The Tender Trap Thoughts
Sep. 23rd, 2018 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaMeh. I was expecting to like it more than I did.
On the positive –
+ I loved Sophia. She was the best character of the movie. I love how straightforward and honest she was including with herself.
+ I surprisingly liked Joe/Sophia a lot. They had my favourite relationship of the movie. I was completely sold on them not only caring about each other but genuinely liking each other. I bought them having fun together. I liked how protective he was about her to Charlie. Their talk after the Joe/Charlie fight and their final one in the kitchen were honestly really lovely. I like how honest and open they were with each other. If they had actually cheated/happened I would have hated it but how it played out was wonderful. I like that neither was actually in love with each other and yet there is still that longing about "what if". It was bittersweet in a nice way with a lovely genuine friendship at it's core.
+ There were individual moments I enjoyed like the diner scene between the main four.
+ The Charlie/Julie nuzzling reunion in the cab made me laugh just because they should so obviously be kissing each other but can’t, I assume because they aren’t allowed, so instead we get this silly sequence of them pressing their faces together and pecks of lips (but not on the lips) and it was ridiculous.
+ Julie being at the wedding was clearly just there for the convenience of wrapping up the story but I love the idea that after the whole engagement blowup and Charlie leaving town Julie and Sophia became friends. That Sophia took Julie under her wing and the whole thing ended with the two of them becoming best friends.
On the negative -
+ Unfortunately the main romance did not work for me which is a pretty big thing in a movie like this. I didn't understand why they loved each other. Charlie pursuing her because she wouldn't give him the time of day and he found her different, sure. But I was never sold on them liking each other let alone falling in love. They don't seem like a good fit. So because they fell flat for me so too did the movie.
+ Honestly I wasn't particularly engaged by either Charlie or Julie as individual characters either. So that didn't help. Usually Debbie Reynolds is a highlight of her movies and I find her super charming as an actress but Julie - ehh. Frank Sinatra is also usually charming but I also found Charlie pretty ehh too. He's an ass and selfish and self-obsorbed but those aren't deal breakers usual.
+ Watching older movies involves acknowledging that it's probably going to have some regressive views but the stuff about women in this movie was really bad. The women themselves were fine just some of the views espoused had me going 'whoa wait' more than most of this time period. I'm not sure why this one hit so hard. Two lines that stuck out:
"A woman isn’t really a woman at all until she’s been married and had children. Why? Because she’s fulfilled." ... uh huh. I think this might have bothered me less if Sophia didn't agree with her, if all of Charlie's women didn't apparently have the same end goal. It didn't feel like Julie only speaking with her own bias but also as if what she's saying is the truth. Instead of nonsense. Even with Joe making fun of her.
"Let you make me happy" Charlie says this to Sophia and just... what. This really encapsulates everything wrong with this sort of attitude. He's apologising to her for not falling in love with her and throws this out and it's so ridiculous. LET HER make him happy??? That's not her job. He's not doing her a favour!
On the positive –
+ I loved Sophia. She was the best character of the movie. I love how straightforward and honest she was including with herself.
+ I surprisingly liked Joe/Sophia a lot. They had my favourite relationship of the movie. I was completely sold on them not only caring about each other but genuinely liking each other. I bought them having fun together. I liked how protective he was about her to Charlie. Their talk after the Joe/Charlie fight and their final one in the kitchen were honestly really lovely. I like how honest and open they were with each other. If they had actually cheated/happened I would have hated it but how it played out was wonderful. I like that neither was actually in love with each other and yet there is still that longing about "what if". It was bittersweet in a nice way with a lovely genuine friendship at it's core.
+ There were individual moments I enjoyed like the diner scene between the main four.
+ The Charlie/Julie nuzzling reunion in the cab made me laugh just because they should so obviously be kissing each other but can’t, I assume because they aren’t allowed, so instead we get this silly sequence of them pressing their faces together and pecks of lips (but not on the lips) and it was ridiculous.
+ Julie being at the wedding was clearly just there for the convenience of wrapping up the story but I love the idea that after the whole engagement blowup and Charlie leaving town Julie and Sophia became friends. That Sophia took Julie under her wing and the whole thing ended with the two of them becoming best friends.
On the negative -
+ Unfortunately the main romance did not work for me which is a pretty big thing in a movie like this. I didn't understand why they loved each other. Charlie pursuing her because she wouldn't give him the time of day and he found her different, sure. But I was never sold on them liking each other let alone falling in love. They don't seem like a good fit. So because they fell flat for me so too did the movie.
+ Honestly I wasn't particularly engaged by either Charlie or Julie as individual characters either. So that didn't help. Usually Debbie Reynolds is a highlight of her movies and I find her super charming as an actress but Julie - ehh. Frank Sinatra is also usually charming but I also found Charlie pretty ehh too. He's an ass and selfish and self-obsorbed but those aren't deal breakers usual.
+ Watching older movies involves acknowledging that it's probably going to have some regressive views but the stuff about women in this movie was really bad. The women themselves were fine just some of the views espoused had me going 'whoa wait' more than most of this time period. I'm not sure why this one hit so hard. Two lines that stuck out:
"A woman isn’t really a woman at all until she’s been married and had children. Why? Because she’s fulfilled." ... uh huh. I think this might have bothered me less if Sophia didn't agree with her, if all of Charlie's women didn't apparently have the same end goal. It didn't feel like Julie only speaking with her own bias but also as if what she's saying is the truth. Instead of nonsense. Even with Joe making fun of her.
"Let you make me happy" Charlie says this to Sophia and just... what. This really encapsulates everything wrong with this sort of attitude. He's apologising to her for not falling in love with her and throws this out and it's so ridiculous. LET HER make him happy??? That's not her job. He's not doing her a favour!
