Review of The Mating Game

Outside
26 August 2005
I saw this together with "Every Girl Should get Married." Each is an example of a very large collection of movies about a charming girl plotting to get an innocent and succeeding. The game in this movie is to entice the audience into falling in love with the girl, thereby setting templates and expectations in so-called real life.

The filmmaker has to make a decision: will she place the audience within the movie or outside? "Every Girl" placed the viewer in the movie. The tone of the thing is earnest and the girl's appeal is earnest. She is so natural and appealing one really does fall in love with her. Her costar did as well and married her.

This is different. The whole thing is cast as a show, with some musical numbers. The situation is stagy: the city gent and the country lass. Debbie Reynolds does a stereotype rather than a real person. We don't fall for her in this movie because it lacks charm. But there are many examples of this approach where we do, or rather we fall in love with the stereotype.

If you are a serious movie watcher, you too need to make a choice. We cannot escape falling in love or otherwise getting engaged with what we experience on screen. But we can decide which to approach seriously. You probably want to avoid these "outside" movies that play with love.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
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