April 28, 2005
Garden State vs. Bridget Jones
It looks like my speaking out against twentysomething male fantasy movies about depressed jerks and the saintly women who save them may turn into an outreach/intervention. I received this via email:
last year and a bit. I e-mailed him some excerpts to see if he comes to
his senses 🙂
I’m happy to help. But as I told this person, I don’t want to frustrate anyone’s creative impulses. Perhaps every twentysomething male needs to churn out one of these types of scripts in order to exorcise those demons. Then they can move on to something more interesting.
I’m trying to think of the equivalent female-fantasy movies, but am drawing a blank. That could be because there aren’t so many scripts by women, or it could be my own personal blind spot concerning my own gender. Maybe it’s the woman-who-dares-to-find-herself-and-in-so-doing-finds-Mr.Right? Any help, guys? What are the female fantasy cliches that annoy you in films? Anything with Meg Ryan or Tom Hanks in it? I’d say something like Bridget Jones would be an obvious choice, but it’s actually so old-fashioned that its attitudes seem fresh again. A woman daring to admit she wants a husband! That just isn’t done.
Filed by cynthia rockwell at 2:10 pm under Just Movies
5 Comments
Under the Tuscan Sun?
All the wedding movies ever made, pretty much. Not finding-a-husband movies, but wedding-centric ones, like The Wedding Planner, Runaway Bride, etc. No Wedding Is Really Like That Unless You Are A Millionaire.
I thought Secretary was pretty much the last word in female romantic fantasy films.
how right you are, sean. i’m so tired of seeing movies about chicks who find their perfect dom, what a cliche.
And Hollywood always makes it seem like these women just ride off into the sunset with their doms and live happily ever after.