I saw "27 Dresses" on Friday... for free, which might have something to do with my opinion, but nonetheless... I liked it. A lot.
Katherine Heigl was charming as the slightly crazed, over the top, wedding obsessed perpetual bridesmaid. Most of the film was predictable romantic comedy fodder that we've seen a hundred times before. But so what? As I said in my earlier thoughts, the repetition and dependability are part of what I like about romantic comedies. You can go to a movie and know that someone, somehow, is going to either fall in love, or get over that love that they've been moping about. Either way, it's dependable, and if the writers are smart, it works.
"27 Dresses" was a charming movie that wasn't sexist, homophobic, or elitist. That's really all I ask for these days. Aside from that, though, the dialogue was actually funny, the characters relatively well defined, and aside from Heigl's floral shirts, the clothing was great. The plot is similar to "My Best Friend's Wedding," "The Object of my Affection" and a bunch of other movies - Heigl's character can't find love, friendship, or true happiness until she learns to let go of an unrequited crush and think for herself for once. I have to say that I really liked this plot device. Granted, the ending is cheesy and expected, but I liked the overall character arc.
Judy Greer was great (as always) as the snarky best friend, Edward Burns was, well, Edward Burns, and James Marsden looked like he needed a shower.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Saturday, January 05, 2008
They just don't make them like they used to.
I saw "P.S. I Love You" tonight. Mind you, I read the book, and it was sappy and boring, and I had no intention of seeing this movie, but my aunt seemed to really want to take me to a movie, and it was the only that I hadn't seen that doesn't involve violence or war. I kind of figured it would be lame, but entertaining enough to hold my attention on a Saturday night when the alternative was laundry and Degrassi reruns in my dirty apartment.
It pretty much accomplished both of those things, though by the end, I was closing my eyes. However, I think I finally figured out why romantic comedies of late have been annoying me so much. I know I have come onto this here blog with rants about "Enchanted" and others, getting up on my queer feminist soap box about the injustices that befell Hollywood romantic comedies. But something finally dawned on me while watching the latest incarnation of sap-fest 2007-08, and I think I might be able to explain it with more clarity than my usual knee-jerk rantiness.
Believe me, there are many rants to be had about the predicitability of this movie, the lame punch lines, the fact that Harry Connick Jr. acts like he's retarded, and the fact that Hilary Swank looks better in men's clothing than she does her own (which isn't a rant so much as an observation, and perhaps a little wistfulness for Swank's better movies), and the fact that the wardrobe in this movie looked like it came from Old Navy. But I'll get to those in a second. What I really found myself wondering about halfway through this movie was, "what the hell happened to romantic comedies that are actually funny? Forget funny, what happened to the good ones?"
Now, I'm not an old movie buff, so I'm not even talking about the days of Hepburn and Tracy, or even Woody Allen. I'm talking about the days of Rob Reiner, Meg Ryan, and even Hugh Grant. I don't want to be mad at romantic comedies. I love romantic comedies! I love the romance, the escapism, the idea that you can meet someone in a bookstore, on a street corner, wherever and have them be the love of your life, the witty banter, the manufactured moments that could only happen in movies. My screen name is chickflick, for heaven's sake. But it dawned on me that up until the last few years, what was so magical about romantic comedies is that as escapist as they were, and as potentially single minded as they were, they were able to tell their stories without making fun of or ostracizing those who don't necessarily suscribe to their prophecies.
For example, I may not believe that I'm going to fall in love with my best friend and marry him, and I may not get upset about the fact that I'm not married by a certain age. But I can still find "When Harry Met Sally" to be a funny, sweet, uplifting story. And I definitely don't see myself trying to sabotage someone's wedding while pretending that my gay best friend is my boyfriend, but I still find "My Best Friend's Wedding" funny. I do not relate to "Sex and the City" at all, yet I still find it engaging. Charlotte couldn't be more opposite from me, yet she's still an interesting character. The reason I can find these movies entertaining is because whether or not I directly relate to them, they tell interesting stories, and they don't use belittlements to make their point. The writers of these movies focus on the issue at hand, and they don't stray from it with bad, pointless meanness. I.e., "Pretty Woman" is about a hooker's transformation. Period. It doesn't mention the past love life of a minor character, however 'funny' it may be, because that's not relevant to the story.
My issue with "Enchanted," "P.S. I Love You," "Because I Said So" and a few others I've seen recently which I can't even remember the titles of is that writers seem to have run out of jokes and stories, and are therefore telling their stories at the expense of others. There's this undertone (sometimes it's an overtone, actually) that if you aren't like the people in the movie, there must be something wrong with you. Now, I think some would argue that romantic comedies have always been this way, but I beg to differ. After about the 27th gay joke within the first half hour of "P.S. I Love You", I felt as though I didn't belong in that theater. That's when I started thinking about all the 'classic' rom-coms that I like, and remembered that I don't think there is a single gay joke in any of them (save for "My Best Friend's Wedding," which actually has a gay character, so I think the jokes are of a slightly different nature).
It's as if these movies have stopped trying to tell the story of particular characters, and started trying to represent the world at large. Too many "Film and Society" classes in film school have gotten to these writers, and they forgot how to create characters, only archetypes. It only makes sense that if you're going to create a female romantic lead who is going to represent all straight women everywhere, she would, of course, be horrified at the thought that her mother might think she's a lesbian. It's not just the gay jokes, though, that I find off putting. That's just what stands out to me from this particular movie.
I was all set to almost like "P.S. I Love You," and to settle in for a craptastic way to spend a Saturday night. But when the third line in the movie is, "Why did you have to say that to my mother? You might as well have told her I'm a lesbian!", I have a hard time getting behind the rest of the movie.
It just gets worse from there. Now I can get to how predictable and schmaltzy the dialogue was. Some examples:
Hilary Swank and Harry Connick, Jr., discussing her dead husband:
Hilary: I lost my husband.
Harry: I lost my fiance.
Hilary: What happened?
Harry: She slept with my best friend.
(dramatic pause in which the entire audience thinks, "his best friend was a woman")
Harry: My best friend was a woman.
Seriously, writers? That's what you came up with? The lame punch line that I just came up with off the top of my head while sitting in a movie theater is the one you went with?
Hilary Swank to her friend who is trying to help her catch a fish (one of the things she was asked to do in a letter from her dead husband): Stop being so butch!
What?
Hilary Swank's mother to her, towards the end of the movie, after she bitches for 47th time about how she's alone, because despite the fact that she has a loving mother, two best girlfriends and about four guys in love with her, she feels soooo alone without her husband who's been dead for a year: "Just remember, that even if you're alone, other people are too, so we can all be alone together."
At this point I visibly threw my hands up and went, "what?!" Or how about just be with the people who love you, and then you won't be alone at all?
And I almost forgot to add that by the end, I had almost forgiven the film's earlier transgressions, just happy that it was over. But then there's a slight twist at the end, and the closing credits start to play to James Blunt, and my slight moment of happiness was shattered.
So that pretty much sums it up - why recent romantic comedies piss me off. It's not the ending that's changed - the girl still always gets the guy, which is why we like these movies to begin with. (Contrary to what I sometimes rant about, that is what I like about these movies.) It's how she gets there that has changed, and it's doing it at the expense of the people who aren't like the heroines. The people who maybe just like to look at the heroine because she's pretty.
It pretty much accomplished both of those things, though by the end, I was closing my eyes. However, I think I finally figured out why romantic comedies of late have been annoying me so much. I know I have come onto this here blog with rants about "Enchanted" and others, getting up on my queer feminist soap box about the injustices that befell Hollywood romantic comedies. But something finally dawned on me while watching the latest incarnation of sap-fest 2007-08, and I think I might be able to explain it with more clarity than my usual knee-jerk rantiness.
Believe me, there are many rants to be had about the predicitability of this movie, the lame punch lines, the fact that Harry Connick Jr. acts like he's retarded, and the fact that Hilary Swank looks better in men's clothing than she does her own (which isn't a rant so much as an observation, and perhaps a little wistfulness for Swank's better movies), and the fact that the wardrobe in this movie looked like it came from Old Navy. But I'll get to those in a second. What I really found myself wondering about halfway through this movie was, "what the hell happened to romantic comedies that are actually funny? Forget funny, what happened to the good ones?"
Now, I'm not an old movie buff, so I'm not even talking about the days of Hepburn and Tracy, or even Woody Allen. I'm talking about the days of Rob Reiner, Meg Ryan, and even Hugh Grant. I don't want to be mad at romantic comedies. I love romantic comedies! I love the romance, the escapism, the idea that you can meet someone in a bookstore, on a street corner, wherever and have them be the love of your life, the witty banter, the manufactured moments that could only happen in movies. My screen name is chickflick, for heaven's sake. But it dawned on me that up until the last few years, what was so magical about romantic comedies is that as escapist as they were, and as potentially single minded as they were, they were able to tell their stories without making fun of or ostracizing those who don't necessarily suscribe to their prophecies.
For example, I may not believe that I'm going to fall in love with my best friend and marry him, and I may not get upset about the fact that I'm not married by a certain age. But I can still find "When Harry Met Sally" to be a funny, sweet, uplifting story. And I definitely don't see myself trying to sabotage someone's wedding while pretending that my gay best friend is my boyfriend, but I still find "My Best Friend's Wedding" funny. I do not relate to "Sex and the City" at all, yet I still find it engaging. Charlotte couldn't be more opposite from me, yet she's still an interesting character. The reason I can find these movies entertaining is because whether or not I directly relate to them, they tell interesting stories, and they don't use belittlements to make their point. The writers of these movies focus on the issue at hand, and they don't stray from it with bad, pointless meanness. I.e., "Pretty Woman" is about a hooker's transformation. Period. It doesn't mention the past love life of a minor character, however 'funny' it may be, because that's not relevant to the story.
My issue with "Enchanted," "P.S. I Love You," "Because I Said So" and a few others I've seen recently which I can't even remember the titles of is that writers seem to have run out of jokes and stories, and are therefore telling their stories at the expense of others. There's this undertone (sometimes it's an overtone, actually) that if you aren't like the people in the movie, there must be something wrong with you. Now, I think some would argue that romantic comedies have always been this way, but I beg to differ. After about the 27th gay joke within the first half hour of "P.S. I Love You", I felt as though I didn't belong in that theater. That's when I started thinking about all the 'classic' rom-coms that I like, and remembered that I don't think there is a single gay joke in any of them (save for "My Best Friend's Wedding," which actually has a gay character, so I think the jokes are of a slightly different nature).
It's as if these movies have stopped trying to tell the story of particular characters, and started trying to represent the world at large. Too many "Film and Society" classes in film school have gotten to these writers, and they forgot how to create characters, only archetypes. It only makes sense that if you're going to create a female romantic lead who is going to represent all straight women everywhere, she would, of course, be horrified at the thought that her mother might think she's a lesbian. It's not just the gay jokes, though, that I find off putting. That's just what stands out to me from this particular movie.
I was all set to almost like "P.S. I Love You," and to settle in for a craptastic way to spend a Saturday night. But when the third line in the movie is, "Why did you have to say that to my mother? You might as well have told her I'm a lesbian!", I have a hard time getting behind the rest of the movie.
It just gets worse from there. Now I can get to how predictable and schmaltzy the dialogue was. Some examples:
Hilary Swank and Harry Connick, Jr., discussing her dead husband:
Hilary: I lost my husband.
Harry: I lost my fiance.
Hilary: What happened?
Harry: She slept with my best friend.
(dramatic pause in which the entire audience thinks, "his best friend was a woman")
Harry: My best friend was a woman.
Seriously, writers? That's what you came up with? The lame punch line that I just came up with off the top of my head while sitting in a movie theater is the one you went with?
Hilary Swank to her friend who is trying to help her catch a fish (one of the things she was asked to do in a letter from her dead husband): Stop being so butch!
What?
Hilary Swank's mother to her, towards the end of the movie, after she bitches for 47th time about how she's alone, because despite the fact that she has a loving mother, two best girlfriends and about four guys in love with her, she feels soooo alone without her husband who's been dead for a year: "Just remember, that even if you're alone, other people are too, so we can all be alone together."
At this point I visibly threw my hands up and went, "what?!" Or how about just be with the people who love you, and then you won't be alone at all?
And I almost forgot to add that by the end, I had almost forgiven the film's earlier transgressions, just happy that it was over. But then there's a slight twist at the end, and the closing credits start to play to James Blunt, and my slight moment of happiness was shattered.
So that pretty much sums it up - why recent romantic comedies piss me off. It's not the ending that's changed - the girl still always gets the guy, which is why we like these movies to begin with. (Contrary to what I sometimes rant about, that is what I like about these movies.) It's how she gets there that has changed, and it's doing it at the expense of the people who aren't like the heroines. The people who maybe just like to look at the heroine because she's pretty.
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