SPOILER ALERT (seriously, SPOILER ALERT):
In my quest to find a mild-mannered film, I came across this title. Knowing my interest in leading characters with a "flaw" of some kind, I gave this a shot and was very pleasantly surprised. This is a modernized fairy tale, but it also nicely includes a twist or two that I didn't exactly see coming. I like that.
The first on-the-list surprise is that the guy doesn't save the girl. The girl does. She saves herself. Twice. And in a way, him, too. A "self-rescuing princess" as I heard a friend tell me once. This also counts as the second on-the-list surprise because I was expecting either 1.) girl marries wrong boy, marriage breaks curse, divorces boy, marries right boy or 2.) girl marries right boy, they don't worry about curse, or he has a secret past even he doesn't know of that breaks the curse. But it was neither of these. And I liked being "wrong" in this way because then it meant I didn't have the story all figured out because the story wasn't exactly like all the other romances.
I also liked that they cast a little person (isn't that what is politically correct? hope so. My apologies if it is wrong.) as one of the other characters without making his stature part of the story and without making it part of any of the jokes. He was just another character. I liked that. Movies need to do that more.
So, girl saves herself. And gets the right boy. Boy changes, but not because girl made him.
Is this the new correct way to write a romance story that will please both genders? And would you believe it, I think I like it--a lot--and not like it at the same time.
Don't get me wrong!!! I really enjoyed this movie and really like what they did with the plot. Period.
I just think the thinking part of me realizes how much we all need saving. That means, I really hope the other story doesn't disappear. And I really don't think it will.
And it is certain that there are traces of "woman as angel" in the story, but they're very faint. [And I'm realizing this post has way too many "and"'s and "so"'s in it. So, there's that annoying bit.] Maybe I'd like to see an action romance movie, one where girl saves boy from bad guys. And the boy isn't a wimp, or jerk or lost cause. A boy who's a good looker who's in a bad spot. A movie done well that isn't over the top unbelievable. And that doesn't look like the over abundance of cop shows. An action movie where it's not a cop shop. There's a good writing challenge for you.
As for modernized fairy tales, I think the genre has possibilities of generating enough "new" stories to be considered a category of films. I like it. Let's keep 'em.
