Did you miss me? I missed me too! I have had a horrible start to the new year and well, its been very rough and I'm even unemployed! Oy! Some things, no RC can fix. I meant to write a couple weeks ago but couldn't get around to it through the tears and struggles. But here were are at an end. Not really cause there is hope! Hope that I will grab a new, flexible, great job. Hope that it will allow me to continue this diatribe on Romantic Comedies (because I have 24 in my collection alone as well as a Netflix membership and a willingness to take suggestions from you dear readers). Hope that it will pay all my bills and allow me to continue to go out there searching to be in one of these great Romantic Comedies. Hope that I'll be in one. Or at best, hope that I'll win the lottery and never really have to hope again!
So with that hope, this is not the end, but lets reflect a bit shall we? We've had 31 days of Romantic Comedies that at worst, distract us from our daily miserable lives and at best, define our very heart's desire. Why would a feminist like me love these oh-so-predictable stories where women are never complete without love? Maybe it was because like so many of us, I was weened on fairy tales. Maybe it was all that Barbie playing. Maybe its that I like a little escapism that horror and action really don't make me feel as warm and fuzzy afterward. Maybe its that there is a little truth to these movies (the struggle to find love, to find someone who sees you, understands you, completes you) but it comes in a palatable form. Maybe, like going to church having already read the bible, its the small variations on each theme that help me to understand love in a new way each time. Or maybe, and most likely, I'm just a damn sucker for a good romance because my heart and head are rarely based in this world of reality.
Oh so, here we are, the last day(well not really) and how appropriate is it that this one is the one that started it all. I was 14 years old and this movie was the first R movie I was allowed to see with my parents. And I soaked in every moment that wasn't covered by my mother's hand. Too many of us have worshiped this movie with out thinking it really through. We forget that this is NOT really the ideal love story (how many of us truly want to be a hooker with a heart of gold and get paid for a week to play a girlfriend to a rich over-worked man)but that is forgiven by all of us because of the chemistry between this great duo. And well... it's just a classic! And here it is, the one, the not so Only (I think the French did this plot first and they had the hooker die at the end, like they do- being french and enjoying the sorrow more)Pretty Woman:
Giddy: Well yes we have all the classic lines and awesome music that from the very opening moment to the very last scene, I'm Giddy!
Lie: Pssst... don't tell anyone but She's a Hooker!
Big Emotional Outburst: "I say who, I say when, I say WHO"
Dance Sequence: Well, one small one when she's trying on clothes but not really no,Oh but there is making love on top of a piano. "Your forgiven"
Wedding: Nope, but we have great montage of shopping for 80s clothes.
Rewatchable: Okay so, when I sat down to watch this movie I was SHOCKED to see scenes that weren't in there before. Did you remember that there was more to the date when she steals him away from work and they go back to the club looking for her other hooker friend and the Limo Driver has a gun that he uses to scare off a pimp? Or that after the dinner with the company he's about to take over, after the "Slippery little suckers" snail scene, she puts ketchup on her steak? I have been watching this movie on TV for 20 years and so it was a lovely little present to see the scenes they always cut out. Also did you know that Hank Azaria is in this movie? In the beginning after the classic lines "No We're From Orlando" (which in Orlando, when I saw this movie for the first time was A HUGE hit line)? So yes, I think I've proven my point about the rewatchable factor.
Love: Oh the "I picked up a hooker and she is actually not a crack addict or a messed up stupid ho that will never amount to anything but a beautiful smart woman that is JULIA ROBERTS and she's going to be the first woman to make me actually enjoy my life" kind of love.
Body Count: ONE! Skinny Marie!
Music Montages:Oh yes! And to this day, I still get teary at the one that starts when he's given her the diamonds to wear and they get on the plane for the Opera.
Strong Female: Yes, if you consider hooking (a career I might have to pursue in order to get me out of this debt and able to pay my bills- hey it's got to have flexible hours right?) and then turning down an incredible offer to be some guys ho for life because she has respect for herself. It's one thing to have sex with a guy for money, its another to do it long term. She's no gold digger!
