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Passes the Bechdel test

Miss Congeniality

2000. Directed by Donald Petrie, written by Marc Lawrence and Katie Ford and Caryn Lucas.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    33 women characters. 11 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 10 scenes out of 122.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

Poster for Miss Congeniality

The film

Undercover FBI Agent Gracie Hart shows no signs of having any femininity in her demeanor or appearance. Generally a bright and capable agent, she is in trouble at work when she makes an error in judgment in a case which results in a near disaster. As such, one of her by-the-books colleagues, Eric Matthews, who has never shown any inclination of thinking outside the box, is assigned to lead the high profile case of a terrorist coined The Citizen instead of her, while she is facing possible disciplinary action. Gracie pieces together the evidence to determine that The Citizen's next target will be the Miss United States beauty pageant. The pageant represents everything that Gracie abhors. Despite Gracie's mannish demeanor, Eric, with no other undercover female agent remotely fitting the demographic, assigns her to go undercover as a pageant contestant to see if she can flush out The Citizen, who is perhaps one of the other contestants. Although the pageant administration, led by former winner Cathy Morningside and long time host Stan Fields, provides the FBI with access to the pageant, Cathy in particular is less than thrilled to have a non-credible Gracie posing as a contestant, which she feels will ruin the pageant. The FBI enlists the assistance of former pageant contestant coach Victor Melling, who is facing his own disgrace associated with the pageant, to do the nearly impossible task of transforming Gracie, not only into a woman, but a credible beauty pageant contestant. As Gracie proceeds in the transformation, she gets to know the other contestants, not only as potential criminals, but also as real people. She also discovers that another sinister element is present at the pageant. She will do whatever it takes to quash that element and protect her new friends, namely the other innocent contestants. But now displaying some femininity, Gracie begins to have more womanly feelings, and in turn, attracts the attention of men, one in particular about whom she is happy.

Released
22 Dec 2000
Genres
Action, Comedy, Crime
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
6.4 / 10
Metascore
43 / 100
Awards
8 wins & 8 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Gracie 268 lines, woman
  2. Eric 141 lines, man
  3. Vic 57 lines
  4. Kathy 52 lines, woman
  5. Cheryl 37 lines, woman
  6. Mcdonald 28 lines, man
  7. Mary Jo 21 lines, woman
  8. Stan 20 lines, man
  9. Alana 16 lines, woman
  10. Karen 16 lines, woman
Full cast, 68 people
  • Sandra Bullock as Gracie Hart
  • Michael Caine as Victor Melling
  • Benjamin Bratt as Eric Matthews
  • Candice Bergen as Kathy Morningside
  • William Shatner as Stan Fields
  • Ernie Hudson as McDonald
  • John DiResta as Agent Clonsky
  • Heather Burns as Cheryl "Rhode Island"
  • Melissa De Sousa as Karen "New York"
  • Steve Monroe as Frank Tobin
  • Deirdre Quinn as Mary Jo 'Texas'
  • Wendy Raquel Robinson as Leslie 'California'
  • Asia De Marcos as Alana 'Hawaii'
  • Ken Thomas as Agent Harris
  • Gabriel Folse as Agent Grant
  • Chistopher Shea as Agent Jensen
  • Mary Ashleigh Green as Young Gracie
  • Cody Linley as Tough Boy
  • Eric Ian Goldberg as Alan
  • Danny Kamin as Krashow
  • Konstantin Selivanov as Ivan
  • Mona Lee Fultz as Russian Waitress
  • Sergei Levtsuk as Russian Bodyguard
  • John Cann as Russian Bodyguard
  • Debbie Nelson as Pageant Announcer
  • Don Cass as Pageant Director
  • Laurie Guzda as Assistant Director
  • Jimmy Graham III as Backstage Security Guard
  • Rupert Reyes as Security Guard
  • Bernadette Nason as Pageant Matron
  • Stephen Bruton as Bartender
  • Jessica Holcomb as Beth
  • Jennifer Gareis as Tina
  • Ellen H. Schwartz as Ellen Schwartz
  • Cassandra L. Small as Starbucks Cop
  • Marco Perella as Starbucks Guy
  • Cynthia Dorn as Preliminary Judge
  • Catenya McHenry as Newscaster
  • Paige Bishop as Warehouse Dentist
  • Lucien Douglas as Warehouse Hair Stylist
  • Georgia Foy as Miss United States
  • Leeanne Locken Emberlin as Nebraska
  • Pei-San Brown as Alaska
  • Isamari White as Florida
  • Kimberly Crawford as Maine
  • Jamie Drake Stephens as Maryland
  • Dyan Conner as Massachusetts
  • Kelly Bright as Minnesota
  • Dee Dee Adams as Missouri
  • Shana McClendon as Nevada
  • Janie Terrazas as New Mexico
  • Holly Mills as Ohio
  • Angela Van De Walle as Oregon
  • Tarah Bartley as South Carolina
  • Farah White as Tennessee
  • Summyr Miller as Utah
  • Jessica Hale as Vermont
  • Pam Green as Washington
  • Jennifer Matyear as Audience Member (uncredited)
  • Dawn McCoy as Delaware (uncredited)
  • Deborah Abbott as District of Columbia (uncredited)
  • Katy Dunlap as Iowa (uncredited)
  • Camille Chen as New Hampshire (uncredited)
  • Mylinda Royer as Pageant Judge (uncredited)
  • LaToya Ward as Pageant Manager (uncredited)
  • Nora J. Moore as Russian Woman (uncredited)
  • Lisa Del Dotto as South Dakota (uncredited)
  • Hollie Stenson as Wyoming (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 18% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 122

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 320
4 to 601
7 to 9108
10 to 1254
13 to 151214
16 to 1857
19 to 21616
22 to 24120
25 to 27148
28 to 301411
31 to 331010
34 to 361412
37 to 39175
40 to 42101
43 to 4500
46 to 48118
49 to 51222
52 to 541716
55 to 5721
58 to 6012
61 to 63121
64 to 66437
67 to 69242
70 to 7252
73 to 75130
76 to 7896
79 to 81110
82 to 84410
85 to 8767
88 to 90815
91 to 9311
94 to 96214
97 to 9911
100 to 10206
103 to 10511
106 to 10855
109 to 11195
112 to 11450
115 to 117257
118 to 120125
121 to 122259

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
JAY: Hey, beautiful. GRACIE: Hey, liar. Sorry about missing the Bridal Shower. But at least I sent a gift.
JAY: Honey, would you like to come home with us tonight? GRACIE: Oh, that is so nice... And so pathetic. I only moved out a year ago. As Gracie starts to get back in the car, a voice calls out.
KATHY: It's been a very busy day for Miss Hart. We have to let her get her beauty rest. GRACIE: See you in three weeks when the Valium wears off.
KATHY: I haven't been here since we moved the pageant to San Antonio. It's a shame what happened to this city. It forgot who it was. GRACIE: That happens to me a lot. KATHY: You're very clever. That's why you did well in there. I was impressed. GRACIE: No, you saved m e .
MISS OHIO: You want some? GRACIE: •fi ^ Gee, is it that obvious? Actually, f I find a warm bath with Epsom Salt really helps. GRACIE: You could blind yourself! MISS OHIO: It reduces swelling around the eyes. Removes unsightly bags. Didn't you know that?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 69 are women's.

461 lines from women, 210 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

33 women and 18 men in the cast. 11 women and 9 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 15 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 67% of the words (6,940), men 33% (3,402). Women have 69% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

5 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 43% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Donald Petrie (man)
Written by
Marc Lawrence (man), Katie Ford (woman), Caryn Lucas (woman)
Produced by
Sandra Bullock (woman)
Shot by
László Kovács (man)
Edited by
Billy Weber (man)
Music by
Edward Shearmur (man)
Production design by
Peter S. Larkin (man)
Costumes by
Susie DeSanto (woman)
Cast by
Denise Chamian (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Other crew

    3 women, 11 men, 5 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    7 women, 1 men, 2 not listed

  • Production

    5 women, 4 men, 1 not listed

  • Sound

    1 women, 4 men, 2 not listed

  • Art

    2 women, 3 men

  • Directing

    2 women, 3 men

  • Writing

    2 women, 1 men

  • Camera

    1 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 37 on average. Men: 51 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Heather Burns 25, Melissa De Sousa 33, Sandra Bullock 36, Candice Bergen 54

Men

Steve Monroe 28, Benjamin Bratt 37, Ernie Hudson 55, Michael Caine 67, William Shatner 69

Exhibit H: the money

It made 4.7 times what it cost.

Budget
$45 million
Box office
$212 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 122 scenes and 815 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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