Sometimes all you need to enjoy a movie is low expectations. With Miss Congeniality , lower them right to the basement level, and you'll discover some sort of primitive enjoyment factor, like infantile laughter in a nursery. Miss Congeniality is by no means a first-rate comedy, but it does reinforce Sandra Bullock's talents as a deft physical comedienne.
Every gag is a gimme.
You know she's going to fall flat on the beauty-pageant runway, but when she does, it's still funny. Although her face bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Michael Jackson's, she knows how and when to crinkle it. Before the movie finally runs its course, she takes a load of pratfalls. Ms. Bullock plays Grace, a singularly graceless FBI agent who likes to think she's tough as nails. But before her assignment ends, she usually manages to foul things up.