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I won't say I don't like the concept of romantic comedy, because the sheer amount of slash fic I read would make an instant liar out of me. But 99% of the rom-coms I see are a) horrendously misogynistic and heteronormative, b) about women with whom I have nothing in common because all they care about is shopping and getting married, or c) have plots that depend on everyone being monumentally stupid. (Not that scifi/fantasy/action, my movie genres of choice, aren't misogynistic, heteronormative, and stupid in equal measure, but at least then I have explosions to distract me from the fail.) But every once in a while a nice romance is just what I need, especially when I'm watching movies with other people who don't share my tastes in the swords-and-starships end of movie-going.
So tonight I watched The Proposal with my aunt and uncle and it was actually very charming. I'm glad I like Ryan Reynolds, since he's shaping up to be the go-to boy for comics movies for the next few years, it seems like. He's a good piece of eye candy. And Sandra Bullock is just lovely. And the film was not infuriating on many levels, even if I'm still wondering how "driven, hard-working career woman who is sort of emotionally distant because of past losses = icy bitch queen" at the start of the movie. It is nothing you haven't seen a million times before, but who goes to a rom-com to see revolutionary filmmaking?
Also: the one plot I hate above all others in romance stories is the one where Character A is dating Character B under false pretenses (a bet, a pay-off, whatever), and then starts to fall for them, at which point Character B finds out about the deceit and flips out. It pushes my hate button on so many, many levels - it's sloppy and contrived and humiliating and skeevy and manipulative and just, you know, generally awful. ON THE OTHER HAND, it turns out that I really, really absolutely ADORE what could be considered a distant relative of that plot, namely the "we don't like each other/aren't interested in each other, but we are going to pretend to be a couple to go undercover/get a green card/impress my boss/impress my family, until all the proximity and oversharing makes us realize we are actually in love" plot. IT IS RIDICULOUS. AND WONDERFUL. I guess it works better for me because it doesn't carry all the weird, skeevy baggage of deceit, trust, and consent when both characters are in on the lie. But anyway, watching this movie made me want to read a million fics where Dean and Sam have to pretend to be a couple to investigate a haunting, or Rodney poses as John's husband to get his brother to lay off him, or Kirk and McCoy go through an alien wedding for reasons of diplomacy fail. I have problems, okay?
So tonight I watched The Proposal with my aunt and uncle and it was actually very charming. I'm glad I like Ryan Reynolds, since he's shaping up to be the go-to boy for comics movies for the next few years, it seems like. He's a good piece of eye candy. And Sandra Bullock is just lovely. And the film was not infuriating on many levels, even if I'm still wondering how "driven, hard-working career woman who is sort of emotionally distant because of past losses = icy bitch queen" at the start of the movie. It is nothing you haven't seen a million times before, but who goes to a rom-com to see revolutionary filmmaking?
Also: the one plot I hate above all others in romance stories is the one where Character A is dating Character B under false pretenses (a bet, a pay-off, whatever), and then starts to fall for them, at which point Character B finds out about the deceit and flips out. It pushes my hate button on so many, many levels - it's sloppy and contrived and humiliating and skeevy and manipulative and just, you know, generally awful. ON THE OTHER HAND, it turns out that I really, really absolutely ADORE what could be considered a distant relative of that plot, namely the "we don't like each other/aren't interested in each other, but we are going to pretend to be a couple to go undercover/get a green card/impress my boss/impress my family, until all the proximity and oversharing makes us realize we are actually in love" plot. IT IS RIDICULOUS. AND WONDERFUL. I guess it works better for me because it doesn't carry all the weird, skeevy baggage of deceit, trust, and consent when both characters are in on the lie. But anyway, watching this movie made me want to read a million fics where Dean and Sam have to pretend to be a couple to investigate a haunting, or Rodney poses as John's husband to get his brother to lay off him, or Kirk and McCoy go through an alien wedding for reasons of diplomacy fail. I have problems, okay?