Inverting the love interest dynamic

I'm going to go slightly feminist here and guess that it's because the main character needs to seem the 'everyman' at the start, and generally they're male.

Start thinking of 'chick flicks' and you'll find the opposite dynamic. Pride and Prejudice, Confessions of a Shopaholic, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (sort of), and Waitress come to mind.

Last edited by Phi (2014-05-29 01:15:39)

Well, the rich man/ poor woman dynamic is your basic fairytale. Cinderella finds her Prince.

Oh, there are lots of dynamics like that which it would be fun to change. One of the reasons, to me anyway, the first Silent Hill movie sucked was the change from a male to a female lead. Having a father running away from all the monsters looking for his daughter was different. Making it the mom made it feel like every other horror movie.

Don't forget the John Hughes classic, Pretty In Pink (which he would then change roles with a year later on the arguably better, Some Kind of Wonderful).

It's often said there are but a small number of basic story concepts. It's what you do with them and how you execute them that's important and usually where originality comes in.

Baz Luhrmann has basically been making the same movie for years but it's the small details within and how they're presented that makes each film unique from the others.

Besides, these are stories that have worked for literally centuries. That's why they keep telling them. James Cameron's Titanic is cliched and predictable to almost a sickening degree. The only truly special thing about it is of course, that it's set against the backdrop of a massive ship sinking into the ocean.

The expectation is that the high-status woman is going to "throw everything away" for the love of her low-status guy. Rarely do you see a movie or tv show where the man's position is elevated due to his involvement with a high-status woman unless he's depicted as sniveling, weak, or villainous. A heroic male lead isn't going to rely on the female lead's position to gain any advantages. But it's perfectly acceptable for a female lead to be won over by a high-status male and enjoy the privileges of his position.

The Action Girl who comes to the rescue of her helpless male love interest is a very common trope in anime. Unfortunately, it tends to happen in shows in which the male character is the lead, and therefore the male character's needs become the primary motivator for much of her badassery. Just as likely, prioritizing his needs directly leads to her sacrificing her own goals. Unless, of course, her skills were developed specifically to meet his needs, which is also common.

I read any sentence that starts with "Barbara Stanwyck" in the Pepperidge Farm guy's voice.

This is why I love Milla Jovovich. She's not good at picking scripts, so her movies are very hit-and-miss, but I dearly love that she can play that girl who turns out to be tough as nails. I wish she'd fall in with Spielberg, Abrams, Scorsese, and those guys, but I fear they wouldn't know how to direct her.

(Hint: treat her like Schwarzenegger. Do as much as you can with looks, and limit her dialog and let her actions speak her emotions.)