The sunset, a beautiful sandy beach. Their eyes meet and it is true love. Two weeks later they have overcome some ornery obstacles only to find that they are even more in love. Every problem guides their love at first sight. They get married (still in bliss) have two kids and they live happily ever after. This is the common scenario in every love story that comes across the big screen today.
I watch the trailers and I notice a change of time and setting, but they’re all the same. Whether its a forbidden romance during the Vietnam War, a good girl falling in love with a bad boy or a childhood palm reading that came true, love is sparked and everything always works out.
That is why it is so hard to believe that I and other love story suckers pay $6.75 to watch everything work out. From the minute Romeo steps on screen until he locks lips with his Juliet, every single moviegoer knows what is going to happen. So why do we do it? Why do we spend our time and our money on the latest love story?
I can personally relate to the reason that 95 percent of the audience flocks to these movies. They are the furthest flicks from reality next to “Cyborg Man 3.” How many people can admit to having the perfect romance? Not very many, and if they can they make most of us sick. Love stories are simply an hour-and-a-half escape from the dating game and pathetic relationship after pathetic relationship.
One of my close friends constantly tells me that I need to stop watching these movies because they’re warping my image of how love and/or relationships really work. He claims they are giving me false ideals and I will never be happy in an earthly relationship. What he doesn’t understand is that I know they are cheesy and unrealistic, but that is exactly what attracts me to them.
Personally, love stories give me a glimmer of hope. Maybe there is that perfect guy and that perfect situation that will lead to the perfect marriage and perfect life. OK, maybe not, but I refuse to believe that chivalry is dead, and one of the few places that it is still alive is in the movies.
For example, one of the worthwhile love stories of 1995 was “Only You” starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. I must admit this love story was pushing the limits on enjoyability, at least the first time I saw it. For those that have not had the opportunity to see it, let me present the simple, yet complicated plot in a nutshell. Teenage girl is playing games to determine the boy of her dreams. Her brother plays a trick on her and she believes that she is destined to marry a man named Damon Bradley. Ten years later the young woman is engaged to be married to a stuffy podiatrist. Out of the blue, while taking a message for her fiancé the guy on the other end of the phone says he is Damon Bradley. She flies off the handle and flees the country (to Italy) to track down the man of her dreams. Now, this is when it gets good.
They accidentally meet and when she sees him she is convinced they are in love. Keep in mind that she only met this guy an hour previous to this epiphany. They are both making out on a couch and at this point in time Damon admits to her that he is not really Damon. Another obstacle.
Now she decides that she is not in love with him because his name is not Damon. He is heartbroken, but Paul (the counterfeit Damon) helps her find the real Damon. They find a couple Damons but they are all wrong.
In the end, she realizes that she really loves Paul and that it does not matter that his name is not Damon. They get married and every one is happy except the fiancé but he was a jerk anyway.
Now, everyone knows that this is not really going to happen, but it is more enjoyable than watching Supertron Man destroy the Earth. At least this movie has a happy ending.
