I've already written about proximity-inspired "love" in movies. Today, I take on inequitable love: when a female character serves as a man's love interest, but not so much vice-versa. Consider, say, the Rachel McAdams role in Wedding Crashers or the Virginia Madsen role in Sideways. They're nothing but props. They're idealized notions of women, and they serve the film only in so far as they serve the male leads' fantasies. We do not root for them. We do not know what motivates them, or what attracts them to a man beyond a contractual obligation, and we are not supposed to care. They are pretty plot constructs. The Madsen character, particularly, is abhorrent to me. Why she would be attracted to Paul Giammati's wholly irredeemable whiny bitch character is a mystery to all.
However seldom, a movie occasionally gets love right. What seems to distinguish these films is that the leads are realistically drawn, flawed, interesting characters who show us their mutual genuine affection—as opposed to merely telling us about it. Their love feels familiar. For my money, "Eternal Sunshine" most recently got it right. That was a love story in which I at least recognized love and its rhythms, thrills and terrors. The Clementine character was someone with whom I could conceivably fall in love, and I suspect women felt the same way about Joel. I left the theatre hoping that those two kids worked it out, not trying to conjure an explanation for why they were even together. The writer already did that work for me, and not coincidentally, the movie worked for me.
Distinguished mentions go to Broadcast News, High Fidelity and Before Sunset, each of which felt real and each of which I thought about during the writing of this post.