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Boxed In
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Rom Com No Longer Da Bomb
In the shadow of Spider-Man 3 is where you’ll find the carcass of Hollywood’s once robust romantic comedy genre and an independently made glimmer of hope.
Friday, May 4, 2007 at 3:10 PM
By Anderson Jones
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Dreamworks
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Laughs over love
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One look at the current box office and it's clear: the boys are winning.
This weekend should be no different as it reconfirms the industry's long-documented slant toward tween moviegoers. Spider-Man 3, a sequel and a comic book hero, faces off with indie rom com Waitress, in a real test of counter-programming.
For years now, anyone who gives movies even the slightest regard could tell you that studios don't seem to care much for the grown-up. Juvenile, puerile plotlines (or downright pandering in the case of Grindhouse) seem made-to-order for viewers who lack sophistication and don't demand much more than an 80-minute distraction, especially if it's kinda funny (see Blades of Glory) or really scary (Disturbia, three weeks in a row).
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Jim Spellman/WireImage.com
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A haircut heard around the TV world
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To the delight of studio accountants, most of these products also don't require expensive - or really, any - star power, even as they provide a peak into the future. Consider Disturbia's star, Shia LaBeouf. He's an outsized Disney TV star with very modest movie success (Bobby, I, Robot) until now, with his first blockbuster on his hands. With potential hit Transformers, another fanboy favorite, due later this summer, he's shaping up to be bona fide superstar. Remember, $35 million Da Vinci Code II man Tom Hanks was just a TV star 20 years ago.
Just a few seasons ago, Keri Russell found herself in a similar catbird seat. The well-coiffed young star of Felicity was rewarded by the WB network with a Porsche Boxster after a particularly successful ratings sweeps period. After a fantastic debut and a love affair with fans and TV critics, Russell was clearly the next big thing - until she got a disastrous haircut while on hiatus.
Producers (including J.J. Abrams) fumed, the show imploded and never recovered. Fans changed the channel. In fact, the only thing memorable about the show is that Jennifer Garner (Alias), Scott Foley's then-wife, got her start here. Maybe, if successful, Waitress will change things for Russell.
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Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com
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Unable, so far in '07, to save it
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The film arrives in theatres with a considerable amount of baggage. Just days after getting accepted by the Sundance Film Festival, writer-director and co-star Adrienne Shelly was found dead in her NYC apartment by her husband. Even months later, it remains unclear if Shelly was the victim of murder or suicide. A tiny woman, she was found hanging from her bed sheet on her bathroom's shower rod after a loud argument with a construction worker in her building who now stands accused of her murder.
She left no suicide note and the accuser, only a teenager, has been questioned by police but his statements remains hazy at best - hanging's an odd way to kill someone. Still, family and friends mourned Shelly, who leaves behind a three-year-old daughter, at the film's Sundance premiere, where the film received a warm reception and a Fox Searchlight nod.
In the high stakes, high pressure world of Sundance, it's very hard to turn a critic's head. Most are overcome with the sheer number of films. Some report seeing as many as five or more flicks a day, not including shorts. And they are emotionally exhausting works from young, emotive directors who tend to focus on various romantic entanglements or disappointments, suicide, masturbation with vacuum cleaners (one year, the number of entries on this subject alone would terrify you) or oral sex with animals. Pure romantic comedies in the traditional Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan sense do not play here. And lately, they don't tend to play in the real world either.
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Fox Search Light
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A frank slice of pie life
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Aside from Charlie's Angels, rom coms could be Drew Barrymore's legacy and certainly, Hugh Grant would have no career without them. (Julia Roberts has been wise to attempt to redefine her career. The change earned her at least an Oscar if not the attention she's used to.) So, how to explain the horridness that was Music & Lyrics starring Drew and Hugh?
The future doesn't look so bright, either. This weekend’s more mainstream rom com offering, Lucky You, starring Barrymore and Eric Bana as lovers on the Vegas strip, has been on the shelf for at least two years. Doesn't bode well.
But the good news that Waitress works. With Keri Russell as Jenna, a poor diner server in the deep South, the movie offers unsentimental rom com fare. Late director Shelly flips the script on what turns women on, typically. For example, we meet Jenna soon after she discovers that she's pregnant. The news depresses her, which is exactly the opposite response of women in most chick flicks and probably more realistic.
How many couples are blessed to have a single, secure phenomenal income that can support a mother-to-be and her maternity needs? Especially those who are as young or as lovely as Russell. Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan come to mind - neither particularly good mother material, however.
Jenna's married to Jeremy Sisto, a pretty believable creep and a controlling asshole. Their relationship is doomed, but neither seems especially motivated to change their status, with the child in the middle only making things more complicated. At least for Jenna, who dreams about saving enough money to shove off. But to where? And to do what?
Jenna seems to work through her issues by making complex, tasty pies, a gift she's inherited from her mother. She also talks to grumpy, rich old dude Andy Griffiths, who only talks back to her. Waitress would be a pretty standard chick flick if Sisto just cheated on Keri. Instead, Jenna falls for the most inconvenient lover in town. No - not her boss, like her lady friend and fellow waitress, Cheryl Hines - she goes for the new OB-GYN, Nathan Fillion (Drive). He's also married, naturally.
The baby functions as a hassle for most characters in Waitress, which is exactly the way men tend to regard children in these types of movies. It's amusing to watch women grapple with issues like the annoying, domineering spouse; to see a baby drive a couple apart even as it makes a woman whole.
| Griffiths encourages and inspires Jenna to make a change and, in a twist, she doesn't take the easier plot road out to insure a happy ending. The future of romantic comedies and chick flicks worth seeing may depend not so much on movie stars like Drew Barrymore or Hugh Grant, but on the realistic notion that we are becoming increasingly more comfortable with the notion that we are responsible for our own happiness. And that it’s always, always gonna be work. | |
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