Slap Her...She's French (also known as She Gets What She Wants in the United States) is a 2002 comedy starring Piper Perabo, Jane McGregor and Trent Ford.
The plot has a popular and well-to-do Texas teenager Starla Grady (McGregor) and her family take in a French exchange student by the name of Genevieve LePlouff (Perabo). As Starla tries to integrate Genevieve into American high school life, her own popularity slowly begins to eclipse her own, much to her jealousy and chagrin.
Related Tropes:
- Accidental Public Confession: In the end, Clarissa accuses Starla of faking an apology to win back public approval and insults her and everyone in town, not realizing her microphone was never turned off.
- Alpha Bitch: Starla is implied to be one, if going by how she treats Ed and Doreen. Not to mention she first introduced her best friends, Tanner and Ashley, as sluts to Genevieve.
- Animal Reaction Shot: When Starla learns that Genevieve made her flunk French with naughty words, several cattle moo at her loud screaming and eating the camera.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: During her time in jail, Starla has to take a shower with a bunch naked women, although she covers her breasts with her hands, Starla asks if any of them have cream rinse.Starla: Are you telling me none of y'all has got any cream rinse?
[The women in the show stare at Starla for a second then ignore, while Starla develops a dismayed look on her face] - Best Served Cold: Genevieve/Clarissa's plan of revenge against Starla, who humiliated her when they were children to the point of her ruining her reputation.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Downplayed with Starla's kid brother, Randolph; she considers him to be a brat due to him obviously being both smarter and wittier than she is, but she herself can be the more bratty of the two.
- Break the Haughty: This happens to Starla when she loses her popularity.
- Butt-Monkey: Starla goes through some embarrassing and comedic situations in the film, especially when she is in jail, which are mostly caused by Genevieve/Clarissa.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Genevieve: she's orphaned and her one-time love drowned after falling in a river after a motorcycle crash. Turns out, she, or rather Clarissa, her real name, does have one: she was set up by Starla in a cruel prank when they were children into licking a ice sculpture of a cow at a school play. Her tongue got stuck, she was a laughingstock and was so humiliated by what happened, she left the school and her family soon moved to France some time later.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The real Genevieve LePlouff had died years ago and fake Genevieve, real name Clarissa Fogelsy, had swiped it seeing it in a newspaper article.
- The Dividual: Ashley and Tanner, Starla's two best friends. They're almost never apart, engage in a lot of the same things (materialism, smoking, spooning with each other, etc.), and even for a time turn on Starla due to Genevieve telling them that she called them sluts.
- Everything Is Big in Texas: Set in Texas, with just about all the relevant stereotypes.
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: How Genevieve is able to appeal to so many of her fellow students and get away with some of her more raunchier words and expressions ("What big meat that you have", "It must be nice to have a girl stuck to your bod like that", etc.)
- False Friend: At the start of the film, Starla is this trope as she transparently uses Genevieve to boost her own status and popularity. Turns out Genevieve was also this trope, except she did it better and more subtly.
- French Jerk: What Genevieve is ultimately proven to be.
- Gilligan Cut: While in jail, Starla is allowed to get to cleaned up, she then says she would like a nice hot bath. The scene then shifts with her forced to shower with a bunch of female convicts. Starla, while covering her breasts, then asks the women if any of them have cream rinse, and they look at her for a second and ignore her, much to Starla's dismay.
- Granola Girl: Doreen, an atypical student at Starla's school who's a vegetarian and against harm to any animals whatsoever.
- Green-Eyed Monster: How Starla soon comes to view Genevieve as her popular begins to surpass her own.
- Here We Go Again!: At the end of the film, which now takes place in a French, Clarissa/"Genevieve" is now portraying a stereotypical Texan named Starla for the new French family who will be hosting her.
- How We Got Here :The film begins with Starla arrested and getting her mugshot taken as she tells her story to the viewers on how she end up in this situation
- Humiliation Conga: After Genevieve gets her arrested after Starla into eating psychedelic mushrooms and getting her high, Starla has the worst during her time in jail. First, she vomits on the police headquarters floor while is she taken to get her mugshot, then acts loopy due to still being high on the mushrooms even asks for prints if her mugshot turns out good. Second, Starla takes a shower with all the women in the jail, although Starla covers her breasts. Third, just as she thanked for God for giving her the cell to herself, a tough looking woman is put in the cell with her, and takes the top bunk, which is even more unpleasant for Starla as the woman sleep farts on her. Luckily for Starla, she finally bailed out of jail by Randolph and Ed.
- I Just Want to Be You: Implied with Genevieve, who at one point tries on Starla's pageant gown and tiara while posing in the mirror.
- It's All About Me: Starla. Virtually nothing she does is for altruistic reasons; she sponsors Genevieve to win a pageant and does so much charity work so that "people will hate [her] less".
- Lady Drunk: Subverted with Mrs. Grady, who drinks a lot to the point of others knowing about it, but it doesn't stop her from being supportive of her children or even in showing a genuine interest in Genevieve.
- Meaningful Name: Genevieve's surname, LePlouff, is French for "The Splash". She really made a "splash" with the student body and the town, who showered her with love and attention.
- Meat Versus Veggies: Granola Girl Doreen interrupts a pro-meat play at the school in protest over her own anti-meat stance and is promptly escorted out. By the end of the film, Starla, in spite of living in stereotypically carnivorous Texas, reveals that she is a vegetarian. Her kid brother, Randolph, is also similar-minded, admitting that he disapproves of their beloved father's hunting to the point of putting blanks into his guns.
- Mushroom Samba: Quite literally; before her arrest, Starla eats psychedelic mushrooms and arrives at school high.
- Never My Fault: When Starla freaks out in class and tries to explain that Genevieve switched the French tape with the tape of her badmouthing the student body and talking about how her French teacher and his wife engage in swinging, he then asks her, "And I suppose that's not your voice we're listening to?!"
- No Animals Were Harmed: Parodied: "No French People Were Harmed During The Making Of This Film."
- No Sympathy: Once Genevieve is exposed as a fake and the whole school/audience laughs at the embarrassing moment at the childhood school play, she tries to plead her case that the damage it did ran her out of town and traumatized her. Yet there are murmurs of disapproval and one girl even shouts, "Oh, get over it!"
- Pet the Dog: After Starla goes through her Humiliation Conga during her jail time, Randolph, even thought he doesn't like her, and Ed post her bail.
- Precision F-Strike: "No one fucks with my family."
- Product Placement: For Pepsi products and Post Cereals, namely Cranberry Almond Crunch.
- Rejected Apology: After Starla apologizes to Clarissa for the prank that humiliated her in front of everyone, Clarissa accuses her of faking it to win the contest, then goes onto insult the town, calling everyone a bunch of “inbreds”.
- Tempting Fate: Starla is praying to God in jail, she thanks God for giving her jail cell to herself, before a tough looking woman is put in the cell with her.
- The Unfavorite: Randolph. His parents do love him, but big sister Starla's the superstar of the family, evidenced how they having numerous tapes of her many events and exploits and they only have one of his birth.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After getting arrested for getting drunk and attacking Genevieve in class, Starla vomits on the police headquarters floor as she's being lead to booking.
- Whispered Threat: Starla's anger at Genevieve's popularity eclipsing her own comes to a head at a big school dance. She confronts her rival when she dances with Kyle in a suggestive manner. When Genevieve whispers that her "whorish" manner is a turn-on to him, Starla starts a Cat Fight with her friends when they defend Genevieve's honor and confront her on her gossiping.
