Miss Congeniality (2000) Synopsis

The film opens in 1982 at a school where one boy is bullying another. We see Gracie Hart as a child (Mary Ashleigh Green) who steps in to the fight, beats up the bully and tries to help the victim, whom she likes. However, the boy feels humiliated about being rescued "by a girl" and rudely rejects her. She responds by punching the boy in the nose, then leaves to sulk alone.Many years later, Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is a tough Special Agent working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation with Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt). In a sting operation against Russian mobsters, she disobeys the orders of her superior (Ernie Hudson) and tries to stop their target, a mob boss, from choking. Because of her actions one of her squad gets shot. As punishment, she is demoted to a desk job.The agency is soon alerted to a threat against the 75th annual Miss United States beauty pageant in San Antonio, Texas by a letter from a notorious domestic terrorist known only as "The Citizen". Eric is elected to lead the mission to stop a supposed attack. Eric relies on Gracie's suggestions, but ends up taking credit for them himself. One of Gracie's ideas is to plant an undercover agent at the event. A computer search identifies Gracie as the female FBI agent best qualified to take the role, and the cover for her is to be a replacement for Miss New Jersey, as the original would have been disqualified after she was discovered to have been in a porn film, although Gracie pays little attention to her femininity.Beauty pageant coach Victor Melling (Michael Caine), whose reputation was ruined after his last contestant criticized his methods, teaches the tomboyish Gracie how to dress, walk, and act like a contestant. She is unused to such behavior, however, and sees the pageant and its participants as "outdated and anti-feminist", but despite being appalled at first, she comes to appreciate Victor's thoroughness. Gracie enters the pageant as "Gracie Lou Freebush", representing New Jersey, and soon becomes an unexpected friend of Cheryl Frasier (Heather Burns), who is Miss Rhode Island. As the pageant begins, Gracie impresses the audience and judges during the talent competition by playing the glass harp and demonstrating self-defense techniques, when the other girls drink out of the glass harp.Several suspects are identified, including competition director and former pageant winner Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen), her unpleasant assistant Frank Tobin (Steve Monroe), veteran MC Stan Fields (William Shatner) and Cheryl, who has a history of being a radical animal rights activist. Gracie tries to dig into Cheryl's past when she accompanies her to a party with the other contestants, but inadvertently finds out that Kathy's past as a pageant contestant is suspect when she learns about a previous contest that Kathy won after the contest's leader suddenly came down with food poisoning. Gracie comes to think that Kathy may actually be a copycat of "The Citizen", but when she reports these suspicions to Eric and the rest of the team, she finds out that "The Citizen" has been arrested elsewhere on an unrelated charge. With no further threat identified, the supervisor has pulled the mission, but Gracie still suspects that something is wrong, and turns in her badge and gun in order to continue the pageant investigation alone. Just as Eric is about to board the plane back to the Bureau, he receives information that appears to confirm Gracie's suspicions, and disobeys orders by returning to San Antonio to help her continue the investigation.In the pageant's final round, Gracie surprises everyone, including herself, by being named first runner-up, while Cheryl is crowned as Miss United States, but as she goes to collect the winner's tiara, Gracie realizes that Frank, who is actually Kathy's son, impersonated "The Citizen" when he made the bomb threat against the pageant. Gracie tries to tell Victor, but he just brightens her remarks up and doesn't take her seriously. She next tries constantly to whisper her findings to Eric as she gets up on the stage, but he too is unable to grasp her statements. She then grabs the tiara off Cheryl and throws it up toward the stage's scenery, where it explodes. As Kathy and Frank are both arrested, Gracie determines that they had wanted to kill the winner of the pageant on stage as an act of revenge for Kathy being terminated from the Miss United States organization. That night, Gracie and Eric both make preparations to return to headquarters with a new-found interest in each other. At the post-pageant breakfast the next morning, the contestants name Gracie as "Miss Congeniality".

The film opens in 1982 at a school where one boy is bullying another. We see Gracie Hart as a child (Mary Ashleigh Green) who steps in to the fight, beats up the bully and tries to help the victim, whom she likes. However, the boy feels humiliated about being rescued "by a girl" and rudely rejects her. She responds by punching the boy in the nose, then leaves to sulk alone.Many years later, Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is a tough Special Agent working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation with Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt). In a sting operation against Russian mobsters, she disobeys the orders of her superior (Ernie Hudson) and tries to stop their target, a mob boss, from choking. Because of her actions one of her squad gets shot. As punishment, she is demoted to a desk job.The agency is soon alerted to a threat against the 75th annual Miss United States beauty pageant in San Antonio, Texas by a letter from a notorious domestic terrorist known only as "The Citizen". Eric is elected to lead the mission to stop a supposed attack. Eric relies on Gracie's suggestions, but ends up taking credit for them himself. One of Gracie's ideas is to plant an undercover agent at the event. A computer search identifies Gracie as the female FBI agent best qualified to take the role, and the cover for her is to be a replacement for Miss New Jersey, as the original would have been disqualified after she was discovered to have been in a porn film, although Gracie pays little attention to her femininity.Beauty pageant coach Victor Melling (Michael Caine), whose reputation was ruined after his last contestant criticized his methods, teaches the tomboyish Gracie how to dress, walk, and act like a contestant. She is unused to such behavior, however, and sees the pageant and its participants as "outdated and anti-feminist", but despite being appalled at first, she comes to appreciate Victor's thoroughness. Gracie enters the pageant as "Gracie Lou Freebush", representing New Jersey, and soon becomes an unexpected friend of Cheryl Frasier (Heather Burns), who is Miss Rhode Island. As the pageant begins, Gracie impresses the audience and judges during the talent competition by playing the glass harp and demonstrating self-defense techniques, when the other girls drink out of the glass harp.Several suspects are identified, including competition director and former pageant winner Kathy Morningside (Candice Bergen), her unpleasant assistant Frank Tobin (Steve Monroe), veteran MC Stan Fields (William Shatner) and Cheryl, who has a history of being a radical animal rights activist. Gracie tries to dig into Cheryl's past when she accompanies her to a party with the other contestants, but inadvertently finds out that Kathy's past as a pageant contestant is suspect when she learns about a previous contest that Kathy won after the contest's leader suddenly came down with food poisoning. Gracie comes to think that Kathy may actually be a copycat of "The Citizen", but when she reports these suspicions to Eric and the rest of the team, she finds out that "The Citizen" has been arrested elsewhere on an unrelated charge. With no further threat identified, the supervisor has pulled the mission, but Gracie still suspects that something is wrong, and turns in her badge and gun in order to continue the pageant investigation alone. Just as Eric is about to board the plane back to the Bureau, he receives information that appears to confirm Gracie's suspicions, and disobeys orders by returning to San Antonio to help her continue the investigation.In the pageant's final round, Gracie surprises everyone, including herself, by being named first runner-up, while Cheryl is crowned as Miss United States, but as she goes to collect the winner's tiara, Gracie realizes that Frank, who is actually Kathy's son, impersonated "The Citizen" when he made the bomb threat against the pageant. Gracie tries to tell Victor, but he just brightens her remarks up and doesn't take her seriously. She next tries constantly to whisper her findings to Eric as she gets up on the stage, but he too is unable to grasp her statements. She then grabs the tiara off Cheryl and throws it up toward the stage's scenery, where it explodes. As Kathy and Frank are both arrested, Gracie determines that they had wanted to kill the winner of the pageant on stage as an act of revenge for Kathy being terminated from the Miss United States organization. That night, Gracie and Eric both make preparations to return to headquarters with a new-found interest in each other. At the post-pageant breakfast the next morning, the contestants name Gracie as "Miss Congeniality".

Published Time: 2018-08-23 03:44:21