Typical chick flick plot: boy meets girl, misunderstanding arises and continues, confrontation occurs (about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the way into the movie), boy and girl fight, boy and girl resolve differences.
It's a fairly respectable plot. Shakespeare used it. What Shakespeare understood, and what so many film makers don't appear to, is that the resolution has to equal the trouble. If a young man loses his temper and calls his girlfriend names in public, well, come on now, he better be put through the wringer at her fake funeral!
All the convolutions and misunderstandings should result in a resolution worthy of so much wackiness. To call on Shakespeare again, he had statues come to life and twins show up and people sleep with other people without knowing they were sleeping with other people and lovers get enchanted and so on and so forth.
I deduced the above after watching How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It's a cute movie. I enjoyed it. It followed the standard chick flick plot.
Unfortunately, the end just didn't work. And I determined that it didn't work because the end wasn't as creative as the middle. It was the "Oh, they fought and she's going to leave town and he runs after her" ploy: blah blah blah. Where's Claude Rains when you need him? Shoot some Nazis already!
That is, the confrontation broke up the couple and then...that's the resolution?
The other solution, of course, is to have the confrontation and the resolution occur at the same time. This is the end of Good Fairy . It is also the end of You've Got Mail (actually, You've Got Mail uses both approaches since he knows about the misunderstanding, but she doesn't). I consider You've Got Mail one of the most satisfying chick flicks of all time and a great deal of that has to do with the resolution, which is allowed to unwind slowly and naturally. Too abrupt and you feel like you've missed something; uncreative and you wonder why you bothered. Why should these people get together? They didn't work for it!
The protagonists need to work for it.
Some Good Chick Flicks:
- You've Got Mail
- Shall We Dance (Japanese Version)
- Ballroom Dancing
- The Mirror Has Two Faces
- While You Were Sleeping
- The Beautician & the Beast (a surprising amount of fun)
- Untamed Heart
Could Have Been Better:
- How to Lose a Guy...
- Alex & Emma
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- Sabrina (I prefer the black & white version, but even that is kind of a strange movie: mostly, I just like watching Humphrey Bogart jump up and down on a large piece of plastic; Greg Kinnear is excellent in the new version)
- The Truth About Cats & Dogs
Chick Flicks I Never Saw & Don't Want To or Saw & Didn't Care For:
- Sleepless in Seattle
- Bridges of Madison County
- Beaches
- My Best Friend's Wedding (except for Rupert Everett--I like to watch his showcase clip on YouTube)
- As Good As It Gets
Not Really Chick Flicks but Great Romances
- Princess Bride (of course!)
- Good Fairy
- Joe Versus the Volcano
- Casablanca (naturally!)
