E-mail from my stepdaughter, Morgan, 23: "My friends and I were writing back and forth about how disgusted we are with movies like the horrific bride one with Anne Hathaway," she writes. "I feel like something needs to be written about how tired we are of seeing these movies that make the holy grail of our lives the wedding band."
Many have written about the horror of "Bride Wars". I think it's a marketing tool for the fashion and wedding industries. The New York Times' Manohla Dargis thinks Hollywood executives think that women have a gene for tulle. She's equally disgusted that the wedding film "is one of the few storylines that afford American actresses screen time."
Wedding movies are attractive to Hollywood because they purvey pretty ingenues in beautiful dresses that are paid-for product placement by coutourieres such as Vera Wang, pretty ingenues flaunting wedding blings that are paid-for product placement by jewelers such as Tiffany & Co.
And wedding movies are also inherently attractive to writers at least since the Greeks because a wedding resolves the inherent narrative conflict of bringing two combative characters together. Me, I like movies that have weddings but aren't necesarily about them ("It Happened One Night," "The Lady Eve," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" Elaine May's "The Heartbreak Kid" but not the Ben Stiller remake).
Still, what Morgan and Manohla and I worry about is that about the only time we see women on screen they are talking about diamond clarity and carat or planning a destination wedding. What happened to women characters like Greer Garson's "Madame Curie" who discovers radium? Or to Sally Field's "Norma Rae" who fights management for union rights? Or to Julia Robert's "Erin Brockovich" who leads the fight for restitution for the casualties of corporate greed?
My guess is the occasional farce like "Bride Wars" wouldn't make us irritable if we were also seeing screen representations of women in less trivial pursuits.
Your thoughts? (Or your favorite movie brides?)
Amen. The only other female characters we see (lately: repressed and overbearing nun, borderline-personality sisters of the bride, and released murderer) tend to be less than heroic but at least they are thinking about SOMETHING other than Vera Wang. I did enjoy the lesbian campaign manager (Anne Kronenberg character) in MILK, although it was a minor part. But the only wedding movie I ever liked was the Big Fat Greek one, and I don't even recall the wedding scene, just the hilarity and humanity of the story. Let's vote with our wallets and avoid these bodice-fitter flicks. Thanks for the story.— drogow- Amen. The only other female characters we see (lately: repressed and overbearing nun, borderline-personality sisters of the bride, and released murderer) tend to be less than heroic but at least they are thinking about SOMETHING other than Vera Wang. I did enjoy the lesbian campaign manager (Anne Kronenberg character) in MILK, although it was a minor part. But the only wedding movie I ever liked was the Big Fat Greek one, and I don't even recall the wedding scene, just the hilarity and humanity of the story. Let's vote with our wallets and avoid these bodice-fitter flicks. Thanks for the story.— drogow
- Amen. The only other female characters we see (lately: repressed and overbearing nun, borderline-personality sisters of the bride, and released murderer) tend to be less than heroic but at least they are thinking about SOMETHING other than Vera Wang. I did enjoy the lesbian campaign manager (Anne Kronenberg character) in MILK, although it was a minor part. But the only wedding movie I ever liked was the Big Fat Greek one, and I don't even recall the wedding scene, just the hilarity and humanity of the story. Let's vote with our wallets and avoid these bodice-fitter flicks. Thanks for the story.— drogow
- While I also enjoyed Dargis' incisive critique of Hollywood weddings, we should remember that narratives that end in marriages are not inherently vapid (for example, any comedy by Shakespeare). There are wedding movies that problematize women's participation in and exclusion from marriage -- My Best Friend's Wedding comes to mind. And this year's excellent Rachel Getting Married focused not on the joys of consumption, but rather on familial relationships and the creation of cross-cultural communities. Nor should we fall into the trap of thinking that vapidness and consumerism is a new invention of Hollywood. Go watch the original Father of the Bride with Spencer Tracy if you want to see a stupid movie.— kathfs
- Favorite movie bride = Uma Thurman as The Bride in "Kill Bill 1&2". What I see is not just a step back for female roles but also a scary move towards more product placement. Sure "Sex and the City" told you that you didn't need a man to be happy, but it also told you that you definitely need those shoes. Why are we told that it is okay to be obsessed with the perfect wedding? I'm sure its due to the dramatic nature of the event, but also due to the fact that weddings are a time when we can be convinced that we MUST spend foolish amounts of money on things we don't need. I suppose blockbusters like "Bride Wars" are going with the safest bet, looking at trends, latching on and then everyone collects the money. At least critically its getting the lashing it deserves. This sort of film is insulting, and fortunately we have ways of expressing our feelings about it. If we support, talk about and go to the films that are doing good by women then more will be made. If we as an audience can show our distaste for this trend, we can cut straight to the heart of Hollywood by the most direct route, the wallet. A side note: I just watched "Terminator 2" on TV last week and was amazed at the depth, strength and complexity of Linda Hamilton's show-stealing performance. Are female roles in horror and action films stronger and meatier than the roles in films marketed directly to women? I suppose in a film like "T2", where you are being sold boy's toys (and perhaps sunglasses) rather than designer dresses, the best writing can go to either gender.— JasonRosenstock
- Bride movies offend because they say that the only way women can prove their worth is by getting married. (The counterpart for men are those movies which say that the only way men can prove their worth is by committing some act of violence.) In addition to their noxious political qualities, the other big problem with recent bride movies is that they're just plain lousy. Most of the scripts make me think that the writers learned everything they know about men and women by watching bad movies and TV shows. Sadly, that might not be wrong. Least Likely to Be Categorized as a 'Bride Movie,' But in a Funny Way It Is: "The Best Years of Our Lives." Somewhere, William Wyler is shrieking.— wwolfe
- If I may agree with/respectfully challenge kathfs’ astute comments. Yes, movies that end happily with weddings are not a new Hollywood convention. They’re as old as movies themselves. But the difference – and it’s a big one – is that today’s narrative’s just don’t end with weddings; they are entirely about weddings. And, personally, I would take any of today’s “wedding” movies – be they cynical (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”), aggressively masculine (“The Wedding Crashers”) or charmingly old-fashioned (“The Wedding Planner”) – to the original “Father of the Bride.” (I’m trying to block the Steve Martin remake from my mind; Now, that’s vapid.)— Pash
- Something sad is happening. After decades of women starring in good women’s roles (Hepburn, Davis, Dunne, Arthur and Russell in the ‘30s and ‘40s; Taylor, Day, Woodward and MacLaine in the ‘50s and ‘60s; Spacek, Fields, Fonda, Jackson and Redgrave in the ‘70s), women became adjuncts to men in the 1980s and ‘90s, playing expendable sidekicks, nagging wives or girlfriends or someone to be raped and rescued. There were complaints – from woman directors, actress and female moviegoers alike. And so the condescending “chick flick” was invented in the late ‘90s (and the guy who invented it has a lot to answer for). Exacerbating matters was “Sex and the City” – whose long run on TV was aptly dubbed “the reign of terror” by columnist Dan Savage – a show driven by gay men and, in my opinion, about gay men. Case in point: The Samantha character is closer to a cross-dresser and a trannie than to any woman I’ve ever met— Pash
- Call me shallow, but I enjoyed "Wedding Crashers" and its subversion of the wedding movie. I agree with almost everything said here and want topoint out to Jason that one reason the Terminaor movies have such a strong female character is because producer/co-writer Gail Ann Hurd hand a hand in their making. She likewise worked on "Aliens." And, if I remember correctl, she ordered her ex-, James Cameron, to read "Reviving Ophelia," the important work on the self-esteem of teenage girls, before he tackled the script for "Titanic."— carrierickey
- Speaking about Hepburn, she was one of my fave movie brides in "The Philadelphia Story"— javafiend
- Wonderfully funny/nasty wedding scene in "Like Water for Chocolate". Go rent it!— CountryRose
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