Surprising to nobody: I am a sucker for romantic comedies. The romcom heyday was the 1990s to the 2000s, so I watched most of these films as a young teenager. As a result, I had no frame of reference for how realistic they were, and I never really thought about the themes they contained. Did I like the fashion? Were the characters fun to watch? In fact, I was such an easy-to-please movie watcher that my favorite movie throughout my teen years was Double Jeopardy (not a romcom, I know) which I later told my husband was a “cinematic masterpiece” only to look it up on Rotten Tomatoes and discover a 28% rating.
But now, per subscriber request, I’m revisiting the romcom greats as an adult woman who has dated, married, and most importantly, fought in the genderslop trenches for the past several years. Please comment with any other romcoms you want to see reviewed through the lens of 2020s-era genderslop, because this truly is a treat for me.
Perhaps my favorite romcom of the era is Hitch, starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. And the reason I’m writing about *Hitch *today is that while it’s great movie, I fear that it communicates quite literally all the wrong lessons about dating and attraction.
For those of you who haven’t seen it (and shame on you) *Hitch *follows a titular character (Alex Hitchens, Hitch for short, played by Will Smith) who is a “date doctor,” ie: a guy who teachers other guys how to date. He keeps this job under wraps when he meets Sara Melas (Eva Mendes) a closed-off gossip columnist (why are they always writers…?) who informs her boss (who is, for some reason, urging her to get a boyfriend) that she doesn’t have time for dating.
Hitch, via his top-tier charm and charisma, is able to sweep Sara off her feet while secretly coaching a dumpy accountant named Albert Brennaman, who seeks to woo the modelesque, uber-rich Allegra Cole, a socialite for whom he works. Eventually, Sara finds out about Hitch’s secret job, via her gossip columnist sleuthing, and breaks up with him in a fury, but eventually they get back together. Meanwhile—surprise!—it turns out Albert never needed Hitch’s coaching because Allegra actually loves him more when he’s being dorky and weird, and he just should have “been himself” all along.
The movie opens with Hitch telling the viewer the rules of dating, and it ends with him at Albert and Allegra’s wedding, reassuring us that there are “no rules.” The ultimate “this you?” of romantic comedies. Except he was right the first time.
