February 20, 2009
This is a romantic comedy in the sense that its subject matter is romance and it has a happy ending, but don't expect to be rolling in the aisles. For a movie based on a hip self-help best-seller it has a sharp, intelligent script. The rather disturbing precepts of the book have been successfully turned into stories with real, sympathetic characters. It examines the nature of romantic expectations and how those impact on real relationships - how people let one another down (deliberately and often), how to interpret modern mating behaviour (men apparently aren't all that into women), at what point to decide not to exhaust yourself flogging a dead horse any more (almost immediately).
You can see that this is not your average cheery rom-com fare. It's actually quite terrifying and you need to be feeling fairly confident and robust before you commit a couple of hours to watching it. I never thought I would be watching a movie in 2009 that proposed as serious contemporary advice, as my mother did in 1974, that a girl should never EVER phone a guy, or indeed engage in any behaviour that might hint that she is attracted to him or likes him. No, a girl must only ever be pursued, never the pursuer; she must never appear to have the least hint of crazy stalker about her, and in fact the most successful strategy she can adopt is to dump her man before he dumps her, thus leading to a love-life consisting entirely of one-night stands (the book was written by a man).
Nevertheless, the film does deliver powerful rewards. It follows the fortunes of five young women, exquisitely portrayed by Jennifers Aniston, Connelly and Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson and Drew Barrymore, and the guys they date, or are in relationships with, and sometimes unwittingly share. It does manage to successfully turn the message of the rather nasty book entirely on its head and reject the theory of competitive consumerism as a model for personal relationships.
I've just found that it's impossible to say anything about the storylines without giving away crucial surprises, so all I will say is that it is well worth a look. All the principle actors are excellent; Jennifer Aniston in particular has a kind of tightness about the mouth suggestive of anticipated disappointment... I can't even say more about this! Ginnifer Goodwin was absolutely splendid as the potential crazy stalker - no, can't say more about that either. I will have to see it again. Strongly recommended.
You can see that this is not your average cheery rom-com fare. It's actually quite terrifying and you need to be feeling fairly confident and robust before you commit a couple of hours to watching it. I never thought I would be watching a movie in 2009 that proposed as serious contemporary advice, as my mother did in 1974, that a girl should never EVER phone a guy, or indeed engage in any behaviour that might hint that she is attracted to him or likes him. No, a girl must only ever be pursued, never the pursuer; she must never appear to have the least hint of crazy stalker about her, and in fact the most successful strategy she can adopt is to dump her man before he dumps her, thus leading to a love-life consisting entirely of one-night stands (the book was written by a man).
Nevertheless, the film does deliver powerful rewards. It follows the fortunes of five young women, exquisitely portrayed by Jennifers Aniston, Connelly and Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson and Drew Barrymore, and the guys they date, or are in relationships with, and sometimes unwittingly share. It does manage to successfully turn the message of the rather nasty book entirely on its head and reject the theory of competitive consumerism as a model for personal relationships.
I've just found that it's impossible to say anything about the storylines without giving away crucial surprises, so all I will say is that it is well worth a look. All the principle actors are excellent; Jennifer Aniston in particular has a kind of tightness about the mouth suggestive of anticipated disappointment... I can't even say more about this! Ginnifer Goodwin was absolutely splendid as the potential crazy stalker - no, can't say more about that either. I will have to see it again. Strongly recommended.