Miss Congeniality (film)

Miss Congeniality
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Donald Petrie
Produced by	Sandra Bullock
Written by	Marc Lawrence Katie Ford Caryn Lucas
Starring	Sandra Bullock Michael Caine Benjamin Bratt William Shatner Ernie Hudson Candice Bergen
Music by	Edward Shearmur
Cinematography	László Kovács
Edited by	Billy Weber
Production company	Castle Rock Entertainment Village Roadshow Pictures NPV Entertainment Fortis Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures (US) Roadshow Entertainment (Australia & New Zealand)
Release date	December 22, 2000 (2000-12-22)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$45 million
Box office	$212.7 million

Miss Congeniality is a 2000 American comedy film directed by Donald Petrie, written by Marc Lawrence, Katie Ford, and Caryn Lucas, and starring Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine, Benjamin Bratt, and Candice Bergen.

In 1982, young Gracie Hart steps into playground fight to beat up a bully threatening a boy she likes. She goes to help her friend, but he feels humiliated being rescued "by a girl", and she promptly punches him in the nose and leaves to sulk alone. Years later, Gracie is now a Special Agent for FBI. During a sting operation against Russian mobsters, she disobeys her superior's orders to save the mob boss from choking, causing one of the other agents to be shot. She is demoted to a desk job as punishment.

Some time later, the agency learns of a bomb threat at the upcoming 75th annual Miss United States beauty pageant in San Antonio, Texas by the notorious domestic terrorist known as "The Citizen". Gracie's partner Eric Matthews is put in charge to stop the threat, but he leans more on Gracie's suggestions for how to proceed, and takes credit for them when they produce promising leads, angering. One of Gracie's suggestions is to plant an agent undercover at the event. Eric determines that most of the other male agents on his team would be too immature and chauvinistic, and suggests Gracie take on that role. Without knowing who they can trust at the pageant, the agents soon realize the only way this would work would be to have Gracie participate in the show itself. Beauty pageant coach Victor Melling, whose reputation was ruined after his last contestant criticized his methods, teaches the tomboyish Gracie how to dress, walk, and act like a contestant. Though initially appalled by the "anitfeminist" pageant, she comes to appreciate Victor's methods.

Gracie is entered as "Gracie Lou Freebush", representing her home state of New Jersey. Though she is scorned by most of the other contestants, Gracie becomes friends with Miss Rhode Island, Cheryl Frasier. As the competition begins, Gracie impresses the judges with her glass harp skills and self-defense techniques in the talent competition. Several suspects emerge during the investigation, including the current competition director and former pageant winner Kathy Morningside, her assistant Frank Tobin, the veteran MC Stan Fields, and Cheryl who had a history of being a radical animal rights activist. Gracie accompanies Cheryl and other contestants as they spend a night partying, where Gracie tries to dig into Cheryl's past, but inadvertently learns from the others that Kathy's past as a pageant contestant is suspect, including how she won after the leading contestant suddenly came down with food poisoning. Gracie comes to believe Kathy is "The Citizen". However, when she reports this to Eric the next day, she learns that "The Citizen" had been arrested on an unrelated charge, and because there is no further threat, their supervisor has pulled the mission. Gracie convinces Eric that she still suspects something is wrong, and he returns to help her continue the investigation against orders.