Miss Undercover

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Movie
German title Miss Undercover
Original title Miss Congeniality
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2000
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 6
Rod
Director Donald Petrie
script Marc Lawrence
Katie Ford
Caryn Lucas
production Bruce Berman
Sandra Bullock
music Ed Shearmur
camera László Kovács
cut Billy Weber
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Miss Undercover 2

Miss Congeniality is an American comedy film from 2000. Sandra Bullock stars as an FBI -Agentin that at a beauty contest is introduced as a participant. In 2005, the sequel Miss Undercover 2 - Fabulous and Armed .

action

Agent Gracie Hart has always been uncomfortable, classic femininity has been alien to her since childhood. After a police operation almost bursts due to her impulsiveness and a colleague is seriously injured, her standing with the US Federal Police FBI is badly damaged.

When a bomber, called “Der Citizen”, threatens to attack the Miss United States beauty contest , Gracie's colleague Eric Matthews wants to smuggle in an agent, and only Gracie has the required model dimensions. Against her will and that of her boss - who put her in the office - the unstyled, boyish criminologist is introduced to the pageant organizer, Kathy Morningside . This calls the model supervisor Victor Melling to help, who at first sees no hope, but then Gracie is still adequately prepared.

Accompanied by Eric, Victor and some FBI colleagues, Gracie travels as "Miss New Jersey" to San Antonio , Texas , and is introduced to the completely alien world of constantly grinning, bikini-wearing beauties. At the beginning, she mocks the women, whom she considers superficial and who, in her opinion, above all want "world peace". With the inexperienced Cheryl Frasier ("Miss Rhode Island") she befriends quickly, while she gets along with other women less well. As they work their way from one competition to the next, Gracie takes turns arguing with Eric and Victor. She causes a stir when she is asked on stage what is still missing in society, and she replies: “Harsher punishment for repeat offenders” and only later adds “world peace”.

The "Citizen" is finally arrested, but Gracie is not convinced that the threatening letter against the contest came from the "Citizen" at all. She suspects Kathy Morningside, who is due to be retired at the end of the current season. Her boss, Assistant Director McDonald, doesn't want to hear about it and tells her that if she wants to stay, then only as a private person. Gracie then hands Eric her gun and badge and prepares for the closing ceremony. Victor Melling will also be forced to leave the event. He says he imagines his own daughter to be what Gracie is. He adds that this is one of the reasons why it never reproduced.

Finally, Cheryl is named "Miss America", whereupon Kathy Morningside and her son Frank try to kill her with a bomb in the crown. Gracie can prevent this at the last second, Eric and Victor come to her aid. In the end, Eric and Gracie admit their feelings for each other, and Gracie is voted "Miss Congeniality", the most popular participant.

Trivia

  • Instead of keeping the original title Miss Congeniality or using a German title for Germany, a new English-language title was used for the film. The term undercover (which stands for “secret” or “covered”) seemed to be more understandable in Germany than congeniality (which in this context stands for “charm”).
  • The Miss Congeniality award actually exists in the USA. It is the only award in which the participants in a contest vote themselves which of their ranks they will award this “sympathy prize”. The name of the award was also known as Miss Unity ("Miss Unity") and Miss Amity ("Miss Friendship").
  • The movie trailer featured a scene with Gracie and her father, in which he asks her if she's a lesbian, whereupon she just laughs and says she wished it was so. The scene did not make it into the film, but is on the bonus material on the DVD purchase.
  • In several sequences Gracie Hart alias Sandra Bullock wears a dirndl (Bavarian costume), which is supposed to indicate the German origin of the actress - Sandra Bullock spent her first years mainly in Nuremberg .

Reviews

“Mixture of comedy and crime film, which is entertaining mainly thanks to the good-humored leading actress. All in all, of course, it offers only a few comical scenes because it largely relies on the well-known theme of the 'ugly duckling' and on the structure of Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew'. "

“In this rather silly crime comedy, Sandra Bullock proves that she has comic potential. Unfortunately, she ca n't curb her urge to over-act here either. If it weren't for an outstanding Michael Caine as a behavior coach and beauty maker, you could actually quickly forget this film. "

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating "valuable".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Age rating for Miss Undercover . Youth Media Commission .
  2. Miss Undercover. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. Miss Undercover at Prisma Online
  4. Miss Undercover on fbw-filmbassy.com