Yes this is another article about rom coms... and yes rom coms are manly.
This is not a ranking or a versus battle. It is just a discussion of two rom coms that have similarities that make them for some reason, exhilarating to watch. I'll be talking about “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” and “Her”. (PS if you haven't seen these movies, I recommend you do as they are beautiful even if you are not a rom com fan)
“Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind” (ESOSM) is a movie where I for the first time realised Jim Carrey is actually a really good thespian (always wanted to use that word in a sentence). The Mask, Ace Ventura and all those other ones didn't really exhibit his acting chops. But here we see a range of emotions he hadn't shown before. And I fell in love with the movie. A sad man, meets a girl and falls for her, then it comes up that he and this girl dated before and it didn't work out so she had his and her memory wiped of each other to deal with the heartbreak. So we go through the memory erasal and he tries to discover why it didn't workout, whose fault it is and try and keep some of the memories of her. Simple right?
“Her” is one I heard about from friends and ignored for the longest time. The concept at first glance wasn't really interesting to me. Seemed like a bad version of “Ex Machina” really. UNTIL one day I actually watched and I was surprised by how good it actually was. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is one I enjoyed a lot (as with many of his performances really). Here a lonely man, finalising a divorce, is trying to get back into the game. He tries and tries to no avail, then buys a new personal assistance software (a Siri that is 10000x better), gets comfortable with it, and sadly ends up falling in love with it (I say sadly cause I mean, it ain’t the real thing).
Okay let’s get into the thick of it. The first thing that makes these movies so dope, and similar is their use of futuristic technology. “Her” is set in the future, with a range of tech that is mind numbing while “Eternal Sunshine”, set in the modern day, uses tech we probably will never have access to, or that will ever be legal. It’s also really cool that although the tech is amazing, it’s not really the main point. The films are still basically about our yearning for human connection whether with someone you had before or with anyone in general. And these are things we all can relate with. Although people can say they don't need anyone, I don't think this is true. A partner of some sort will forever be something we want whether it be in the future or past. And the tech here is just a way we use to further this yearning at the end.
Second similarities is the characters themselves. Jim Carrey’s character is an unfulfilled man, who meets a woman who seems very exciting to him. The guy was so mesmerised by how she changes her hair colour so often, how she was spontaneous and other stuff about her. Joaquin character is also a very sad man, who is recovering from the worst kind of breakup. A divorce. Also in need of fulfilment. When they get into their relationships, their toxic traits (I blame Twitter for the fact that I used that word) lead to their relationships getting sour... although their partners are not blameless. Now you can't tell me we don't all know this part of the relationship. Whether as the toxic person or the one on the receiving end. Joaquin becomes insecure when the OS starts making other friends and later on realises they are incompatible, and well I can't stress this enough , why in the world would you think you're compatible with a fucking OS system. But that’s neither here nor there. In ESOSM Jim’s character's ability to drag everyone down with him leads to the relationship becoming hateful and the girl, finally choosing to erase the relationship. As in from both their memories.
Third is how they show what a relationship is really like. I real am tired of these movies that don't actually show the hardships of relationships, cause damn, they really are hard as fuck. They usually end on the fun times and don't progress further. We don't see what happens once they past the honeymoon phase. Here though, we sit through a relationship with the participant's and watch it unravel (I'm a sucker for chaos, forgive me). The ups the downs, the good the bad (insert another phrase here). I feel like this more realistic look instead of the honey moony look seen in the 90’s rom coms. (Although I very much enjoy them).
These two movies for me are the pinnacle of modern rom coms. They encompass the change in society that technology is making and how these changes really don't do much to change human natures yearning to be love... and they both make me cry (hey another similarity)