By Jacob Ying
On a frigid January night, hot cocoa by my side and laptop on my legs, I sat down and watched Pretty Woman. For two hours, I sat in my candlelit TV room and observed. It was my first foray into rom-coms and romances.
I’m a huge lover of movies. I’ve written about quite a few before, but I had never explored romance movies. They never interested me. But with Valentine’s Day coming up, Mr. Newman and fellow reporter Eliza Pieschel encouraged me to watch and write about some classics.
I chose to view three films: Pretty Woman (1990), Pride and Prejudice (2005), and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). For a genre I had previously ignored, these films pleasantly surprised me.
First of all, their light social commentary impressed me. While they were not world-changing films about complex issues, they did not aspire to it and did an excellent job saying something instead of nothing.
Pretty Woman portrays class divides, greed, and social responsibility; Pride and Prejudice explores class divides and family; and 10 Things I Hate About You depicts different facets of feminity and independence.
I really liked Pretty Woman. I loved the way it set the scene in LA, and I particularly enjoyed the way the filmmakers contrasted Edward and Vivian’s worlds. The humor was unforced.
I also appreciated the film’s characters. Each had a satisfying arc with changing motivations. The entrepreneurial Vivian goes from viewing Edward as someone to take money from to someone she loves. By living with Edward for a week, she realizes she can fix her broken life. Edward shifts from viewing Vivian as someone to exploit to someone to spend his life with. And through his interactions with Vivian, he has a change of heart in his business plans, moving from destroying companies to preserving them.
Pride and Prejudice wasn’t my favorite. I found it slow and boring, mostly, but I understand I am not the intended target audience. Although I found the Jane Austen classic’s plot dull, I thought the cinematography was top-notch. Everything felt high-quality. The sets transported me to the English countryside, if only for the film’s two-hour runtime, and the shots were masterfully composed.
I did love Kiera Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet. Her independent, headstrong, and charming portrayal was excellent. Her acting was subtle and real; Elizabeth Bennet became someone you could know in your life.
10 Things I Hate About You was fun. The reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew was a silly film with cheeky humor: I laughed more watching it than Pretty Woman. With a short 97-minute runtime, the film packs a lot in.
Some characters are better than others. Cameron, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael (David Krumholtz) both felt pretty shallow. Cameron just wants the pretty girl. Michael just wants to get back at someone he feels wronged him. Larisa Oleynik’s Bianca is more complex. She is caged by her sister, but she mostly just wants the same thing as Cameron. The romance between Julia Stiles’s Kat and Heath Ledger’s Patrick romance felt forced. I’m not convinced a real Kat would change her heart so easily.
None of these films were perfect, but my experience watching romance movies was much better than I expected. Each featured some great songs. They all had a coherent message they delivered through fun and witty characters. After watching, romance still isn’t my favorite genre, but it isn’t my least favorite either.
It’s hard not to get swept up in the idea of going on a shopping spree with someone who’s learning to love me.
