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Romantic Comedies
Aug. 9th, 2011 09:39 pmI've been posting a lot of movie reviews lately, and that's because I'm out of work, I'm not in the middle of a costuming project, and I have a sick cat so I can't go anywhere, which means I have plenty of time to watch all the movies in my Netflix streaming queue that I have to watch before September, when their prices nearly double and I have to cut back to delivery-only and get rid of my streaming account.
Because I've been watching so many movies, I'm thinking about movies lately too, even when I'm not watching them. The movies I'm about to discuss are not poly, but they weren't being reviewed as potential poly movies. They're movies I've had in my library for a while, years in one case, but I'm thinking about movies and relationships, and so I thought of these.
Y'know what I hate? I hate romantic comedies (yes, you could just put a period there, but I have a specific point to get to) where one person dates someone who's pretty OK, there are no obvious flaws or defects, or maybe there are some small ones but they're acceptable, but someone else has a crush on the "taken" character, and schemes and plots and connives to destroy the OK relationship so that the schemer can move in.
The reason why I hate those movies is because the schemer often wins in the end. Sure, the plot usually blows up in his face, and the love interest storms off, declaring never to speak to him again. But the plotting *did* manage to break up the OK relationship, so the love interest has all this time alone to realize how much the schemer really loves her, to have gone through all that trouble. And besides, the schemer seems really sorry. So the love interest decides to forgive and marry the asshole who counts deception and hurting his love interest as proper things to do when you love someone.
I HATE those movies.
So when I find moves that do not reward lying, cheating, scheming, and deliberately causing pain by breaking up an otherwise functioning relationship, I am shocked, and those movies make it to my library, looking incredibly out of place as chick-flicks nestled among science fiction, gratuitous action, horror, porn, and screwball comedies (yes, my movie collection looks like a guy's collection, but with probably less porn). I am doubly shocked when the movie is made in another country that is known for being not exactly "hip" with the modern romance - i.e. preferring traditional gender roles, being anti-gay, and generally being outright opposed to progressive values.
So here are two movies that fall into the romantic comedy genre that manage to avoid the 2 main cliches that make that genre such a crappy genre - the rewarding of duplicitous behaviour and the love interest dates a bastard that our hero has to "rescue" her from:
( My Best Friend's Wedding - I tried not to give away too many spoilers, but you can probably guess the ending from my description, so you might want to skip this. )
( Dostana - again, I tried not to give away spoilers, but sometimes the only way to explain why I like a movie is to give part of the plot away. )
Y'know what I hate? I hate romantic comedies (yes, you could just put a period there, but I have a specific point to get to) where one person dates someone who's pretty OK, there are no obvious flaws or defects, or maybe there are some small ones but they're acceptable, but someone else has a crush on the "taken" character, and schemes and plots and connives to destroy the OK relationship so that the schemer can move in.
The reason why I hate those movies is because the schemer often wins in the end. Sure, the plot usually blows up in his face, and the love interest storms off, declaring never to speak to him again. But the plotting *did* manage to break up the OK relationship, so the love interest has all this time alone to realize how much the schemer really loves her, to have gone through all that trouble. And besides, the schemer seems really sorry. So the love interest decides to forgive and marry the asshole who counts deception and hurting his love interest as proper things to do when you love someone.
I HATE those movies.
So when I find moves that do not reward lying, cheating, scheming, and deliberately causing pain by breaking up an otherwise functioning relationship, I am shocked, and those movies make it to my library, looking incredibly out of place as chick-flicks nestled among science fiction, gratuitous action, horror, porn, and screwball comedies (yes, my movie collection looks like a guy's collection, but with probably less porn). I am doubly shocked when the movie is made in another country that is known for being not exactly "hip" with the modern romance - i.e. preferring traditional gender roles, being anti-gay, and generally being outright opposed to progressive values.
So here are two movies that fall into the romantic comedy genre that manage to avoid the 2 main cliches that make that genre such a crappy genre - the rewarding of duplicitous behaviour and the love interest dates a bastard that our hero has to "rescue" her from:
( My Best Friend's Wedding - I tried not to give away too many spoilers, but you can probably guess the ending from my description, so you might want to skip this. )
( Dostana - again, I tried not to give away spoilers, but sometimes the only way to explain why I like a movie is to give part of the plot away. )
So there you go - two "chick-flicks" that I don't hate. In fact, I actually quite like them both. A lot. They're still romantic comedies, so don't expect *too* much from them. But sometimes, I just like a bit of fluff, and these movies don't make me feel bad that my relationships can't possibly live up to the fantasy because they're so unrealistic, nor do they make me weep for the future of society where people think secrets and lies are the way to get a partner, and that passion makes up for compatibility, and that love conquers all. They're simple and goofy, but they're more realistic and honest than most others in this genre. So I recommend them.
