The Movies: Chick Flicks That Don't Suck
You know those “romantic” movies where the woman is always going off and finding some new guy who listens to her and changes her way of thinking so drastically that she begins to see that her entire life up to that point has been a travesty? What’s up with those movies? For the most part I hate those movies. They all seem to start the same and end the same. You’ve got a woman who’s fed up with her boyfriend. She finds another man who fascinates her because he’s different than anything she’s known. Something happens which makes their love impossible. They overcome this obstacle. They hold each other as the screen fades. The part they don’t show you is that ten years down the line the woman now has three kids she resents, the man she ran off with decided to run away with some other, younger woman. And you know that guy she left behind because he was too stuffy and old fashioned? He runs a multi-billion dollar company and divides his time between his home on a tropical island and an exciting life meeting famous and powerful people. But hey, that’s okay. She left him for love. While we’re on the topic, isn’t it possible for a person to be rich AND be a nice guy?
But anyway, here are a few movies which fall into this category that I didn’t hate.
Angels and Their Fetishes
I liked the 1998 remake of “City of Angels” for the oh-so-weird combination of Meg Ryan as a doctor who’s beginning to have misgivings about the choices she’s made in life and Nicholas Cage (who seems to be constantly inebriated or maybe that’s just what happens when you go to heaven, I haven’t decided) playing an angel who’s become discontent with just helping people. And you can kind of see his point. Who wants to spend the rest of eternity making people feel better about themselves? Also that whole idea is a little creepy. You’re telling me there are these guys standing around ALL the time? Even when I’m in the shower? Hey God, how about some privacy, huh? The premise is just so freaking weird that I can’t help but like it. Also there are few things better than watching Nicholas Cage trying to get Meg Ryan to tell him what an orange tastes like -- "I want to know what it tastes like... to YOU..." There’s something so deep and philosophical about this while at the same time being so completely creepy and, sometimes, stupid. I LOVE IT!
SPOILER ALERT: The Boat Sinks
And then there’s “Titanic”. I didn’t want to like this movie when I went to watch it. I really didn’t. I mean, it had the makings of a total stink-fest. Leonardo DiCaprio had always been (in my mind) “that pretty boy that really sucked as Romeo in ‘Romeo + Juliet’”. I’d never heard of Kate Winslet or Billy Zane. And frankly, there wasn’t a whole lot of mystery about how the movie was going to end. Anyway, I ended up liking it. But something always bugged me about the relationship Rose had with Jack. The plot revolves primarily around Rose being rebellious against her old way of life and clinging to any hope of escaping it, even to the extent of starting a relationship with a person that, by her own admission, was callous and vulgar yet whose way of life she found appealing. Jack, on the other hand, was trying to score. Now, being a man, I think I can see the logic behind Jack’s character. However; I think I’d be vaguely insulted (were I a woman) at the message it seems to put out about the female psyche. First, apparently women can’t make their own decisions and need a man to come along to set it all straight. Second, posing naked for some guy with marginal artistic skill whom you’ve just met is a good idea. Third, killing off said guy in the freezing waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean is a good way of creating fond memories of the past.
On a completely different note, I think this film is a testament to teenage hormones and the intrinsic need to make it in the backseat of a car. Even out in the middle of the Ocean teenagers will seek one out. Also, I would like it pointed out that the character of Rose was underage at the time.
The White House and The Nazi Connection
On the other end of the spectrum you have Casa Blanca. I love that ending. You’ve got the same characters present in all the other movies. 1 boyfriend/husband guy who seems completely oblivious, 1 woman torn between two worlds, 1 macho guy that women swoon for but whose situation makes it difficult to get together with the woman, 1 best friend who is level headed and delivers sound advice. It’s true that part of this movie is played as a mystery, so that one can’t gauge the character’s motivations from the start. However, I feel this is part of the beauty of this movie. The human mind is convoluted and sometimes contradictory thing and the audience only learns each character’s motivation as their prospective lover does. That’s why I like that the woman goes off with her husband leaving the main character to discover his homosexuality, suggested by Bogart’s famous lines “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” shortly before heading off into the mist with a Nazi-sympathizer.
No comments:
Post a Comment