The two are announced as joint winners of the award for “Most changed for the better since high school” and given medals. But the two leave separately in cars with Sandy and Billy, glancing wistfully back at each other. Cut to 70 years later and two are old and married and still not speaking. In a final nightmare gag Michele calls Romy (who is on her deathbed) but the two just bicker about who is the Mary and who is the Rhoda…

It’s really fun but it’s also way more subversive than that, in keeping with the film as a whole. The nightmare version is what happens in lesser films – the pair get their makeovers, love interests, revenge on the school bullies and both end up living long ‘happily ever after’ lives with their partners. Their friendship is superseded by their romantic interests. That’s what’s supposed to happen, these films say, grow up, get married, have kids – get thin, get great jobs, do all the things Romy and Michele thought they had to do to be impressive. But for these two, losing each other in favor of a couple of blokes is a nightmare.

In an interview with Vanity Fair 20 years after the film came out (the movie is 25 years old this year), writer Robin Schiff said she didn’t exactly know what Romy and Michele would be up to 20 years on. But it sounds like they wouldn’t have followed a conventional path. 

“It’s hard to picture them getting married and having kids. But what else have they been doing then if they’re still living together?” she said. “I like to believe that they’re doing well with their store, and maybe they’re bigger fashion designers. I know for a fact Michele is not with Sandy. That was a big mistake.”

So when Michele finally wakes up and enters the reunion for real and nothing goes quite as the girls planned, it’s all the sweeter. Perceived perfection at the cost of their friendship is a nightmare. Being laughed at by your entire graduation class, telling a pregnant woman she’s a nasty bitch, getting a compliment on your outfits and leaving in a helicopter with your best mate: now that is true success.

Danofgeek