Warning: spoilers abound
I just got back from seeing Friends with Benefits. I enjoyed the movie, and came out of the theater a little more surprised than I thought I would. Not because the ending surprised me. Quite the opposite. In fact, the lack of surprise at the ending is what perplexed me most.
A friend and I had gotten movie passes through a LivingSocial deal with Fandango this summer, so I’d seen quite a few movies recently. FWB triggered an analysis that I believe has been brewing for a while in the back of my mind—the evolution of the romantic comedy.
It used to be that the boy next door eventually got the girl. The girl who was even forgotten by her own family got a birthday cake & wish come true when her popular high school crush waited for her outside a church. The college acquaintances who annoyed the crap out of each other when they drove semi-cross-country together realized they were meant to be after about 10 years of chance encounters. In many scenarios, the guy and girl who started off as enemies for a variety of reasons end up falling for each other in the end. Not so much anymore…
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like times have changed. Ok, Pretty Woman had the rich guy and his pseudo-call girl fall in love, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s was a somewhat similar twist on the girl-next-door thing, but they were the exception. Lately, there’s been the drunken one night stand that resulted in a kid and a happily ever after. Or the guys that habitually attend weddings, creating false identities for the sole purpose of one night of anonymous sex not only both finding their happily ever afters, but also rescuing one girl from an ass of a fiancé in the process. Or various scenarios where a fake relationship is created to cover for an almost discovered lie to a current significant other, in which the fake relationship turns out to be the better one. Most recently, there was a more complicated one where best friend A secretly cheated with best friend B’s fiancé, while best friend B was secretly cheating with her fiance’s best friend. Somehow all that cheating led to two happily ever afters and no real hard feelings, while a perfectly awesome single guy who was in love with best friend A (and available) all along remains single at the end of the film. Which brings me back to FWB and the booty call turning into a fairy tale relationship.
I’m not against these movies. In fact, Pretty Woman, Knocked Up & Wedding Crashers are 3 movies I own and love. I get that times have changed. I don’t think I’m terribly cynical (more of a realistic, logical girl), but I am a bit skeptical about the classic boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily ever after thing. It’s too simple. In the real world, it doesn’t just happen that way. There’s more to it.
Maybe these movies are taking a more realistic turn, in a way. The unlikely possibility of the traditional plot-- guy meets girl, they face a minor conflict, then reunite where the guy has an emotional heart-to-heart with said girl, resulting in resolution and a kiss in a random public location-- taking place in real life was even discussed in FWB. Hell, The Break-Up was refreshing in a way, with the couple actually parting ways at the end of the film like would have happened in real life, even though it left the audience feeling like we were lacking closure without the fairy tale ending we're so used to. Since we tend to base our expectations (or at least hopes) on what we see in movies and tv (also brought up in FWB), it makes sense that they would be evolving to more closely match what actually goes on in real life to some degree, and not some glorified ideal that is harder for the general public to relate to.
I get that casual sex is becoming a more accepted, almost expected part of life, and therefore, potentially the start to more real life relationships. I just found it kind of funny that the lesson I’ve taken from the movies I’ve seen lately is that if you create an intricate false life, cheat, or find a one-night stand or friend with benefits, you up your chances at finding your happily ever after.
Maybe these movies are taking a more realistic turn, in a way. The unlikely possibility of the traditional plot-- guy meets girl, they face a minor conflict, then reunite where the guy has an emotional heart-to-heart with said girl, resulting in resolution and a kiss in a random public location-- taking place in real life was even discussed in FWB. Hell, The Break-Up was refreshing in a way, with the couple actually parting ways at the end of the film like would have happened in real life, even though it left the audience feeling like we were lacking closure without the fairy tale ending we're so used to. Since we tend to base our expectations (or at least hopes) on what we see in movies and tv (also brought up in FWB), it makes sense that they would be evolving to more closely match what actually goes on in real life to some degree, and not some glorified ideal that is harder for the general public to relate to.
I get that casual sex is becoming a more accepted, almost expected part of life, and therefore, potentially the start to more real life relationships. I just found it kind of funny that the lesson I’ve taken from the movies I’ve seen lately is that if you create an intricate false life, cheat, or find a one-night stand or friend with benefits, you up your chances at finding your happily ever after.
I think this is a very enlightening blog. I particularly like your ending statement "I just found it kind of funny that the lesson I’ve taken from the movies I’ve seen lately is that if you create an intricate false life, cheat, or find a one-night stand or friend with benefits, you up your chances at finding your happily ever after." It makes me take a step back and look at these movies in a completely different light.
ReplyDeleteDid I watch a different movie from you? They end up together at the end... don't they?
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about romantic comedies now is that they write in everyone's insecurities. Even though they're played by drop dead gorgeous actors, we can relate to them because they have the same insecurities as us.
We are twins! Haha. I get what you are saying. I love these movies, but I have started to put a lot of thought into the potential consequences of the romanticization of one night stands and questionable values.
ReplyDeleteNOT because I am a nun, as I'm not uber-conservative, but moreso because I worry about, say, a 17 year old girl who is about to go to college and will see these movies and get the idea that if she sleeps with a guy she met at a party a few times, he will eventually "come around" (not the norm, haha). Of course, there is something to be said for a woman who has a head on her shoulders won't think like that, anyway, but I have plenty of feminist rants about the media's impact on the female psyche, so that can be for another day. Haha.
(PS we met at visitation day at UF, this is Sam :-P)
They do end up together, and characters are becoming more relatable and "average" for sure in personality, if not in looks. Definitely has a good side to it, too!
ReplyDeleteSam- Exactly! I love them, too, and am not uber-conservative either, but a friend of mine recently got her Master's in Media Psych and did a lot of the media-impact-on-the-female-psyche analysis you speak of... tons of interesting stuff, and a plethora of future debate/discussion potential haha. Definitely got me looking at things a bit differently, which is likely where a lot of my analysis stems from!