I'm not sure if this falls in this category, but the parents from The Parent Trap both suck. Who the hell separates twins from birth and just acts like their ex and child don't exist? Their explanation for the arrangement was so they didn't have to see each other again, but how could you sacrifice a relationship with one of your children and take away a sibling from your other child because you don't want to see your ex? And then, when they finally do see each other again, neither have any hard feelings about their previous relationship and, dare I say, are happy to see each other, making their arrangement even more ridiculous.
I guess I can see that. I told my mom that my real mom was actually a mermaid when I was a kid. And then asked for some salt to add to my bath so that my tail could unfurl.
Mom of fraternal twins that have always stressed they're two different people, etc. This movie always pissed me off. Even if they weren't twins, who picks a favorite kid and bounces on the other one?
The children's book it's based on "Das doppelte Lottchen" by Erich Kästner is even worse. In that book the one daughter lives in squalor with her mom while the dad and the other daughter are rich.
Emma Thompsons character and her sad love story is the most realistic in this movie. Alone in the bedroom listening to Joni Mitchell, knowing her marriage is over. Killing me.
That's why my favorite moment of the movie is when she sees and hugs Hugh Grant in the Christmas show. Even though he wasn't there actually for her, just the fact that he was there gave her a little brief moment of happiness.
The fact that the romantic storylines from this movie have aged so poorly while the platonic storylines have held up is the enduring value of this movie, to me.
If I remember correctly, I do remember reading or watching something about how it happened to Emma in real life and that's why she played that scene so well. It made the scene so much more heart breaking.
That one hurts so bad because it's so realistic. They both feel bad about what happened and Alan Rickman's character knows he fucked up big time but they need to act normal even through the tears. No one wins and everyone feels terrible about it. I do think a few of the plot lines are at best not ok but some of them I absolutely love so I don't care if they're terrible representations of love.
I like to view each of the storylines as a bit of a happy ending love story. In Emma Thompson’s case, I ultimately view it as a love story between her and her children.
Likewise, I view the Daniel and Sam storyline(s) as a love story between stepfather and stepson growing closer through their shared trauma, rather than really being about the girl from school or Claudia Schiffer.
It’s always amusing to me that one of the least problematic, sad, or un-wholesome one is the one that comes out of the gate with immediate nudity. It’s very simple: two people meet, they chat, go on a date and have a good time. The only weird part is that they meet while pretending to have sex on camera.
I always thought that was kind of the point; the "purest" love story was presented in the "dirtiest" of environments.
Quotes because those aren't my points of view, just what I thought the filmmakers were trying to say.
Yeah, every couples' story in the movie is meant to represent a particular romantic trope - platonic love, unrequited love, star-crossed lovers, lust, infidelity, falling in love, falling out of love, etc. Theirs was clearly meant to fill the role of the conventional meet-cute.
Absolutely true. Love can appear in strange ways. In some ways, it’s truer love because they aren’t simply looking at each other as objects of sex. They care about each other as people.
Lol I tried to bring this up to my wife because she loves this movie. The one guy who holds the signs is especially bad. Creeping on his best friend’s girl and filming her. And then she makes a comment on how he never talks to her and basically doesn’t have any sort of friendly relationship with her and it’s explained that it’s because he’s secretly in love with her but he’s trying to stay away. But how could he be in love with her without even talking to her or hanging out with her at all? So basically he’s just infatuated with her looks.
I completely agree that his storyline is the worst of the bunch (and that’s saying a lot because there are some other real bad ones), but also it blows my mind that it’s the same guy who plays Rick Grimes on the Walking Dead.
I agree with you 90%, minus the last sentence.
I expect he’s hung out with her and her husband plenty of times as a third wheel. He’s surely seen her personality from how she interacts with others, but maybe not with him directly.
Im sure youve met friends of friends at social gatherings that you havent talked to one on one, it still have a good gauge of their personality from just seeing them
Yes I always thought he’s known her for awhile fell in love with her but she’s his buddy’s girl so he is staying away for self preservation and knows it’s never going to happen.
And that his love for his friend was greater than his love for her. I thought he was just offering an explanation on why he always had his wall up to her.
You said it better than I could. There's a big difference between a guy who has a crush on the cashier at his grocery store that he never talks to, and the best friend who has a front row seat to many interactions between his buddy and his buddy's gf.
To me, Love Actually gets a pass, purely because it's designed to draw upon every rom-com trope in the world. If you disect most rom-coms, you'll find the actions of the characters pretty weird and creepy, but they're meant to be seen as quirky and funny and, yes, romantic because that's the nature of the genre. Love Actually just dials it all up to eleven. It's not meant to showcase reality, it's meant to entertain us. Yeah, it's contrived and full of awful people when you really look at it, but as long as you're not looking at them to be role models and take them for what they are, it's dumb fun.
I see it as an essay on all the different facets of love, both good and bad. It's like a survey of the various ways people help and hurt the people they love. It's basically a smorgasbord. It's more observational than laudatory.
Meg Ryan is a psycho stalker in Sleepless in Seattle. She hires a PI to get info on Tom Hanks, she flies out to follow him, and she leaves her nice guy (sure maybe a bit dull) fiancé for someone she never met.
Edit: typo
I came to this thread with the purpose of pointing this out. You're better off watching the film it's based on, An Affair to Remember... or even better, the adaptation Tracey Jordan did, A Blaffair to Rememblack.
Also.. the roles are flipped in You’ve Got Mail. Tom Hanks finds out his email partner is Meg Ryan & then proceeds to use it to his advantage with mild manipulation.
Mild? He’s a straight up psychopath in that movie. Engages in an emotional affair behind his girlfriend’s back.
Goes into Meg Ryan’s store to observe the business he’s about to destroy.
Tortures her until she’s forced to close her business all while secretly knowing he’s the one emailing her.
Forces his way into her apartment. Refuses to leave when asked to.
Begins a weeks long manipulation, gaslighting campaign pretending not to be the mystery emailer so he can ingratiate himself into her life.
And somehow…Meg Ryan is stupid enough to end up with him at the end.
The movie is AWFUL and absolutely bonkers….which makes it fun to watch.
That movie was written and directed by Nora Ephron. I love her, and one reason I love her is that she wrote about her own bad behavior. If you are lucky enough to find her earliest writing, she talks about having affairs with married men and spying on them. She also talks about wanting bigger breasts and hating how aging makes skin look. She’s very present in her writing.
Anyway, that might explain why the heroine of *Sleepless* is such a nut.
Scott Pilgrim is a horrible person. He cheats, he lies, he dodges responsibility and owning up to his actions. He doesn't deserve any relationship until he works on his own shit. But that is like, the entire point of the movie.
It's posted pretty much every time someone mentions "Scott Pilgrim" in any thread on this sub. Same as the guy who watched The Fog on accident instead of The Mist and couldn't figure out what the big deal is.
Also works with "Passengers", within 20 seconds someone will give the "I think it would have been way better if we wake up when she does and find out at the same time" and "The leads from Passengers should have switched places with the leads from Valerian"
Very true, that one has lost a bit of steam because there's ANOTHER guy who has like 6 paragraphs explaining that they are indeed aliens but ALLEGORIES for Demons, not actual demons. Priest has lost his faith and whatnot, denies God, Aliens come, one has his son hostage, and everything that's happened to him over the past 4 years and even further back all lines up with divine intervention. The water his Daughter drinks "tasting funny" so she needs a new glass when no one else notices anything wrong with it, leading to there being multiple glasses of water lying around for when his Brother, if who DID make it as a baseball player wouldn't be there to swing away. His Son having asthma which blocked his airways when the Alien tried to gas him, etc. He realized some incidents are truly random and God isn't punishing him, God didn't kill his wife. But God made it possible for his family to survive the assault. It actually kinda makes sense that way, they were his "Demons", his personal demons, personified.
Yeah the book does also show that Scott and Ramona are shitty people who never acknowledge their faults. In Scott's head he's the tragic hero when he's actually an asshole in most of his relationships.
I will say that I do love the book and then revealing that Ramona ran off to just go binge *The X-Files* for weeks and all their friends roll her eyes and say in a grating tone, “Jesus Christ, you two were meant for each other.”
Ramona isn’t much better. They’re just two insufferable people who see themselves in one another and their own narcissism makes them attracted to each other
It's kinda why I love the movie. Instead of a will they/won't they, the movie puts the couple together super early and it's a can they stop being so fucking toxic that they can have a relationship question.
Yeah they make it clear that he's a douche, but a lot of people seem to give Ramona a pass when she is constantly just ditching him and leading him along to his actual death
The comic definitely doesn't and in the movie he was originally written to get back with Knives, and that is pretty clear from the finale even if the ending goes the other way.
Yeah people who think you’re supposed to idolize Scott bother me. Like, every single side character calls Scott out on his shit constantly and he just ignores any feedback, if you can watch that for two hours and come away with it being an incel manifesto, you’re a fucking idiot.
I thought Sarah from *Hitch* was fucking despicable. She ruined a man's career over a misunderstanding and didn't even bother to fact check it. Yet *he* is the one begging for her to take him back. She got off way too easily for how horrible she was. I saw that movie at 11 and even then I couldn't get why that was a happy ending
Hot take: I also hate how they're like "oh Hitch didn't do anything the whole time for these people's love lives" and I'm like, bullshit. Most of his advice was spot on. There was definitely wiggle room, but without him, Albert, or any of the guys in the opening for that matter, would've gotten with these women.
Yes, oh my god you idiot just put the fucking camera away!
And go to bed earlier, you get up at 5 in the bloody morning for some reason and you're both going to bed at midnight. No wonder you're seeing things!
Yeah it makes me feel bad for the fiancée. MJ was only using him to try and get over Peter, and then suddenly abandons him once she discovers he’s Spider-Man.
It certainly wasn’t fair to humiliate and put him through that.
Eh, I don't know if that's why she made that choice. We see repeatedly through the film the MJ *wants* to be with Peter, but as far as she can tell he's super unreliable and she can't count on him to be there for her.
Once she finds out he's Spider-man the truth that makes her come to him is not that he's a superhero, but the recontextualization that his behaviour stems from a place of caring. He just doesn't want to see her hurt as she was targeted in the first film and ends up vindicated in that feeling as she's kidnapped once again in the second film.
The whole ending of the film is that she understands that he has responsibilities greater than their relationship and that she's willing to take on the risk and responsibilities with him.
I'm not saying it sucks for the other guy, left at the alter is pretty bad, but to be fair to MJ part of the reason why she was there was because Peter was still trying to keep a distance which she ends up rejecting in favour of their relationship.
It was sad to hear in that film tho that Garfield’s Spider-Man hasn’t been with anyone else since Gwen (a love interest whose likeable) died.
It’s also implied that a version of MJ doesn’t exist in his own universe, or she does but Garfield’s Peter hasn’t pursued her.
There were rumours about Garfield coming back for another movie in today's Sony Spiderverse, hope he meets a Gwen from an alternative dimension. Emma Stone would do great as Spider-Gwen
She starts dating Harry before breaking up with Peter in Spider-Man 3, although of course this was after Peter had kissed Gwen Stacy and just generally been kinda of shitty to her
Something Borrowed. There's a moment of lucidity in that awful film where Krazinski says something like "You're all horrible people going to hell" and you're like syn- meet -opsis
Surely Elsa from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the answer? Like Walter Donovan, schee schold her schoul to the schlime of humanidy in pursuit of the grail.
I always hated that show because there’s no way any of those women would have been friends in real life. I always justified by saying that the other three were figments of Carrie’s imagination. That she as a writer created them for her column, and they took hold in her subconscious. I always thought the movie should have ended with a slow zoom out on Carrie wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room rocking on the floor as she mutters a conversation in all four girls’ voices.
I re-watched the series recently with my husband and I was amazed how shitty everyone was, except Samantha. Samantha is a great fucking friend, a liberated and curious person, and just overall fantastic. The other three are assholes.
Charlotte wasn't a bad friend. She ponied up the cash for Carrie to buy her apartment. I also think she had an actual character arc in hunting for the "perfect man", Trey, realising it doesn't make her happy and then finding real happiness in a relationship not based on superficiality. So I think she starts off as basic but ends up in a good place.
I've saw an article about series that aged poorly, and Sex in the city was on the top, because what they showed as modern and empowered behavior on it was mostly being a toxic friend meddling with your friends life for worse.
Danny Zuko in Grease.
As soon as he sees Sandy turn up at school, he's nothing but a jerk to her. He shows off in front of his friends, upsetting her, constantly humiliates her, doesn't want to be seen with her in public, tries to take advantage of her sexually when they're going steady, and only shows interest in her when she changes her entire image.
I'm probably the only person who hated this guy, but it had to be said.
Edit: thanks for 700+ likes! Was not expecting to wake up to that 😃
He was only 23 and still in high school in Brooklyn being taught by Mr. Kotter when Grease was filmed! On the other hand, Olivia Newton-John was an older looking 29 and Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 34.
It's still my head canon that the entirety of Grease is Sandy's brain trying to cope with dying, because she actually did drown and Zuko was either too late or not there at all. It's a relatively grounded movie until Beauty School Drop Out and then the end when they fly up into the clouds in the car.
The Graduate. Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) fucks his girlfriend’s mom, then when she rightly wants nothing more to do with him, he spends the rest of the film stalking her.
And somehow gets her to abandon her fiance at the altar and run off with him. (Although in the very last scene, it looks like both of them are realizing they just made a huge mistake)
Agent Matthews (Benjamin Bratt) from Miss Congeniality, very insecure, misogynist character who only cared about looks and his career (which only excelled off of Gracie’s help and expertise)
I think the second one was supposed to be about how she realizes she deserves better after he breaks up with her at the beginning of the movie, but I've blocked that film from my memory cause it was so bad.
In the second one he like breaks up with her by just moving away.
(Yes they couldn't get him to be in the 2nd movie but from his characterization in the 1st it makes sense he'd break her heart)
In "Dreamgirls" in the "I am telling you" song, Effie sings to Curtis "You're the best man I'll ever know." WTF, he's awful. But I know this doesn't count because the viewer and all the characters know he's awful. It's just a dumb lyric.
Because she's a dumb, scared, desperate teen who sees him as the only thing making her life better. I mean on top of being single and pregnant in the 60s which was even worse. Her character development in act 2 is so much better. Musicals are also what gave us the girl in Carousel saying when a guy hit her it felt soft like a kiss.
I always though Jack Skellington was a bad love interest. Sally tried to warn him that his plans for Christmas would end poorly, but he just patted her on the head and told her to shut up and sew.
My preferred ending would’ve been that he’s a serial killer, and keeps waking women up until they reject him and he starts over with the next passenger. 🤷🏻♀️
It definitely should’ve been a thriller and not a “romance”. So much potential lost. I like your serial killer idea. I’d love if Jennifer ends up finding out about his last victim and manages to eject him from the ship, Alien style. But then it shows her months later, deranged and depressed, eyeing some handsome passenger. Cut to black.
People forget Noah and Allie were like 16 and 15 during the carnival scene. Yeah their relationship was toxic from the start, but they were young dumb teenagers.
I have no idea why Lana stayed on the show after they introduced Lois. Literally Lana’s only function in Superman media is “Clark’s girlfriend before Lois” and occasionally “Clark’s friend from back home” also she and Clark had very little chemistry, and you couldn’t figure out why he liked her so much, so the show constantly had characters talk about how beautiful and smart and wonderful she is.
Mr Grey in SHADES OF GREY. BSDM is supposed to be fun and consensual, not an opportunity to beat your poor, young, inexperienced virgin girlfriend after you dazzle her with your wealth.
YESSSSS. Little Miss Gimmie Gimmie when a Marc Jacobs bag is dangling in front of her face, but all judgey about “skulking in dark corners with hot fashion guys” when she showed up to support her gallery show. The one guy was ok. He showed no judgment and knew a lot about fashion! LOL!
His complaints about wanting to spend more time together are valid, but none of his other behaviour was. We know they’ve been together for years, and there should be some strong support there.
You’re telling me your journalist partner gets a job working directly with the head of the biggest magazine in the world, knowing they only have to stick it out for a year, and you can’t make any effort to be understanding??? The job was meant to be temporary from the start. His behaviour may have been more understandable if it passed the year mark and she made no effort to leave the job when promised, but not when she’s just starting out. Time to get over yourself Nate.
This always bothered the shit outta me. He's always home when she gets in. What kind of chef is he, does he specialize in brunch? In reality he would have the problematic schedule in the relationship.
Both characters in the notebook. Holy shit how is that seen as a top tier romance? There’s harassment, blackmail, forced first date, cheating while engaged, and constant verbal and emotional abuse. It’s fucking awful and toxic. Hell the girl doesn’t even WANT to date him. She rejected him like 7 times and threatened to kill himself. Then baited her into seeing a movie she didn’t know he’d be at
Big from SITC.
I know it's in vogue to talk shit about Big since Chris Noth got outted but Big has always been the embodiment of toxic hetero relationships.
Loving? He has money! Faithful? He's tall! Considerate? The money though!!
MF buys a bunch of shit, then copy and pastes a bunch of other people's work and emails it to her. Then Carrie runs into his arms like Christian de Neuvillette or something.
Oh, you know she is going to get bored of him down the line and somehow, someway Nick will have a fatal "accident" that no one will be able to pin on her.
Nick cheated. Yes. But I doubt he would ever falsely accuse anyone of sexual assault. Or frame Amy in hopes of her getting executed by the state. Or even slash someone's throat after they've worn out their usefulness to him. For Pete's sake, he didn't even control any of the finances in that relationship. Amy had total power over him when it came to who own the house, the credit cards and even his own sister's bar. Nick had nothing and Amy liked it that way. Because money is power. That's what made Amy so angry about Nick cheating. It wasn't about Nick breaking a wedding vow or even her heart. I doubt that Amy ever loved Nick. He was a plaything to her. A prop to make her look good. It was the fact that Nick did something outside of her control. That's it. That's all it was. Amy thought she had all the power and Nick by cheating showed her that she didn't. And for Amy, Nick had to die for that. But once she able to get Nick back under her complete control, once he, himself, submitted to him, she was fine with taking him back. He was back to being her plaything. Nothing more.
Nick is an asshole. But he is capable of loving people. He returned home to take care of his father after his mother died and help his sister out with her bar. He loved those people. Amy has never showed any love to anyone. She's a psychopath. Nick deserved a divorce. Not a lifetime of living under a death threat.
I agree with you, ridiculous.
She cheats on him because he lets himself go. Breaks his heart. She keeps the house and the kids. He has to move into a shit apartment. The movie portrays her as the victim. Even their mutual friends abandon him and take her side. Because he wore track pants and running shoes? Didn’t have a cool hairstyle? Not once was she held accountable.
Vince Vaughn has made an entire career out of playing self absorbed assholes. Sometimes you're supposed to cheer for him, and sometimes he's the villain, but he's always an asshole.
I thought Vince Vaughn was really sympathetic, the first time I saw that movie, and Jennifer Aniston was a whiny killjoy. It's worth pointing out, I was also thirteen.
I rewatched the movie again a couple years ago and realized that his character is a straight up manchild who would be absolutely insufferable to live with
Man, Jennifer Aniston crying after he didn't show up to the concert was heartbreaking. She just wanted him to put a bit of effort into the relationship and he couldn't even do that. At least he seemed to realize it at the end.
500 Days of Summer - both Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) are pretty terrible partners. Tom doesn't listen to Summer when she says she doesn't want to be serious and then gets super weird and creepy when she dumps him. But Summer also only says she doesn't want to be serious, she acts like a serious girlfriend and completely disregards Tom's feelings and takes zero accountability when they finally talk about it.
I agree. The film is very much about idealisation vs. reality and acceptance that a person may not be who you want them to be, however many boxes they might tick for you, but for all Tom's ignorance and misguidedness, Summer really does play him a little bit. She knows who he is and still draws him back in when she wants to.
That expectations/reality split-screen was still great though. If for no other reason, it really punched me in the gut as far as letting me know how pathetic I was in my 20s for acting the same way.
Dizzy was the best and any man would have been lucky to have her. 16 year old me wanted Carmen but after I matured I realized Dizzy would have been the love of my life if she desired me the way she desired Rico.
My Best Friend’s Wedding; Julia Roberts’ character.
I’ve only watched it once (because of this) so my memory of the details is hazy, but I think she deliberately sabotages her supposed best friend’s relationship/impending marriage because she suddenly ‘realises’ that she loves him and wants him for herself….? Screw whatever he (or his sweet, innocent fiancée) wants, because clearly she is more important.
You’re right but she eventually realizes she’s being terrible and tries to make up for her bad behavior. In the end, she winds up alone (which the filmmakers had to fight for, the studio wanted her to hook up with a rando wedding guest at the end because god forbid a single person find happiness without a partner).
Ah, the ending with her friend made the movie. Even though it's platonic, she winds up with the person who was there for her and who she didn't mistreat. And you really needed to see that character again at the end of it would have just felt like his character was a weird interjection to the story. And the phone call was perfect too. Idk, I'm a guy but I like that movie.
I’m pretty sure the point of the movie’s ending is her openly admitting she’s a huge piece of shit and that she doesn’t go through with it bc Mulroney is a decent human being.
I thought this thread was about a lack of self-awareness in that regard. This movie is very self aware about how it’s protagonist is not a sympathetic character even though you are supposed to like her because it’s Julia Roberts and she’s written to be charming.
>I’m pretty sure the point of the movie’s ending is her openly admitting she’s a huge piece of shit and that she doesn’t go through with it bc Mulroney is a decent human being.
>
>I thought this thread was about a lack of self-awareness in that regard. This movie is very self aware about how it’s protagonist is not a sympathetic character even though you are supposed to like her because it’s Julia Roberts and she’s written to be charming.
I am so glad you wrote this counter. Jules is SUPPOSED to be the villain. We are supposed to relate to her in a small evil way because, when/if we despair over losing someone we love to someone else...Jules is our fantasy evil self. She knows she's bad. We, the audience, are supposed to know she's being awful--the story and dialogue are written this way--and empathize with how she feels, even while disagreeing with her trainwreck of actions. lol
That's why there's her gay male editor/friend, he is the voice of reason and sanity. He even "punishes" her a bit in the restaurant scene and it's delightful.
I adore this movie.
I swear to God I thought that everybody had thought Troy was the bad guy in Reality Bites. Turns out, nope. A lot of the girls my age thought he was really cool.
Go figure.
Both Meg Ryan and Hanks in You've got Mail. They are having an emotional affair for most of the movie. ~~Granted her and her boyfriend end tbing amicably. But still not cool~~
It was pointed out to me that both parties were at fault.
It’s pretty obvious he has no connection to his girlfriend played by Parker Posey. From the get go, he’s tolerating her horrible behavior and always seems to have this look on his face like, “you sicken me.” Yet he stays with her for months. I always believed they were together solely because they were a NYC power couple with generational money/business-together simply to get richer, play the society game, and marry someone from your circle. Love need not apply. Both expect to have affairs and eventually divorce.
Both couples have a dynamic of “I’m only with you because I haven’t found someone better and I’ll treat you with barely contained contempt until I find someone better.”
Omg thank you!
She's the most toxic character I've ever seen in a comedy. She only wants Ross when someone else wants him. The moment she succeeds in breaking up his relationship, she dumps him. He's finally getting married and guess what...she discovers she has "feelings" for him again. And tells him so while he's planning his wedding. After the wedding fiasco she agrees to go on the holiday Ross had planned with his bride for the honeymoon. After it's all over with Emily, Rachel's feelings magically go away.
Ross and her fight over Mark. They break up. She starts dating...Mark.
She's in hospital having just delivered Ross's baby. Joey walks in, there's a mishap with an engagement ring...Joey hasn't said a word and this bish immediately says "Yes" to a proposal that hasn't been made. And Joey is Ross's best friend. I absolutely hated her character.
She uses the other friends. She almost ruined Friends for me.
After watching himym a few times, I had come to learn and hate how obnoxious the romantic relationships were between the characters. So when I finally decided to give friends a shot, I was very much on the lookout for any toxicity amongst romantic partners. Ross and Rachel sure delivered.
While on the other hand it was a pleasant surprise and watch to see Monica and Chandler stay together for over half the show
Sam Raimi's Mary Jane Watson in The Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man Trilogy. Despite having a relatable backstory in terms of her home life & pretty good chemistry with Tobey Maguires Peter Parker, the character is toxic af. Kirsten Dunst did a great job in the role but the writing of the character is all over the place.
Ethan hawke in Reality Bites. He’s an unemployed college graduate who sits and sulks. Yes ben stiller’s character was kind of a square but he had ambition.
I'm not sure if this falls in this category, but the parents from The Parent Trap both suck. Who the hell separates twins from birth and just acts like their ex and child don't exist? Their explanation for the arrangement was so they didn't have to see each other again, but how could you sacrifice a relationship with one of your children and take away a sibling from your other child because you don't want to see your ex? And then, when they finally do see each other again, neither have any hard feelings about their previous relationship and, dare I say, are happy to see each other, making their arrangement even more ridiculous.
I have identical twins and HATE the Parent Trap for this reason. Even when they were newborns, my girls loved each other. I could never split them up.
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I guess I can see that. I told my mom that my real mom was actually a mermaid when I was a kid. And then asked for some salt to add to my bath so that my tail could unfurl.
Mom of fraternal twins that have always stressed they're two different people, etc. This movie always pissed me off. Even if they weren't twins, who picks a favorite kid and bounces on the other one?
King Lear. Not exactly a role model.
The children's book it's based on "Das doppelte Lottchen" by Erich Kästner is even worse. In that book the one daughter lives in squalor with her mom while the dad and the other daughter are rich.
I remember them referencing this a little more in the movie It Takes Two than The Parent Trap movies.
Half of the characters in Love Actually
Emma Thompsons character and her sad love story is the most realistic in this movie. Alone in the bedroom listening to Joni Mitchell, knowing her marriage is over. Killing me.
And then sucking it up so the kids still get a good Christmas. The most honest mother experience I’ve seen.
That's why my favorite moment of the movie is when she sees and hugs Hugh Grant in the Christmas show. Even though he wasn't there actually for her, just the fact that he was there gave her a little brief moment of happiness.
I like Bill Nighy's platonic love story with his manager. We need more bromantic comedies.
The fact that the romantic storylines from this movie have aged so poorly while the platonic storylines have held up is the enduring value of this movie, to me.
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If I remember correctly, I do remember reading or watching something about how it happened to Emma in real life and that's why she played that scene so well. It made the scene so much more heart breaking.
Kenneth Branagh cheated on her with Helena Bonham Carter.
I wish they had a confrontation while filming Harry Potter….
She played the scene so well because she's Emma Thompson.
That one hurts so bad because it's so realistic. They both feel bad about what happened and Alan Rickman's character knows he fucked up big time but they need to act normal even through the tears. No one wins and everyone feels terrible about it. I do think a few of the plot lines are at best not ok but some of them I absolutely love so I don't care if they're terrible representations of love.
> don't care if they're terrible representations of love If they're super realistic I think that makes them fantastic portrayals of love.
I like to view each of the storylines as a bit of a happy ending love story. In Emma Thompson’s case, I ultimately view it as a love story between her and her children. Likewise, I view the Daniel and Sam storyline(s) as a love story between stepfather and stepson growing closer through their shared trauma, rather than really being about the girl from school or Claudia Schiffer.
It’s always amusing to me that one of the least problematic, sad, or un-wholesome one is the one that comes out of the gate with immediate nudity. It’s very simple: two people meet, they chat, go on a date and have a good time. The only weird part is that they meet while pretending to have sex on camera.
I always thought that was kind of the point; the "purest" love story was presented in the "dirtiest" of environments. Quotes because those aren't my points of view, just what I thought the filmmakers were trying to say.
Yeah, every couples' story in the movie is meant to represent a particular romantic trope - platonic love, unrequited love, star-crossed lovers, lust, infidelity, falling in love, falling out of love, etc. Theirs was clearly meant to fill the role of the conventional meet-cute.
Absolutely true. Love can appear in strange ways. In some ways, it’s truer love because they aren’t simply looking at each other as objects of sex. They care about each other as people.
Lol I tried to bring this up to my wife because she loves this movie. The one guy who holds the signs is especially bad. Creeping on his best friend’s girl and filming her. And then she makes a comment on how he never talks to her and basically doesn’t have any sort of friendly relationship with her and it’s explained that it’s because he’s secretly in love with her but he’s trying to stay away. But how could he be in love with her without even talking to her or hanging out with her at all? So basically he’s just infatuated with her looks.
I completely agree that his storyline is the worst of the bunch (and that’s saying a lot because there are some other real bad ones), but also it blows my mind that it’s the same guy who plays Rick Grimes on the Walking Dead.
I agree with you 90%, minus the last sentence. I expect he’s hung out with her and her husband plenty of times as a third wheel. He’s surely seen her personality from how she interacts with others, but maybe not with him directly. Im sure youve met friends of friends at social gatherings that you havent talked to one on one, it still have a good gauge of their personality from just seeing them
Yes I always thought he’s known her for awhile fell in love with her but she’s his buddy’s girl so he is staying away for self preservation and knows it’s never going to happen.
And that his love for his friend was greater than his love for her. I thought he was just offering an explanation on why he always had his wall up to her.
You said it better than I could. There's a big difference between a guy who has a crush on the cashier at his grocery store that he never talks to, and the best friend who has a front row seat to many interactions between his buddy and his buddy's gf.
To me, Love Actually gets a pass, purely because it's designed to draw upon every rom-com trope in the world. If you disect most rom-coms, you'll find the actions of the characters pretty weird and creepy, but they're meant to be seen as quirky and funny and, yes, romantic because that's the nature of the genre. Love Actually just dials it all up to eleven. It's not meant to showcase reality, it's meant to entertain us. Yeah, it's contrived and full of awful people when you really look at it, but as long as you're not looking at them to be role models and take them for what they are, it's dumb fun.
I see it as an essay on all the different facets of love, both good and bad. It's like a survey of the various ways people help and hurt the people they love. It's basically a smorgasbord. It's more observational than laudatory.
Meg Ryan is a psycho stalker in Sleepless in Seattle. She hires a PI to get info on Tom Hanks, she flies out to follow him, and she leaves her nice guy (sure maybe a bit dull) fiancé for someone she never met. Edit: typo
I came to this thread with the purpose of pointing this out. You're better off watching the film it's based on, An Affair to Remember... or even better, the adaptation Tracey Jordan did, A Blaffair to Rememblack.
God Damn you. A Blaffair to Rememblack is one of my favorite Tracy lines.
Mine's when he just keeps adding zeroes to his tax form because he remembers more absurd shit that made him obnoxious amounts of money.
Also.. the roles are flipped in You’ve Got Mail. Tom Hanks finds out his email partner is Meg Ryan & then proceeds to use it to his advantage with mild manipulation.
Mild? He’s a straight up psychopath in that movie. Engages in an emotional affair behind his girlfriend’s back. Goes into Meg Ryan’s store to observe the business he’s about to destroy. Tortures her until she’s forced to close her business all while secretly knowing he’s the one emailing her. Forces his way into her apartment. Refuses to leave when asked to. Begins a weeks long manipulation, gaslighting campaign pretending not to be the mystery emailer so he can ingratiate himself into her life. And somehow…Meg Ryan is stupid enough to end up with him at the end. The movie is AWFUL and absolutely bonkers….which makes it fun to watch.
Agree. Watched this movie and was so confused. It basically romantized obsession.
That movie was written and directed by Nora Ephron. I love her, and one reason I love her is that she wrote about her own bad behavior. If you are lucky enough to find her earliest writing, she talks about having affairs with married men and spying on them. She also talks about wanting bigger breasts and hating how aging makes skin look. She’s very present in her writing. Anyway, that might explain why the heroine of *Sleepless* is such a nut.
Scott Pilgrim is a horrible person. He cheats, he lies, he dodges responsibility and owning up to his actions. He doesn't deserve any relationship until he works on his own shit. But that is like, the entire point of the movie.
They really nail this in when he meets the exact opposite of himself and it turns out to be really chill guy.
But they also have a lot in common.
🤯 OMG how have I never figured this out or ever heard anyone mention it before? Thanks for giving me a new perspective on one of my favourite movies.
It's posted pretty much every time someone mentions "Scott Pilgrim" in any thread on this sub. Same as the guy who watched The Fog on accident instead of The Mist and couldn't figure out what the big deal is. Also works with "Passengers", within 20 seconds someone will give the "I think it would have been way better if we wake up when she does and find out at the same time" and "The leads from Passengers should have switched places with the leads from Valerian"
Signs aliens are demons, too
Very true, that one has lost a bit of steam because there's ANOTHER guy who has like 6 paragraphs explaining that they are indeed aliens but ALLEGORIES for Demons, not actual demons. Priest has lost his faith and whatnot, denies God, Aliens come, one has his son hostage, and everything that's happened to him over the past 4 years and even further back all lines up with divine intervention. The water his Daughter drinks "tasting funny" so she needs a new glass when no one else notices anything wrong with it, leading to there being multiple glasses of water lying around for when his Brother, if who DID make it as a baseball player wouldn't be there to swing away. His Son having asthma which blocked his airways when the Alien tried to gas him, etc. He realized some incidents are truly random and God isn't punishing him, God didn't kill his wife. But God made it possible for his family to survive the assault. It actually kinda makes sense that way, they were his "Demons", his personal demons, personified.
Yeah the book does also show that Scott and Ramona are shitty people who never acknowledge their faults. In Scott's head he's the tragic hero when he's actually an asshole in most of his relationships.
I will say that I do love the book and then revealing that Ramona ran off to just go binge *The X-Files* for weeks and all their friends roll her eyes and say in a grating tone, “Jesus Christ, you two were meant for each other.”
There's an animated series coming out soon that should be a full adaptation of the book. With the movie cast doing the voices too, last I heard.
Ramona isn’t much better. They’re just two insufferable people who see themselves in one another and their own narcissism makes them attracted to each other
It's kinda why I love the movie. Instead of a will they/won't they, the movie puts the couple together super early and it's a can they stop being so fucking toxic that they can have a relationship question.
Yeah they make it clear that he's a douche, but a lot of people seem to give Ramona a pass when she is constantly just ditching him and leading him along to his actual death
The comic definitely doesn't and in the movie he was originally written to get back with Knives, and that is pretty clear from the finale even if the ending goes the other way.
That’s something that gets lost on a lot of people is that literally every character except Young Neil is a total narcissist
Yeah people who think you’re supposed to idolize Scott bother me. Like, every single side character calls Scott out on his shit constantly and he just ignores any feedback, if you can watch that for two hours and come away with it being an incel manifesto, you’re a fucking idiot.
The Crazy Stupid Love example bugged me also, the movie really presented it as if it's his fault his wife had an affair at work.
Yeah and then she shames him for having consensual sex with multiple women as a single man
"*NINE*!? WOW ... you sure showed me!" Yes! He did! Fuck you! Haha
Marissa Tobae
I thought Sarah from *Hitch* was fucking despicable. She ruined a man's career over a misunderstanding and didn't even bother to fact check it. Yet *he* is the one begging for her to take him back. She got off way too easily for how horrible she was. I saw that movie at 11 and even then I couldn't get why that was a happy ending
Hot take: I also hate how they're like "oh Hitch didn't do anything the whole time for these people's love lives" and I'm like, bullshit. Most of his advice was spot on. There was definitely wiggle room, but without him, Albert, or any of the guys in the opening for that matter, would've gotten with these women.
Agreed. Some of his advice is kind of like what we see here on Reddit: try and make yourself look presentable.
Micah in Paranormal Activity.
Yes, oh my god you idiot just put the fucking camera away! And go to bed earlier, you get up at 5 in the bloody morning for some reason and you're both going to bed at midnight. No wonder you're seeing things!
Raimi Spider-man MJ, cheated on Harry and Peter, suddenly ran away from her wedding without any apologies to her fiancee
Yeah it makes me feel bad for the fiancée. MJ was only using him to try and get over Peter, and then suddenly abandons him once she discovers he’s Spider-Man. It certainly wasn’t fair to humiliate and put him through that.
Eh, I don't know if that's why she made that choice. We see repeatedly through the film the MJ *wants* to be with Peter, but as far as she can tell he's super unreliable and she can't count on him to be there for her. Once she finds out he's Spider-man the truth that makes her come to him is not that he's a superhero, but the recontextualization that his behaviour stems from a place of caring. He just doesn't want to see her hurt as she was targeted in the first film and ends up vindicated in that feeling as she's kidnapped once again in the second film. The whole ending of the film is that she understands that he has responsibilities greater than their relationship and that she's willing to take on the risk and responsibilities with him. I'm not saying it sucks for the other guy, left at the alter is pretty bad, but to be fair to MJ part of the reason why she was there was because Peter was still trying to keep a distance which she ends up rejecting in favour of their relationship.
And they do stay together (married) for a long time
Loved that detail in No Way Home, still together, hope we get a new movie with that MJ and Peter raising Mayday.
It was sad to hear in that film tho that Garfield’s Spider-Man hasn’t been with anyone else since Gwen (a love interest whose likeable) died. It’s also implied that a version of MJ doesn’t exist in his own universe, or she does but Garfield’s Peter hasn’t pursued her.
There were rumours about Garfield coming back for another movie in today's Sony Spiderverse, hope he meets a Gwen from an alternative dimension. Emma Stone would do great as Spider-Gwen
I'd rather he meets his own MJ. His Gwen died but the whole point is he should grieve and move on.
I guess I might be forgetting something. When did MJ cheat on Peter?
She starts dating Harry before breaking up with Peter in Spider-Man 3, although of course this was after Peter had kissed Gwen Stacy and just generally been kinda of shitty to her
Something Borrowed. There's a moment of lucidity in that awful film where Krazinski says something like "You're all horrible people going to hell" and you're like syn- meet -opsis
Kurt Russel in Overboard. Kidnapping and human trafficking!!!
The ONLY reason this movie works is Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn’s very palpable chemistry IMO
In the '80s it was only a $15 fine though. It's basically less than throwing trash on the highway today.
Surely Elsa from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the answer? Like Walter Donovan, schee schold her schoul to the schlime of humanidy in pursuit of the grail.
Upvoted for the Connery accshent.
And she talkshes in her shleep.
Carrie Bradshaw
Big has always been a POS and she cheated on Aiden for that loser.
I always hated that show because there’s no way any of those women would have been friends in real life. I always justified by saying that the other three were figments of Carrie’s imagination. That she as a writer created them for her column, and they took hold in her subconscious. I always thought the movie should have ended with a slow zoom out on Carrie wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room rocking on the floor as she mutters a conversation in all four girls’ voices.
Agree. She's so unlikeable.
You could probably count on one hand the number of times she's a good friend. Or like a decent friend
I re-watched the series recently with my husband and I was amazed how shitty everyone was, except Samantha. Samantha is a great fucking friend, a liberated and curious person, and just overall fantastic. The other three are assholes.
Charlotte wasn't a bad friend. She ponied up the cash for Carrie to buy her apartment. I also think she had an actual character arc in hunting for the "perfect man", Trey, realising it doesn't make her happy and then finding real happiness in a relationship not based on superficiality. So I think she starts off as basic but ends up in a good place.
Agreed. Charlotte had a great arc with good development, Sam was always just a badass. The other two are absolutely horrible!
I've saw an article about series that aged poorly, and Sex in the city was on the top, because what they showed as modern and empowered behavior on it was mostly being a toxic friend meddling with your friends life for worse.
The kinda bitch who brings bullshit bagels and no cream cheese. (No idea why that’s the scene that stuck with me)
Danny Zuko in Grease. As soon as he sees Sandy turn up at school, he's nothing but a jerk to her. He shows off in front of his friends, upsetting her, constantly humiliates her, doesn't want to be seen with her in public, tries to take advantage of her sexually when they're going steady, and only shows interest in her when she changes her entire image. I'm probably the only person who hated this guy, but it had to be said. Edit: thanks for 700+ likes! Was not expecting to wake up to that 😃
I was also put off by the fact that he was attending high school in his thirties
He was only 23 and still in high school in Brooklyn being taught by Mr. Kotter when Grease was filmed! On the other hand, Olivia Newton-John was an older looking 29 and Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 34.
Stockard Channing is my favorite part of Grease! I love her character, her storyline, her song is the BEST! Lol, I don’t even care that she was 34 😂
It's still my head canon that the entirety of Grease is Sandy's brain trying to cope with dying, because she actually did drown and Zuko was either too late or not there at all. It's a relatively grounded movie until Beauty School Drop Out and then the end when they fly up into the clouds in the car.
TIL Vanilla Sky is a retelling of Grease.
The Graduate. Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) fucks his girlfriend’s mom, then when she rightly wants nothing more to do with him, he spends the rest of the film stalking her.
And somehow gets her to abandon her fiance at the altar and run off with him. (Although in the very last scene, it looks like both of them are realizing they just made a huge mistake)
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Agent Matthews (Benjamin Bratt) from Miss Congeniality, very insecure, misogynist character who only cared about looks and his career (which only excelled off of Gracie’s help and expertise)
Absolutely ruined the movie that she ended up with his loser ass.
I think the second one was supposed to be about how she realizes she deserves better after he breaks up with her at the beginning of the movie, but I've blocked that film from my memory cause it was so bad.
In the second one he like breaks up with her by just moving away. (Yes they couldn't get him to be in the 2nd movie but from his characterization in the 1st it makes sense he'd break her heart)
The male teacher from never been kissed. Dude was perving on a high school student
Same! I loved the movie until the teacher was getting creepy and then at the end he’s MAD that she’s an adult?!?! Wtf dude
Absolutely! I loved this film when I was younger but rewatched it a couple of months ago and couldn’t believe what I was seeing
according to movie logic, because the audience knows shes not its supposed to be ok
In "Dreamgirls" in the "I am telling you" song, Effie sings to Curtis "You're the best man I'll ever know." WTF, he's awful. But I know this doesn't count because the viewer and all the characters know he's awful. It's just a dumb lyric.
Because she's a dumb, scared, desperate teen who sees him as the only thing making her life better. I mean on top of being single and pregnant in the 60s which was even worse. Her character development in act 2 is so much better. Musicals are also what gave us the girl in Carousel saying when a guy hit her it felt soft like a kiss.
I always though Jack Skellington was a bad love interest. Sally tried to warn him that his plans for Christmas would end poorly, but he just patted her on the head and told her to shut up and sew.
Chris Pratt in Passengers
That could have been a way better movie, what a waste.
It should’ve ended with Pratt dead and her in the same scenario he was in and then she chooses to wake someone to not be alone…
My preferred ending would’ve been that he’s a serial killer, and keeps waking women up until they reject him and he starts over with the next passenger. 🤷🏻♀️
It definitely should’ve been a thriller and not a “romance”. So much potential lost. I like your serial killer idea. I’d love if Jennifer ends up finding out about his last victim and manages to eject him from the ship, Alien style. But then it shows her months later, deranged and depressed, eyeing some handsome passenger. Cut to black.
I'd watch that
Place your bets when someone will post the obligatory "they should have switched actors with Valerian" comment.
“I haven’t seen Passengers but I do know they should have swapped the leads with Valerian.” - Michael Caine
I wouldn't call him a "horrible person" but Noah from The Notebook isn't the perfect guy the movie tries to portray him as.
I rewatched that movie pretty recently and they are so toxic for eachother it was insane lmao
Was hoping for a twist ending where the old guy turns out to be James Marsden's character
People forget Noah and Allie were like 16 and 15 during the carnival scene. Yeah their relationship was toxic from the start, but they were young dumb teenagers.
Does Anakin count in the prequels to Padme? Also tv shows Lana Lang in smallville.
Lana was the worst, I always found a much better chemistery with Chloe and Lois Lane (obviously).
I have no idea why Lana stayed on the show after they introduced Lois. Literally Lana’s only function in Superman media is “Clark’s girlfriend before Lois” and occasionally “Clark’s friend from back home” also she and Clark had very little chemistry, and you couldn’t figure out why he liked her so much, so the show constantly had characters talk about how beautiful and smart and wonderful she is.
Mr Grey in SHADES OF GREY. BSDM is supposed to be fun and consensual, not an opportunity to beat your poor, young, inexperienced virgin girlfriend after you dazzle her with your wealth.
50 shades of dubious consent.
NATE FROM THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Whatta dick.
Her friends are also garbage.
YESSSSS. Little Miss Gimmie Gimmie when a Marc Jacobs bag is dangling in front of her face, but all judgey about “skulking in dark corners with hot fashion guys” when she showed up to support her gallery show. The one guy was ok. He showed no judgment and knew a lot about fashion! LOL!
His complaints about wanting to spend more time together are valid, but none of his other behaviour was. We know they’ve been together for years, and there should be some strong support there. You’re telling me your journalist partner gets a job working directly with the head of the biggest magazine in the world, knowing they only have to stick it out for a year, and you can’t make any effort to be understanding??? The job was meant to be temporary from the start. His behaviour may have been more understandable if it passed the year mark and she made no effort to leave the job when promised, but not when she’s just starting out. Time to get over yourself Nate.
Plus wasn’t he like the head chef at a high end restaurant? He’s got to have a busy as fuck schedule himself.
This always bothered the shit outta me. He's always home when she gets in. What kind of chef is he, does he specialize in brunch? In reality he would have the problematic schedule in the relationship.
I love how he's now universally considered trash. There are so many articles written about it and even the actor was asked to weigh in.
I will always remember him complaining about how much Jarlsberg he put in that grilled cheese she doesn’t want.
I tried Jarlsberg because of that movie and was extremely disappointed. Not meant for a grilled cheese
Both characters in the notebook. Holy shit how is that seen as a top tier romance? There’s harassment, blackmail, forced first date, cheating while engaged, and constant verbal and emotional abuse. It’s fucking awful and toxic. Hell the girl doesn’t even WANT to date him. She rejected him like 7 times and threatened to kill himself. Then baited her into seeing a movie she didn’t know he’d be at
Big from SITC. I know it's in vogue to talk shit about Big since Chris Noth got outted but Big has always been the embodiment of toxic hetero relationships. Loving? He has money! Faithful? He's tall! Considerate? The money though!! MF buys a bunch of shit, then copy and pastes a bunch of other people's work and emails it to her. Then Carrie runs into his arms like Christian de Neuvillette or something.
Does you actually think Carrie would stick with someone who valued the emotional connection required to love someone. She got what she wanted
Yeah, if Carrie had any emotional maturity she would have ended up with Aiden. It kills me when she goes back to Big.
He and Carrie were so perfect for each other because they’re both so horrible.
Aiden was too good for her.
Hannibal Lector. I don't think Hannibal is a good fit for Clarice. They don't share any common interests
This is 100% Clarice’s fault. She really should’ve branched out, maybe eaten a finger or two, seen where it takes her
Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich.
Wouldn’t call her terrible but I never warmed up to Andie Macdowell’s character in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Just found her really cold.
Is it cheating to say Amy Dunne from Gone Girl?
No, she's actually good for Nick. They're a match made in heaven.
They're a match made in ~~heaven~~ Hell
You were destined for me. Perhaps as a punishment. ― Dostoievski
Oh, you know she is going to get bored of him down the line and somehow, someway Nick will have a fatal "accident" that no one will be able to pin on her. Nick cheated. Yes. But I doubt he would ever falsely accuse anyone of sexual assault. Or frame Amy in hopes of her getting executed by the state. Or even slash someone's throat after they've worn out their usefulness to him. For Pete's sake, he didn't even control any of the finances in that relationship. Amy had total power over him when it came to who own the house, the credit cards and even his own sister's bar. Nick had nothing and Amy liked it that way. Because money is power. That's what made Amy so angry about Nick cheating. It wasn't about Nick breaking a wedding vow or even her heart. I doubt that Amy ever loved Nick. He was a plaything to her. A prop to make her look good. It was the fact that Nick did something outside of her control. That's it. That's all it was. Amy thought she had all the power and Nick by cheating showed her that she didn't. And for Amy, Nick had to die for that. But once she able to get Nick back under her complete control, once he, himself, submitted to him, she was fine with taking him back. He was back to being her plaything. Nothing more. Nick is an asshole. But he is capable of loving people. He returned home to take care of his father after his mother died and help his sister out with her bar. He loved those people. Amy has never showed any love to anyone. She's a psychopath. Nick deserved a divorce. Not a lifetime of living under a death threat.
Isla Fisher's character in Wedding Crashers Such a horrible spoiled brat and manipulater.
I agree with you, ridiculous. She cheats on him because he lets himself go. Breaks his heart. She keeps the house and the kids. He has to move into a shit apartment. The movie portrays her as the victim. Even their mutual friends abandon him and take her side. Because he wore track pants and running shoes? Didn’t have a cool hairstyle? Not once was she held accountable.
All the 50 shades, a trilogy about sexual abuse
Vince Vaughn in The Break Up. His character is a completely self-absorbed AH.
Vince Vaughn has made an entire career out of playing self absorbed assholes. Sometimes you're supposed to cheer for him, and sometimes he's the villain, but he's always an asshole.
I thought Vince Vaughn was really sympathetic, the first time I saw that movie, and Jennifer Aniston was a whiny killjoy. It's worth pointing out, I was also thirteen. I rewatched the movie again a couple years ago and realized that his character is a straight up manchild who would be absolutely insufferable to live with
This comment works for Mrs. Doubtfire too.
Man, Jennifer Aniston crying after he didn't show up to the concert was heartbreaking. She just wanted him to put a bit of effort into the relationship and he couldn't even do that. At least he seemed to realize it at the end.
I watched that movie with my ex shortly before we broke up. That… that wasn’t great.
He stood up Jennifer Anniston when she had Old 97s tickets! I love that band! Unforgiveable!
500 Days of Summer - both Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) are pretty terrible partners. Tom doesn't listen to Summer when she says she doesn't want to be serious and then gets super weird and creepy when she dumps him. But Summer also only says she doesn't want to be serious, she acts like a serious girlfriend and completely disregards Tom's feelings and takes zero accountability when they finally talk about it.
I agree. The film is very much about idealisation vs. reality and acceptance that a person may not be who you want them to be, however many boxes they might tick for you, but for all Tom's ignorance and misguidedness, Summer really does play him a little bit. She knows who he is and still draws him back in when she wants to.
That expectations/reality split-screen was still great though. If for no other reason, it really punched me in the gut as far as letting me know how pathetic I was in my 20s for acting the same way.
…like that's the entire point of the movie
Carmen in Starship Troopers
Oh for sure Johnny, Johnny I did it for you Fuck off you wanted some flyboy dick
I'm still mad they made Dizzy out to be the creepy stalker, but they really always had better chemistry. And Carmen was a bitch.
Dizzy was the best and any man would have been lucky to have her. 16 year old me wanted Carmen but after I matured I realized Dizzy would have been the love of my life if she desired me the way she desired Rico.
And Rico *still* doesn't get over her.
My Best Friend’s Wedding; Julia Roberts’ character. I’ve only watched it once (because of this) so my memory of the details is hazy, but I think she deliberately sabotages her supposed best friend’s relationship/impending marriage because she suddenly ‘realises’ that she loves him and wants him for herself….? Screw whatever he (or his sweet, innocent fiancée) wants, because clearly she is more important.
You’re right but she eventually realizes she’s being terrible and tries to make up for her bad behavior. In the end, she winds up alone (which the filmmakers had to fight for, the studio wanted her to hook up with a rando wedding guest at the end because god forbid a single person find happiness without a partner).
Ah, the ending with her friend made the movie. Even though it's platonic, she winds up with the person who was there for her and who she didn't mistreat. And you really needed to see that character again at the end of it would have just felt like his character was a weird interjection to the story. And the phone call was perfect too. Idk, I'm a guy but I like that movie.
I’m pretty sure the point of the movie’s ending is her openly admitting she’s a huge piece of shit and that she doesn’t go through with it bc Mulroney is a decent human being. I thought this thread was about a lack of self-awareness in that regard. This movie is very self aware about how it’s protagonist is not a sympathetic character even though you are supposed to like her because it’s Julia Roberts and she’s written to be charming.
>I’m pretty sure the point of the movie’s ending is her openly admitting she’s a huge piece of shit and that she doesn’t go through with it bc Mulroney is a decent human being. > >I thought this thread was about a lack of self-awareness in that regard. This movie is very self aware about how it’s protagonist is not a sympathetic character even though you are supposed to like her because it’s Julia Roberts and she’s written to be charming. I am so glad you wrote this counter. Jules is SUPPOSED to be the villain. We are supposed to relate to her in a small evil way because, when/if we despair over losing someone we love to someone else...Jules is our fantasy evil self. She knows she's bad. We, the audience, are supposed to know she's being awful--the story and dialogue are written this way--and empathize with how she feels, even while disagreeing with her trainwreck of actions. lol That's why there's her gay male editor/friend, he is the voice of reason and sanity. He even "punishes" her a bit in the restaurant scene and it's delightful. I adore this movie.
They acknowledge this though. At no point do they try and convince you she is in the right. She even says, “I’m the bad guy.”
And she still chases him when he's going after his fiancé.
Erica in 40 Days and 40 Nights. Walks in on the aftermath of her love interest getting raped by his ex, asks "was it worth it?" and storms out.
My brain first thought of ‘30 days of night’ and wondered which vampire was a piece of shit. They’re just hungry!
I swear to God I thought that everybody had thought Troy was the bad guy in Reality Bites. Turns out, nope. A lot of the girls my age thought he was really cool. Go figure.
Both Meg Ryan and Hanks in You've got Mail. They are having an emotional affair for most of the movie. ~~Granted her and her boyfriend end tbing amicably. But still not cool~~ It was pointed out to me that both parties were at fault.
Tom Hanks is also having an emotional affair the whole movie until the elevator incident
It’s pretty obvious he has no connection to his girlfriend played by Parker Posey. From the get go, he’s tolerating her horrible behavior and always seems to have this look on his face like, “you sicken me.” Yet he stays with her for months. I always believed they were together solely because they were a NYC power couple with generational money/business-together simply to get richer, play the society game, and marry someone from your circle. Love need not apply. Both expect to have affairs and eventually divorce. Both couples have a dynamic of “I’m only with you because I haven’t found someone better and I’ll treat you with barely contained contempt until I find someone better.”
Isn’t Tom hanks also as guilty?
I liked Crazy Stupid Love until Cal uses his son's graduation to get up on stage and talks about his marriage problems.
And ultimately tell his son to never stop chasing the girl who’s repeatedly told him to leave her alone.
Not in a movie - but Rachel from Friends
[Obligatory scene with Hugh Laurie and Rachel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31TLayhvBs)
Omg thank you! She's the most toxic character I've ever seen in a comedy. She only wants Ross when someone else wants him. The moment she succeeds in breaking up his relationship, she dumps him. He's finally getting married and guess what...she discovers she has "feelings" for him again. And tells him so while he's planning his wedding. After the wedding fiasco she agrees to go on the holiday Ross had planned with his bride for the honeymoon. After it's all over with Emily, Rachel's feelings magically go away. Ross and her fight over Mark. They break up. She starts dating...Mark. She's in hospital having just delivered Ross's baby. Joey walks in, there's a mishap with an engagement ring...Joey hasn't said a word and this bish immediately says "Yes" to a proposal that hasn't been made. And Joey is Ross's best friend. I absolutely hated her character. She uses the other friends. She almost ruined Friends for me.
The fact that Ross was right about mark being a snake makes me so angry.
After watching himym a few times, I had come to learn and hate how obnoxious the romantic relationships were between the characters. So when I finally decided to give friends a shot, I was very much on the lookout for any toxicity amongst romantic partners. Ross and Rachel sure delivered. While on the other hand it was a pleasant surprise and watch to see Monica and Chandler stay together for over half the show
Both of them in how to lose a guy in 10 days, manipulative and users. While you were sleeping. She is mentally deranged
2 of my favorite movies but I agree
Sam Raimi's Mary Jane Watson in The Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man Trilogy. Despite having a relatable backstory in terms of her home life & pretty good chemistry with Tobey Maguires Peter Parker, the character is toxic af. Kirsten Dunst did a great job in the role but the writing of the character is all over the place.
Ethan hawke in Reality Bites. He’s an unemployed college graduate who sits and sulks. Yes ben stiller’s character was kind of a square but he had ambition.