The Reel Deal?

The cinema always has a wonderful place in my mind, an image of 1950's glamour, romance and excitement. Big plush seats, the air filled with the excitement of a first date and the big screen filled with images of Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn in a classic film. Fast forward to earlier this week, to  the hard reality of cinema going and I find myself on date night in a huge, uninspiring concrete shell, air con blasting, watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster that I’m sure no girl will  ever remember the name of next week, let alone next year. Yep ladies in the name of equality it was gentleman’s choice this week. Now I was already slightly disgruntled at the cost of being trapped in a freezing cold room, knowingly giving up 2 hrs of my life for a film I had zero interest in. My debit card visibly wept knowing it was paying the same price for this experience as it had a Chanel lipstick the week before. So with the boy suitable loaded with ice-cream and sweets, the air con causing me chill blains and my debit card quietly sobbing in my Cath Kidson shopper, we settled to watch the film. It was only as Natalie Portmans face beamed down at me from the giant screen and the boy started smirking that I realised 1) he had completely gazumped me and 2) it was going to take a lot more than a mini curly whirly to get through the next 2 hours! So started 2 hrs of special effects, peppered with load bangs and the occasional violent scene. As I grimaced in the freezing dark I snuck a glance at the boy. I couldn't help but smile through my chattering teeth as he looked thoroughly enamoured with the whole thing. As I sat there letting my gaze flicker between the screen and the boy my mind began to wander. As a girl, I love films with a happy ending, something with an emotive journey that we can learn from or a kick ass heroine with sky scraper heels. We have all, at some point, wanted a movie stars body, wardrobe and shoes. I mean who hasn't watched 'The Devil Wears Prada' and identified with having an evil boss? Or seen themselves in Eat Pray Love? But what makes these films so appealing to us?
For us girls it’s what we were brought up on. The happy endings complete with Prince Charming, fabulous dresses and all our wishes being granted. It was the stuff that fuelled our childhood games and shaped what we wanted to achieve today. As we leave our childhood with our dreams tightly packed in our hearts, survive our teenage years relatively unscathed and hit adulthood we realise that all this happy ending, life is perfect business is truly an urban myth. Now I’m not saying life is rubbish and everything is negative as that’s clearly not true. I do however think Disney has a lot to answer for. Never once did they imply that Prince Charming wasn't all he himself made out to be, neither did they mention relationships take time, energy and patience. Surprisingly it seems to have slipped their minds. I often wonder if good old Walt was trying to tip us off in Snow White, after all what man isn’t Sneezy (sorry, Man - Flu), Sleepy (conveniently when DIY or any other job they don’t want to do needs to be done), Dopey (this blog isn’t long enough to give you all the examples I could), Grumpy (mainly the morning, and when their team loses, and when they have had a bad day, and when there is a D in the day of the week) and Doc (because they think they are fully qualified when they self diagnose Man-Flu). I can only assume Happy and Bashful were added as token gesture by the dream machine that is Disney. So it’s no surprise that our real lives are falling somewhat short of our childhood dreams. We live in a world where there is no prince charming, the fabulous dress has to wait until pay day and there is no such thing as a happy ending, the world keeps turning and life keeps going. It’s no wonder we all just want 2 hrs in a world where there is no such thing as a bad hair day, where prince charming does exist and designer dressers are handed out like penny sweets. Surely it’s not too much to ask? Yet all boys want to watch are horror films, or action films with violence and bloodshed. Don’t they get that this is our idea of hell? But for boys their childhood hero’s were characters from Marvell comics, men who could save the world and get the girl all before tea time. They grew up play fighting, being encouraged to compete with each other, learning that the only place worth worrying about was 1st. So to them this is their fairy tale fodder. How many of them grew up to be hero’s, with rippling muscles? How many of them always win first place? It seems to me these boys need their escapism as much as we do, even if it’s an escape to a very different place!