Valentine’s Day. Whether you love it or loathe it, Hollywood has turned it into another opportunity for a commercial expenditure. It’s fitting though since movies are such a major component of this holiday. Without this cinematic holiday to set the mood, where would rom coms like fan favorites The Vow, Valentine’s Day, and Hitch, all Valentine’s weekend releases, be? Historically speaking, every year for the past decade during Valentine’s Day weekend, there has been at least one big romantic comedy that draws moviegoers to the theatres. In 2014, it was Endless Love and Labor Day, 2013, Safe Haven, 2012, The Vow, going all the way back to 2004 with the rom com classic 50 First Dates.
But this Valentine’s Day, the line up is dismal to say the least. The two front-runners for this holiday are one that has sparked all sorts of social media buzz, 50 Shades of Grey, and the much lesser known of the two, The Last 5 Years. These two are as drastically different from each other as they are different in their ideas of love.
With 50 Shades of Grey, you have one side of the battle with a boundary-crossing, lustful soft porno. Using the term “love story” in the same sentence 50 Shades is just laughable. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, The Last 5 Years, based on the critically acclaimed musical, recounts the unraveling of a marriage and eventual divorce for a young couple.
Valentine’s 2015…and this is what we have to show for it? The ugly truth seems to be that we, as a pop culture people, have fallen madly and deeply out of love with the idea of love, actually.
It’s a reasonable conclusion considering that the marriage rates have dropped significantly in recent years and, according to NPR, a record of 25% of Americans will never have married by the time they are in their forties. What’s sparked this runaway bride phenomenom?
Surprisingly, it’s because more people are marrying for love. It’s no longer a cultural norm to settle for a spouse with economic stability or to fit the image of the perfect American family with the white picket fence. In fact, people aren’t in any rush to find the ones they love, proving a dramatic decrease in marriages especially in the early twenties age group. Once people have found “The One,” these couples date for a longer period of time before getting hitched. This has also led to a lower divorce rate, and longer lasting and happier marriages, no strings attached.
With that in mind, maybe we haven’t given up on love, but have simply become more practical in our approaches. The 50 Shades of Grey fantasy and The Last 5 Years song and dance routine prove to be colorful stories, but they aren’t realities in this day and age. If anything, some of the most successful movies of the year have finally put real love into clearer focus. The Theory of Everything and Imitation Game tell of enduring, biographical loves, and even Wild slips in a lesson or two about love in the idea of loving yourself before moving on to others.
So this holiday season, keep your movie date or Galentine’s Day movie marathon plans, but instead of settling for the cliché rom coms, try something with a little more substance. It might not be such a failure to launch!
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