Bride Wars
Two things before I get to my point:
1) I don't usually condemn a movie without seeing it first. Like anyone, I have my rules: any movie based on a character from Saturday Night Live is most likely going to suck; ditto any Rob Schneider movies; and I'm going to hate all Tom Cruise movies, even if they don't suck. He ruins good stories in order to feed his enormous ego. (Given the chance to play Jesus, he'd be at The Last Supper by himself. Because he always works alone.) But previews can be misleading. What seems like a silly comedy turns out to be a movie about death, love and family dysfunction, e.g., Little Miss Sunshine; a movie marketed as a chick flick is actually a guy's movie - Beautiful Girls; a movie that should be awesome is really a piece of crap - Wonder Boys.
2) I say seriously and with no shame that I love good chick flicks. What qualifies as good is subjective, certainly. Movies about lost love just kill me. I've cried my eyes out at every viewing of The Way We Were and Splendor in the Grass. Edward Scissorhands upset me so much I don't think I can ever watch it again. But I still loved it. I'm also a sucker for love triumphing over class differences - Dirty Dancing is a favorite. It has everything a girl could want in a movie - Patrick Swayze. Jennifer Grey before the nose job. Creepy frat boy getting his comeuppance. Kelly Bishop. Sex. An illegal abortion. Dancing! And, my God, Jerry Orbach!
There are a ton of sub-genres within "chick flick", and "girls being shitty to each other" is one of them. I know girls can treat each other like crap sometimes. But the very premise of Bride Wars offends me to no end.
I've been seeing previews for the movie lately, and "you have to be kidding me" was my first reaction. But I thought that the girls were strangers fighting over wedding dresses and who gets the best caterer in town. Then I saw this preview, and got the full story. They're lifelong best friends. They're each others maids of honor. Then a mix-up occurs! And hijinks ensue! Kate Hudson tells Anne Hathaway her "wedding can suck it." Anne retaliates by attacking Kate while she's walking down the aisle.
The hilarity must be endless, I'm telling you right now. Look, I've been divided about weddings for a long time. I love them, but they bring out the worst in people. The only brides-to-be who don't want to lock their mothers in a closet are the ones who don't have a mother. I was ready to lock up both my mother and my future mother-in-law, and not let them out until after the wedding. The stress of planning a wedding can make anyone lose perspective.
But there's something that seems so completely distasteful about Bride Wars. It feeds on the idea that women are desperate to get married; that a wedding is the most important day of a woman's life; that all women have been planning their weddings since they were six years old; that women are, at heart, enemies of one another; that the wedding is more important than the marriage - so important, in fact, that no expense is too much. Even the expense of a lifelong friendship.
I know. It's just a movie, and a piece of fluff comedy at that. Comedy, after all, is often about the weaknesses and general dopiness of humans. Beneath all the funny is the truth of how people reconcile their idiocy with their desire to be good and loving to the people who matter to them. It's possible that Bride Wars is actually funny, because anything is possible. But, having seen only the preview, I can't get rid of the bad feeling I have about this movie being made in 2008, more than 40 years after the beginning of the second wave of feminism. I assume that Hudson's and Hathaway's characters are supposed to smart, talented, educated young women, maybe even professionally successful and ambitious. So why are they behaving like jealous, mean spirited harpies?
I have no doubt that Bride Wars will have an absolutely shocking ending, in which Anne and Kate realize the errors of their ways, and tearfully make up, swearing to never let anything come between them again. But you know what? Once you've told your best friend that she has a big ass, you can't ever take that back. I'll never know for sure if Bride Wars is as bad as I think it is, because I won't be spending either the time or the money to see it.
Comments
Okay, I don't hate weddings, but I can't ever see myself having that sort of wedding, myself. Then again, maybe that's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I do agree that modern day chick flicks have for the most part forgotten the lessons of ERA and freedom from contrived social restrictions, and have instead embraced the idea that women need to have all the conventions of a 1950s debutante combined with a killer career and advanced education. I can't see how we've really gained anything with that mentality.
You hit that right on the head, and in fewer words than I used.
I don't think every movie about women has to be a feminist statement, but if I never again see allusions to "daddy's little girl has to live like a fairy princess", I'll be happy.
Your description of the kind of wedding you want is pretty great. It should be what the bride and groom want. I went to wedding this past summer that was so obviously about the bride's parents, and it made me kind of sad. I wonder if the bride and groom (especially the groom) had any say in the planning. They were kids either. They're in their mid-30s. Shouldn't they have had a little control over their own ceremony? (I have to say, though. The food was fabulous. :)
But I actually DO love weddings from the sidelines, and I even love wedding-themed movies... unless they're hideous. I'm DYING to see "Rachel Getting Married" (speaking of Anne Hathaway), which is supposed to be the best thing Jonathan Demme has ever done... and I LOVE Jonathan Demme. But they're not personal fantasy fodder for me; I watch them much the way I watch vampire or zombie or time-travel movies-- they give an interesting and different "what if" world view, but they're COMPLETELY alien to "real life" as I know it.
You, Maura, know full well that if my sweetie and I ever get married, it will be a big, boozy, breakfast bash where guests are required to show up in their jammies, and the "wedding cake" is a giant stack of tiered pancakes. In lieu of tossing the bouquet, a "Best Bunny Slippers" award will be presented (this is my latest addition to the program); my beloved and I would also very much like Judy Tenuta to officiate at the ceremony, complete with accordion. And if we can't get Judy, we're hoping for Kevin Meany ('cause we're "big pants people").
(And have I mentioned that I'd really like you to be my Waitress of Honor, Maura? No? Well, we'll talk later...)
And this is where I have to voice my standard objection to what I feel is your unreasonable hatred of "Wonder Boys," which is one of my favorite movies EVER. You know, just for the offical record.
Petite Christina Ricci was on Craig Kilborn last night and was looking a bit uncomfortable in the big chair. Kilborn pulled out a nice leather footstool from behind his desk, and she was grateful. "We keep this here for when Tom Cruise is on the show." Heh.