My Proposal
Don’t get me wrong - I love wedding movies - mostly to see what people are wearing, but nevertheless, they are a good way to waste two hours and there’s a sense of excitement, disappointment and a happy ending that you can count on. After seeing some commercials for Sandra Bullock’s new movie, The Proposal, I was thinking that there seem to have been a lot of wedding movies in the recent past with the same storyline:
The Wedding Singer: Boy and Girl are both engaged to two diferent people. Boy and Girl spend time with each other and decide they would rather marry each other. Billy Idol gets involved, too.
My Best Friend’s Wedding: Girl and Boy are best friends. Boy tells Girl he’s engaged and Girl decides that she wants to marry him instead; tries to break up wedding. Boy almost falls back in love with Girl, but chaos ensues at the wedding. Boy and Girl and Boy’s wife remain friends despite the emotional trauma caused to many people at the ruined wedding.
The Wedding Planner: Boy saves Girl and Girl falls in love with him. Boy is engaged to another woman and Girl is planning their wedding. Boy and Girl fall in love while other woman is out of town. Girl rejects then accepts proposal from sweet childhood friend while she waits for Boy to break up with other woman on the day of their wedding.
The Wedding Date: Girl hires Boy to be her date for a wedding; they must pretend that they are a couple. Boy and Girl fall in love by the end of the weekend.
Made of Honor: Girl and Boy are best friends. Boy realizes he loves girl after he finds out she’s engaged to someone else. Boy travels across the world to Scotland to break up the wedding, then Boy and Girl get married instead.
My Fake Fiance: Boy and Girl pretend to be engaged in order to recieve gifts. Boy and girl fall in love by the end of the weekend.
Now there’s The Proposal: Boy works for Girl, who must show proof of marriage documentation in order to not be deported. Boy and Girl pretend to like each other and then end up falling in love by the end of the weekend.
Here’s my proposal: can the brilliant screenwriters out there start writing movies about people who want to get married? Better yet, those who wan’t to get married, but legally cannot? People who don’t have the fundamental right to get married and have been voted down countless times in elections that should fairly separate church and state - but don’t because they bring in Bible verses and religious leaders to support their political agenda. I know these movies wouldn’t bring in nearly enough millions of dollars in profit that stuidos expect, but then again, maybe they would.
I’m getting sick of straight people dangling their do-as-I-please attitude about I-dos and the very sensitive issue of marriage that faces our country today. If it’s not a wedding in a movie, it’s a divorce on a TV show or married couples fighting each other to the death on a reality show - bringing new meaning to “til death do us part.” As more and more states legalize gay marriage, I hope that the film community (considered revolutionary in it’s heyday in terms of bringing up issues and new ideas) follows suit and treats the “sanctity of marriage” as politicians call it, with a little more respect.
