Ryan Reynolds and Chris Marquette carry this film. Anna Faris is great as well. But the messaging here is atrocious. What’s the moral? If you want the girl from high school you better become a hunk or else she’ll just wanna be friends with you? Wow that’s great. I mean it’s true but if you’re the Brander character why do you even want this woman who you spent all this time with growing up and she just ignored how you obviously felt. Come on.
shareI mean it's true but
How are you supposed to support the characters ? Namely her, is what I’m saying. We are supposed to support her shallowness and root for her?
shareBut that's kind of the point isn't it? She was more clueless than shallow and look at what happened - she got a 55 gallon drum of humility served up. Living with parents, bartending at The Maple (and responsible for curly fries)... Brander said it best when he called her "the girl who peaked in high-school". The morality is a reversal of fortunes there. Look at Tim... balding, wearing his fucking lettermen jacket and begging for $5 because he's a 430 credit-score poor. I don't root for Jamie so much as I do for Chris but Jamie isn't a horrible person.
shareTHAT IS WHY IT IS FUNNY BUT NOT A "NEW CLASSIC" SO TO SPEAK.
shareI'd say the reason Chris still wanted Jamie in the end is because of what I'd call the real message of this movie. "Always be yourself, and never be afraid to put yourself out there". Chris said himself that Jamie brought the best out of him and she did.
Without her in the picture anymore he still had all of that anger in him as an adult, and he went on taking it out on everyone around him. Taking better care of his body in the process a long the way wasn't a bad thing at all, but like Samantha James character, he was obsessed with trying to be anything but who he really was..and that's why a relationship between those two was never going to work out even if they tried.
Neither one of them knew who the real Chris or Samantha was but Jamie knew who the real Chris was, as did his mom, and his old friends, Darla and Clark. Chris needed them badly back in his corner, and I'm sure Samantha had some people out there some where too that she needed but sadly we didn't get to learn more about her story since it wasn't about her, and we never got a sequel focused on her which I think would have been amazing around that time period.
Actual messaging: take care of yourself and other people will notice and want to be with you.
Sounds positive to me.
I agree BIGLY with both Bercilak and ThrillerTalk
HOWEVER
I also DISagree with the OP that it's horrible messaging for one reason: improving yourself is NOT bad messaging
In fact, through my own experience and having read about it extensively, one of the proven ways of escaping the "friend zone" is to have your "friend" see you in a different light.
Often, it involves getting in shape and/or getting a makeover, but it can also result from showing off some new skill your "friend" didn't know you had. In other words, improving yourself.
Sometimes, it can actually result from "coming clean" about your true feelings, because doing so can ALSO force your "friend" to reevaluate your relationship.
Well he didn't exactly express his feelings properly to her when they were growing up together, most likely shy because he was fat
shareIt is horrible. And normal.
share