SBD: Waitress

[jmc_bks]

It's Monday. And I've just finished reading Kelley Armstrong's No Humans Involved. But I don't have anything SBD-ish to say about them. Instead, let me tell you about the movie I saw on Saturday.

After seeing Waitress this weekend, I was reminded that Hollywood’s romantic comedies really are the equivalent of chick lit. It’s all about the women – the heroes are handsome and charming and quirky or whatever the heroine is attracted to, but in the end, the romantic comedy is about the heroine, by and large. You can tell by the actors who are cast – they never get top billing. It isn’t just the falling in love, it is coming to some epiphany about self or life or something else important.

Good performances (including Keri Russell’s hair, which deserved a credit of its own, and Andy Griffith as Russell’s curmudgeonly employer), lots of funny moments, very good score. Happy ending of sorts, although not a traditional. Which reminds me – despite the marketing, the comedy and the romance, this isn’t a romantic comedy. This was more like the movie version of women’s fiction. Anyway, I left the theater feeling vaguely disappointed, and I didn’t really know why until I thought of the movie in book terms. I felt the lack of POV from the nominal hero, Doc Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). And Jenna Hunterson (Keri Russell’s character, the narrator) was not the most sympathetic of characters. I realized that if I had been reading this book rather than watching it on the big screen, I probably wouldn’t’ve made it to the end. In part because of the characters and in part because of some of the implicit messages (that I saw…others might see other things).

The movie itself was a fairy tale, told in a stylized way. Not necessarily my favorite thing; a lot of the niggles I have about the movie lead back to that style and what the director was doing with it. (Like the unhygienic kitchen. And the unlikely bus in the middle of no where. And the odd hours 9-5 of the diner that gave the waitresses the convenient opportunity to socialize out front in the twilight. And so on.) In retrospect, the number of clichés that are used bother me: poor grammar in a thick, fake Southern accent is short hand for either stupidity or venality or some other negative thing; even women who aren’t happy to be pregnant will be struck by powerful mother-love because all women are born to be parents and it is only natural; curmudgeons always have hearts of gold; and mother-love will always finally give women the balls to leave an abusive relationship.

Side note: Jeremy Sisto must get tired of playing the same roles over and over. I can’t think of any movie that he’s been in since Clueless in which he wasn’t playing either a psychopath or an asshole.

Comments

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

French Kiss with Kevin Kline and What Women Want with Mel Ridiculous Gibson are both about the men, which is why I love them so so much, even though I can't really bring myself to watch Mel Gibson any more. What a Girl Wants is about Lizzy McGuire (or whomever), but also about Colin Firth and has lots of cool Jane Austen references all the way through. Notting Hill is about Hugh Grant's character more than Julia Roberts'.

But yeah, you're absolutely right most of the time. I'm just picking out my favorites because I KNOW they're my favorites because of the focus on the hero rather than the heroine.

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

LOVE French Kiss!

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

That scene where she kisses him on the train and he just gets this look, like a very quiet "Oh, fuck." Slays me every damn time. And when he says, "I want you....I want you....."

Kevin Kline is a god, because In&Out was a perfect movie too.

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

I love Kevin Kline, period. Even crap movies are watchable if he's in them. But him as a Frenchman? I swoon into my own puddle of drool.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

When I started typing my post, I thought about a discussion over at RTB (yours, maybe, or perhaps just one in which you commented?) about the draw in romance -- hero vs. heroine. My original plan was to talk about that and how it seems to be a little reversed in the cinema lately. Especially after I looked at the DVD's on my shelf. The Wedding Date? All about Debra Messing; Dermot Mulroney is a catalyst but not the draw. 13 Going on 30? All about Jennifer Garner. While You Were Sleeping? Sandra Bullock. And just about every Kate Hudson, Drew Barrymore, etc. movie I can think of is the same. There are exceptions (Notting Hill, French Kiss, About A Boy), but I think being heroine-centric is more the rule for romantic comedies. But I couldn't figure out the point of my post, so I just chopped it off.

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

I don't think "lately" at all. It's always really been like this, I think. If it's a chick flick, it's about the girl and her journey. If it's a dick flick it's about explosions. But it can't be about the guy and his journey without being either tragic or a suspense/mystery/dick flick. It can't be about the guy and his relationship with a woman. I've got a whole bunch of gay comedies lined up on Netflix, so I have hopes for them.

The beauty of Pretty Woman, I think, is that it's about both of them.

From Carrie http://lovelysalome.blogspot.com

[(Anonymous)]

The only rom coms that featured men more prominently are the ones where the story is built around the male lead's persona. I'm thinking specifically of the pair of Christian Slater stinkers I reviewed earlier this year. Sure, Marissa Tomei and Mary Stuart Masterson were IN these films, but the camera made love to Slater. At one point, Tomei's character in Untamed Heart actually says something like "gosh you're beautiful" to him. But I cannot think of a heartthrob of late who inhabits that variety of leading man realm. And it certainly isn't Slater these days.

Nathan Fillion's Southern accent is just terrible. Not his Mal accent, but his full-on Southern, a la Sliter. And any diner that is only open 9-5 is a diner that won't be in business long. Silly.

Re: From Carrie http://lovelysalome.blogspot.com

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Fillion did not attempt a Southern accent here -- his character was a transplant from Connecticut. But the other Southern accents -- meh. In the world of things, the fakeness wasn't what bothered me, but the inconsistent, strained bad grammar that the actors using those Southern accents used.

[dogzzz2002.livejournal.com]

There are days where my 'meh' meter on movies is working and when I saw a clip from this movie I wasn't in the least intrigued. Looks like a 'Fried Green Tomatoes' kind of movie. Nathan Fillion would be the only draw for me but if he is really just on the outside then I'm not sure I care.

The last movie I remember Barrymore in was the one with the SNL guy. Basically the guy loves baseball and the movie revolved around this. I really felt like the movie was more from a guy's perspective and I didn't like it very much at all!

CindyS

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Fillion got a good bit of screen time and his character is, well, "nice" for lack of a better description...if you ignore the fact that he's married and in love with a pregnant patient. But the movie was much more about Keri Russell's character -- she was the narrator and everything was her POV. Probably would be a good DVD movie.

I liked Fever Pitch despite Drew Barrymore. Of course, I like baseball, though, so there's no accounting for taste. It was a remake of a British movie by the same name, except about soccer and with Colin Firth as the hero.