless energy this bunny would be hopping straight to DVD.

SWEARING, NO SEX, NO VIOLENCE