I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how I could write about this topic without confessing that it was spawned by my attendance of New Moon, The Twilight Saga. But, eventually I decided – why fight it. It goes to relevance…and the sweet level of innocent romance that we should all be grasping for.
So, I was at New Moon and noticed that no less than three of the movie previews were for films that seemed to have a common theme. I shall sum it up as this – girl is in love with boy (but is frustrated / jilted), girl tries to get what she wants through determination, some magical/mythical force interferes, presents alternate boy crush, girl falls for new boy harder than the first – all thanks to fate or chance or whateveryouwannacallit.
In the first trailer, it was a note left in an ancient Italian wall addressed to Juliet (named, what else, Letters to Juliet).
In the second it was infatuation attached to coins in a Roman fountain (When in Rome).
And finally it was some myth about proposals made on February 29th (Leap Year).
Can you spot the difference?
What it got me thinking was not that Hollywood seems to be repeating itself (really, nothing new about that) but that romance is nothing without the unexpected twists and turns. That the magic we are all drawn to and looking for when we buy into these ideas of myth are really about women wanting to know that their true love is fated – that best laid plans are always usurped by the magic of love. What is love if it isn’t a surprise?
I don’t want to spoil everything for those of you who might be planning to go to these films under the pretense that the girl won’t get the guy in the end – but the happy ending always comes when fate intercedes. Life is never how we plan it, and it always works out better when we let go of the plan and leave the crucial things, like love, to chance.
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