Another fun read is at tvtropes.org. This site defines a "trope" as follows: "Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations." For example, in sitcoms everyone's familiar with the bumbling dad, the precocious kid, etc.
Practically every movie trailer is built around tropes, captured brilliantly here:
One you hear with some regularity in a movie ad, often quoted from the reviewer for the Cedar Rapids Weekly Shopper, is "If you see only one movie all year, make it this one." Of course, this is really relevant to me because the over/under on the number of movies I attend in a given year pretty much is 1, especially if you discount anything with talking animals and/or animated characters.
So when I do decide to go to The Cinema, particularly for the Valentine's Date, there's a certain pressure there... and as a result, I was particularly gratified to score an absolute bullseye with my choice.
I also found it interesting that the night after the movie date, I watched a movie on HBO that was the complete antithesis, and in fact the movie that serves as a virtual graduate course in tropes: Valentine's Day.
OK, I'm not saying it's not an entertaining movie. It's pretty fun in its own narrow genre, and hey, it's a romcom, it's really not meant to be a documentary. I am finding it slightly ironic that the ultimate disposable, forgettable movie has obsessed me for several days -- but as is so often the case, that may say more about me than it. You were ahead of me on that one, weren't you.
In the movie, there are a bunch of couples -- it's easy to lose track -- and along the way there are the usual misadventures and misunderstandings, but by the end every single couple gets their happy-ever-after moment; several Life Lesson Speeches are delivered. Each couple fits a particular demographic, of course, and somehow they all connect with each other in the course of the single day depicted in the film. But what struck me the most about the movie is that from start to finish, there's not a single instance of behavior that represents the way people actually behave in real life.
Try this: 2 high school girls, basically acquaintenances, are trying to find a time to have a meeting. One says, "I can't do it at lunch, I'm having sex with my boyfriend for the first time today."
Or how about this one: a man is visited by his fiancee in the morning; she's obviously having second thoughts but he's so excited he's oblivious to it. At lunchtime he goes home to find her moving out, and she breaks up with him; by midnight, he's kissing another woman who he realizes is his true soulmate.
Fortunately, that's not the movie we actually paid for*. And by the way, just let me say that I know I live in the past; it's true that in my head, you can buy a pair of Levis for $18 and a nice pair of shoes for $30, maybe even a new car for 10 grand. I fight against that kind of mindset every time I walk into a retail establishment... still, I was astonished to pay twenty-one dollars and fifty cents for 2 movie tickets.
* I have to admit that, with as little as we watch HBO, it probably cost even more than the one we "paid for".
I did have lots of time in the theater to recover from the shock, between the commercials and the coming attractions and the continuing harangues about not talking or texting (I'm no expert, but is it really impossible to text in a movie theater without disturbing anyone?), and then at long (long, long, long) last we got to see The King's Speech.
Just a lovely, lovely movie about relationships, with people who act like real people act. And filled with marvelous performances; it's a treat to watch actors who can show you what they're thinking and feeling just with facial expressions, communicating just as clearly as any big chunks of clunky dialogue.
I know it's already been around the block, and might even be difficult to find in the theater. But if you haven't seen it yet, it's worth your while to hunt it down, at least if you enjoy movies that are not explosion-based. Maybe I'll even be inspired to try to shoehorn a SECOND film into 2011.
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