Hello All,
So last time I asked how do you make a horror movie boring? Today, I want to ask a different question. Why do people fall in love? No, that’s too broad. Let’s narrow it down a bit: Why do people fall in love in movies? Almost as broad, but at least in movies there’s a capability there to show you exactly why people fall in love. But I want to take that question one step further: Why do people fall in love in movies where it doesn’t need to happen? AKA The forced romantic subplot. Now I don’t have time at the moment to get into the vast array of nuances about this question, so today I’m tackling the topic in general, using today’s movie as sort of a guideline. Yeah spoiler alert by the way but if reading this gets the point I want to make across to you, then I’m okay with that. Also doing a normal review on top of this, but I will get to my point further down. So let’s get to it shall we?
Plot Summary - When two strangers decide to rent a plane to beat a snowstorm, they instead end up crashing on the side of a mountain and must band together in order to survive.
Pros - Idris Elba and Kate Winslet are trying their absolute best with the material given to them and you can’t blame them for that.
Cons - For a survival movie, not a lot happens. Now granted sometimes that’s how survival works, but jesus you could’ve called this walking then talking the movie because that’s all that happens. That scene from the trailer of winslet falling in the ice, is one of two interesting things that happen and that’s it. I’d comment on the dialogue, but honestly the actual goddamn words are so forgettable that (and once again, spoiler alert) it completely shocked me when the two of them, after finding a cabin, decide to start having sex. Now granted there is a slight build up….right before they do it, and that’s pretty much it. This by far is my biggest problem with the movie, because it basically came out of nowhere. I remember them talking about other things, but not falling in love with each other. Hell, he’s recently widowed, and she was on her way to get married when they crashed, so it makes even less sense. In romance films, words are basically everything when it comes to describing love, so if your film is lacking that (or has the appearance of lacking that in this case maybe) then any romance afterwards is going to feel forced. I’m not opposed to romance subplots, but goddammit if you’re going to do it do it fucking properly. This films fails at it so miserably I ended up leaving before it was even over. Which reminds me…
Final Score: Disqualified - Yeah, the romance thing made me leave. Hell, I even got the refund on my ticket. Out of fairness, I’m not scoring it, and it will not make any of my official year end lists. The only list this is going on is on the list of films I should’ve skipped.
I leave you all with this final message: If you ever write a film, or know someone who is writing a film, and the idea of making the two leads fall in love without any sort of real reason for it comes up, smack yourself/them. Forced romance doesn't make shitty films better, it only drags them down.
Next: The Foreigner - Not quite sure when, and admittedly it might not even be the next immediate review. Just wanted to name something.
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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.
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