Meanness lacks bite

One or two good acerbic jokes apart, Mean Girls isn't mean at all. It ends up as sentimental as any Hollywood suit could wish. Based on Rosalind Wiseman's bestseller, Queen Bees and Wannabes, it's a kind of Rough Guide to the peer-group pressures of American high school life - in particular, one Wannabe's triumph over a quite awful Queen Bee. Lindsay Lohan puts in a lively performance but doesn't get much of a chance as the Wannabe, back in America from Africa and thus ripe for tormenting; Rachel McAdams is the Bee.

This film, directed by Mark Waters, could have been an intriguing tale of female adolescence. But we constantly get the feeling that we've seen it all better done before, notably in Heathers. There is no depth in any characterisations, and nobody you want to like.

There are moments, of course, such as when one of the girls says: "My breasts can always tell when it's going to rain." And it could just be that a mere man, some way from adolescence, isn't capable of appreciating the finer points of the female dialogue.

Even so, if we want the truth from comedy - - and the best comedies should contain quite a lot of it - - why should we accept that most of the girls look like graduates from an L.A. gym rather than normal teenagers? And why are the parents on show invariably cast as idiots? You'd get a better film if it looked more honest. Calling someone stupid, says one of the brighter teachers at the end, doesn't make you smarter. I won't call Mean Girls stupid. But it isn't really very smart.

Mean Girls
Cert: 12A