Funny 'Bunny' hops to it as female empowerment comedy

Who woulda thunk that a comedy called "The House Bunny" could become the sweetest, purest "summer movie" of the summer?

Columbia Pictures had such little faith in Fred Wolf's charming late-season release that the studio buried its press screening on Wednesday night after regular local media deadlines, a move designed to minimize bad reviews. Not this time.

"The House Bunny" comes from the writers of the smart and sassy "Legally Blonde," and it's directed by Wolf, a long-time head writer for "Saturday Night Live." So don't be fooled by a silly-sounding premise and frequent forays into crass humor. This comedy is jazzed with lessons for young women about the importance of balancing lives, fulfilling potentials and taking charge of destinies.

Besides, you have to admire any movie that preaches the gospel of female empowerment and uses a Playboy bunny to deliver it.

The big news in "House Bunny" is star Anna Faris, who has squandered a large chunk of her career making stupid "Scary Movie" sequels. Equipped with pneumatic lips and a stomach tighter than a school board budget, Faris enjoys a real break-out role as the adorable titular heroine, an orphan named Shelley Darlington. She lives the pampered life of a bunny at Hugh Hefner's infamous Playboy Mansion.

Up to her 27th birthday when she thinks she's going to become a Miss November centerfold, her life is a dream.

That's when poor Shelley's perfect world falls apart. She receives her walking papers from Hef (played by the ultimate Playboy himself). She has two hours to vacate the premises.

The homeless Shelley wanders around just long enough to stumble onto a house that looks just like a mini-Playboy Mansion: a sorority house!

Snubbed by a gaggle of snooty house mothers (led by "National Lampoon's Vacation" star Beverly D'Angelo), Shelley winds up at Zeta Alpha Zeta, a sorority of sex-challenged nerds who will lose their charter if they can't snag 30 new pledges by Oct. 15.

The good-hearted Shelley says she can get those pledges. All the Zeta girls have to do is make her their house mother, then follow Shelley's lessons on how to be sexy.

"Boys want what other boys want," she says, hammering home basic truths not found in college texts.

The Zetas are amazed at what happens when they listen to Shelley's advice.

"So this is what it feels like not to be invisible," says Natalie, the alpha Zeta played to nerdy perfection by "Superbad" actress Emma Stone.

You expect Shelley to have no problem attracting a handsome local nursing home manager named Oliver (Colin Hanks, Tom's son). This is where "House Bunny" shifts gears. Oliver likes intellectual stimulation, and poor Shelley doesn't know what to do. So the brainy Zetas band together to give Shelley lessons in oral text.

"House Bunny" throws in a standard plot about nasty, rival sorority girls trying to sabotage the Zetas. And a wincing, obvious homage to "Forrest Gump." And cliches such as balloons, amusement parks, the thumbs-up gesture and the obligatory line "Trust me."

Then Shelley, who's not as clueless as her Marilyn Monroean persona suggests, comes up with a pithy observation like "The eyes are the nipples of the face!" The line rivals Natalie's confession of love: "I want to be your girlfriend more than a proton wants to be attracted to an electron!"

Make no mistake, this "House Bunny" belongs to the fair and fetching Faris, who has great fun with Shelley's quirky habit of using a demonoid voice to repeat the names of the people she meets.

Now, if only Wolf could have gotten a better actor to play Hef.

"The House Bunny"

Three stars (out of four)

Starring: Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Colin Hanks, Beverly D'Angelo, Hugh Hefner

Directed by: Fred Wolf

Other: A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for language, nudity, sexual situations. 97 minutes.