Show, Don't Tell or Rach bitches about romatic comedies, again.

[rm]

I watched about half of My Big Fat Greek Wedding last night. And it was charming, well-acted, funny, more enjoyable than I suspected, and ultimately weak and formulaic enough that I had to turn it off.

Granted, I am _not_ a fan of the romantic comedy genre, and can count the ones I have any sincere enthusiasm for on one hand. That said:

1. Despite being a ridiculously verbal person, I'm sort of over impassioned speeches, especially in romantic comedies where the woman must be convinced that she's beautiful and worthy. Which is to say, I didn't need the leading-man-grabs-the-girls-face-and-tells-her-very-intensely-that-she's-beautiful-and-exciting-and-wonderful-moment. I don't need another film where a woman can only be convinced of her worth by someone else. And I don't believe words are enough. Action action action. I've been the recipient of enough speeches in my life, and I've given a few too -- but how do we live? how do we show? how do we reocgnize truth in other people? Well, it's not like that kids. (Sidenote: Strictly Ballroom rocks my world because there is never once a speech at Fran urging her to have confidence. Everything she gets, even when she's at her shyest, ugliest and most awkward she demands for herself. That's one hell of an equation).

2. The characters have sex. Now we all understand they're in love. HELLO, SIMPLISTIC. This is a big pet peve of mine mostly because of how I write -- if the sex doesn't inform the plot or the characters and do so in a way that NOTHING ELSE COULD, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care. I want to know your characters, not watch them hit their marks perfunctorily. I want sex to be sexy, I want kisses to be sexy, I want hand holding to be sexy -- and if it's not about anything other than "this is where we boink", IT'S NOT SEXY.

3. Formulas work. Formulas work because we recognize our idealized selves in them. Formulas work when they are executed with life, energy and a bit of a quirk. And chunky heroine and obnoxious Greek people clearly wasn't enough of a quirk for me.

Comments

[fifthconundrum.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine keeps telling me I "ought" to see that movie. I've resisted, mostly because I just don't do weddings. (Part of my stuff.) After reading this post, I am even more convinced that I don't really need to see this movie; I feel the same way about all of the things you wrote (which was the problem I had with the sex scene in the Matrix sequel). Even if I made it past my personal prejudice against weddings, the things you mentioned would, more than likely, turn me off anyway.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh, heh, I actually thought that sex scene was incredibly moving and interesting (although the stuff surrounding it was quite a bit silly), but I know everything in that film was major YMMV.

[fifthconundrum.livejournal.com]

It's funny, but coming from a black Pentecostal background, I found the stuff surrounding the sex scene much more valuable. Interesting!

[rm.livejournal.com]

That is _really_ interesting. For me the only thing the surrounding material evoked for me was a rave, which is the sort of thing I find notoriously silly, so it was a real fight to get into that part of the film for me (and I think it eventually worked as it all became sort of hypnotic).

she's numbering her points! beware!

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

1) I'm with you completely there. The "you're truly beautiful and worthy" speech is outworn, and in real life, what counts more is actions: the gaze, the responding positively, the trust placed in someone.

2) "...if the sex doesn't inform the plot or the characters and do so in a way that NOTHING ELSE COULD, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care." Here I differ: I might use sex to inform the plot or characters; I might use cooking and eating, or dancing, instead, because to me, they all fall in a similar spectrum of "how do the characters relate to the world around them and to each other" -- but I agree with you that if it's not for a point, it's not worth watching.

Aside: this is one of the reasons why much porn doesn't work for me, particularly visual porn: nothing's flowing from the past or into the future, if that makes any sense

Aside #2: there's a unformed connection between my feeling this and my thoughts about fanfiction, that's partially shaped that I like fanfiction that continues the characters in one direction or another past either end of the book/movie/show.

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

I was unimpressed by My Big Fat Greek Wedding. As a rule, I don't dislike romantic comedies, I just find that few of them work for me. As romantic comedies go, I thought MBFGW was better than average, but still highly forgettable.

I don't need another film where a woman can only be convinced of her worth by someone else. And I don't believe words are enough. Action action action.

I so agree. There is nothing that annoys me more than a movie that cannot move the plot along without big passionate speeches. Even outside of the romance genre, speeches come off as trite, or at least manipulative or boring.

And I think some people could use this advice real life as well. Words are meaningless if actions are not behind them. I don't know how many times I have been told that a relationship was valuable while the person's actions show a lack of respect or courtesy for me and my time.

(Sidenote: Strictly Ballroom rocks my world because there is never once a speech at Fran urging her to have confidence. Everything she gets, even when she's at her shyest, ugliest and most awkward she demands for herself. That's one hell of an equation).

hell, yeah! I love that film. I just watched the ending of the Crying Game the other day and was reminded of what a wonderful and unusual romance that film is. I seem to prefer romances that are a bit outside of the formula. I also enjoy Four Wedding and a Funeral because the protagonist tries to fit into the societally accepted mode of marriage, but only finds love and happiness outside of it (okay, and I have that horrible Hugh Grant fixation). And in the Crying Game, we are uncertain as to Fergus' feelings for Dil, after he finds that the is not a girl, but his actions let her (and us) know that he does indeed love her very much despite himself. Just because it is "in his nature".

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

(deleted and reposted, twice, due to a typo. yes, i'm a grammar fascist. Militant Grammarians of Massachussetts, unite! You have nothing to lose but your dangling participles!)

(No, I don't actually know what a dangling participle is. OK, sorry, back to the post.)

I have become a big retroactive fan of MBFGW (I just yesterday signed an option deal with its producers which would not have happened if not for its success) but, yeah, even at its best, it's very...slight.

But -- there's a sex scene? Even an implied one? Really? I didn't remember that all, and I remember thinking it was odd that the characters mentioned having slept together in passing at one point.

I saw it on an airplane -- censored for time and a United Airlines audience, mayhap.

_Strictly Ballroom_, sigh. I think it's Luhrmann's best work.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Strictly has some weird weird stuff going on in the script that I can't make heads nor tails of ( I should get the damn screenplay book and see if it's clearer -- but basically it starts with all this documentary like stuff going on, from a point of view that is presumeably after the events of the rest of the film -- so why is Fran back to being her nerdy self and where's Scott? Is he dead? Am I morbid? Am I thinking too much? Do I just not get it?), but that said, it's by far the most emotionally accessible, and really astoundingly so.