For my movie analysis I watched the movie Crazy, Stupid Love (2011) that starred
Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone. The movie is about
relationships and what it means to it truly means to “love.” There are two main
romantic relationships that are followed throughout the film. The first
romantic relationship, also the main plot, focuses on Cal and Emily Weaver
(Steve Carell and Julianne Moore) as their relationship falls on tough times
and they get a divorce. Cal Weaver is completely distraught and starts going to
the bar to drink away his sorrows and possibly find another woman. While at the
bar he notices a ladies man, Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), who picks up any and
every girl he wants. Jacob ends up taking Cal under his wing to make him more
attractive to women so that he can pick them up at the bar. While Jacob is
grooming Cal, he falls for the beautiful Hannah (Emma Stone) and starts a more
traditional relationship with her.
I decided to analyze the
relationship between Hannah and Jacob because they are the young couple that
the movie focuses on. The first time Jacob sees Hannah at the bar she denies
him and shows him that she wants nothing to do with him, she is turned off by
his womanizer mentality. Later in the film Hannah makes the first move to get
their relationship started. Hannah goes to Jacob wanting only sex but Jacob
finds that Hannah is the only girl he can truly open up to. The courtship strategies for both
parties change as the film progresses.
The first clip I analyzed was the
first time Jacob sees Hannah at the bar. He approaches her because he finds her
attractive and immediately starts dropping pickup lines. The first line he uses
makes a reference how “sexy” she is. Hannah calls him out on his ridiculous
pickup lines and ultimately denies his sexual advances. He proceeds to mention
her physical attractiveness a couple more times and even tells her his
intentions with her for the night. Hannah thinks he is completely insane and isn’t
falling for his tricks. She walks straight out of the bar and doesn’t give in
to any of his advances.
This scene shows a lot of how men
are “supposed” to act when attempting to woo a female. Men are supposed to be
open and assertive with their intentions with the relationship. This courtship
strategy relates to one of the masculine courtship strategies that Kim et al.
(2007) outlines in their findings. Based on this scene, men are supposed to
want an attractive woman and should use strategies such as corny pickup lines
to get them. Ward (1995) mentions that men select women based on their
appearance and that they use specific strategies to attract women. Jacob uses the strategy of his pickup lines and his lines of his true feelings about Hannah's beauty. In this
excerpt, Jacob’s approach towards the relationship with Hannah follows a
stereotypical male approach.
Hannah’s role in the scene shows
that women need to be passive in the relationship and set the sexual limits so
that the men don’t get it too easy. Hannah is not falling for Jacob’s charm and
takes a passive roll while letting Jacob dominate the conversation. This agrees
with Ward’s (1995) findings on the sexual role of women and that they’re
portrayed as passive and not as sexual.
The second excerpt that I analyzed
was the second time that Hannah and Jacob see each other in the movie. Hannah
has broken up with her boyfriend, because he wasn’t serious about her, and
decides to run to the bar to sleep with Jacob to clear her head. She runs into
the bar drenched in water, it’s raining outside, and find Jacob and immediately
starts making out with him. She then asks him to take her home and they leave
the bar.
This scene communicates messages
about both men and women that are contradictory to the first scene with Jacob
and Hannah. In this encounter, Hannah is the aggressive one who initiates the
physical contact. She also goes to Jacob because she finds him attractive and
chooses him to take her home. These are traits that are usually exhibited by
males, but in this scene it is the female who plays the male role (Ward 1995).
Jacob strategies change as well in this scene. He becomes the more passive
partner and follows the wishes of Hannah. This is usually a characteristic that
is reserved for females. Although Jacob is more passive in this scene, he still
has some stereotypical male qualities. This scene drives home the point that
men still want sex. Jacob doesn’t even hesitate and actually ignores the other
girl he was hitting on. He realized that he had a Hannah in the bag already and
decided to bring her home. This still drives home that men are supposed to want
sex (Ward 1995).
The last excerpt analyzed was after
the bar scene and at Jacob’s house. Jacob pulls out his entire bag of tricks
that he uses to bed women while Hannah just can’t wait to get down to business.
Hannah keeps making Jacob show the next trick he usually pulls because she is
really nervous. Jacob plays it cool and shows the moves he pulls to get the
women into bed with him. The scene ends with Jacob performing his “big move” on
Hannah that ultimately gets her into the bedroom.
For men, this shows that men need
to have a bag of tricks ready to use on women that will win them over and get
them into bed with them. Jacob does this all the time and the fact that he beds
a ton of women proves that he is a real man. Jacob never asks Hannah a personal
question in the scene and he is just waiting for his sexual endeavor with
Hannah. These are both ideas that Ward (1995) codes in her findings about how
males view sex and that they have specific strategies to attract women.
This scene for women runs parallel
with Ward’s (1995) findings as well. It shows that women are attracted to a
certain type of men. This is shown by the fact that Jacob is able to bring home
so many women to his house and use the same moves on all of them. Women are
attracted to the “hot guy at the bar.” Even though Hannah is verbally stating
that she wants to sleep with Jacob, her actions tell otherwise and show that
she is more passive. She has Jacob where she wants him, yet she waits for him
to pull out all of his moves. She even admits that she’s really nervous. Hannah
is also setting the sexual limits of the scene. If she wants sex, she’s going
to get it, but she also seems unsure about her decision to come home with Jacob.
The responsibility falls on her shoulders.
Throughout the movie we get
different instances where men and women pursue each other. Sometimes the men
are the initiators, while other times the women are doing the initiating. The
film as a whole communicates that men need to be the ultimate pursuers and
fight for their women. This happens multiple times with Cal as he is the one
fighting to get back Emily. Jacob also fights for Hannah and his rights to be
with her, especially in the end of the movie. Cal’s son Robbie is also seen
fighting for the love of an older woman. Towards the end of the movie he
decides to give up but is told to never give up and to keep on fighting. Women
take a passive role as the ones who sit back and wait for the men to prove
their worth by fighting for them. In the end it’s not sex that men are fighting
for, but they should be fighting for the heart of their one true “soul mate.”
References
Kim, J. L., Sorsoli, C. L., Collins, K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D.,
& Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual
script on primetime network television. Journal
of Sex Research
Ward, L. M. (1995). Talking about sex: Common themes about sexuality in
the prime-time television programs children and adolescents view most. Journal of Youth and Adolescence
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