I'd been wanting to see it for ages and finally watched it tonight. At first I thought (and tweeted): the perfect romantic comedy. It didn’t follow the lame mainstream chick flick structure; it was exactly what I’d hoped it would be.Then I thought: yes, it was good and it was different… but exactly in the way I expected. The film wasn’t full of usual rom com clichés, but it had plenty of those that cute indie films have. Refreshing (if you’re used to mainstream), but not surprising.
Summer, the main character’s romantic interest, was really just another Manic Pixie Dream Girl (the term was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin who described it as "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures"). You know, the fun quirky girl who seems like such a breath of fresh air in this dull world that we live in, but is actually just like the next girl in the next film (examples include Kirsten Dunst’s character in Elizabethtown, Kate Hudson’s character in Almost Famous, Audrey Hepburn’s character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and arguably also Cassie from Skins and Amélie). Someone with no backstory or future plans, the MPDG is nothing more than an exciting indie fantasy. But don’t get me wrong, I'll choose the Manic Pixie Dream Girl over the flawless but clumsy girl who is the main character in any other rom com any day.
So yeah, it kind of was the perfect romantic comedy, but in a textbook way, you know? It had all the right ingredients, and the execution was done immaculately, but they hadn’t added anything completely new to the recipe. And to me, that just seems too easy…
But I loved the soundtrack, haven’t got a bad word to say about that. It reminded me how great The Smiths are, and now I can’t stop listening to them, most of all this song:
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