The camera pans in closer, and closer into a cluttered desk. A man that is dressed in underpants and a crumpled green t-shirt walks up to it, and sits down with a large bottle of alcohol. He begins to write a suicide note: describing his last five girlfriends, and how they are the cause for his suicide. The rest of the film is a summery of those five relationships, done in retrospect. Hence the title: “My Last Five Girlfriends.” It’s a good example of the independent film. These are films that don’t have any big companies behind them, but they have an odd sense of charm to them, that is lacking in a lot of “big company” movies. There are a few elements in this movie that deserve a look.
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| My Last Five Girlfriends (cover) |
The plot is fairly simplistic. You see the ending in the beginning. The five girlfriends embody the 5 stereotypical bad relationships. The ones that actually add good fuel to the plot are the ones that are still in love with her ex, the one who is just settling for him, and the cheater. The plot is simply the main character having his heart broken, and spurring himself onto the next relationship. The ending is not quite so smooth. It ends with the screen fading to black, after we cut back to the suicide ending, with him saying “I am a martyr for love.” I groaned at that last sentence. The plot was believable until that point. The line was far to corny to be believable, and it should have been left out.
The theme ties into the ending, however. The movie seems to be saying that love ,specifically romantic love, is the theme of life. There’s a scene in which the main character is asked “Do you believe two people should live solely for one another?” He answers “In most cases.” Never once do we see his life outside of the dating world. The other point the movie makes is that if this facet of life remains unfulfilled; you might as well be dead. Apart from my personal disagreement with this theme, I don’t think that this is earned, in the movie. His suicide doesn’t have a buildup. It doesn’t rear it’s ugly head until after he breaks up with the cheater.
The story really finds its charm in the way the story is told. Every time he gets a new relationship, we get a cutaway to a theme park that represents his life. In it each ride represents a new relationship. The people in the park ask the questions he’s asking himself.
The movie is worth seeing, if you like romantic comedies. It’s not the best of the genre, but it’s still ok. If you don’t then you might wanna pass it up.
I really loved how you off. It was very catchy, and I liked how you described the movie of what it would have been like if we were watching it, " The camera pans in closer, and closer into a cluttered desk." It definitely makes you think. You also did a good job at describing the movie and what happens. What I really wanted to know more about is the independent films. Why don't they get the "big" companies behind them? It also would have been good if you could have tried to apply what happened in the movie into real life scenarios. But you did well.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this movie before, so your descriptions are all I (and many moviegoers, right?) have to go on: we read a reviewer's analysis and then it's up to us to decide whether to plonk down the money to see a film. I wonder: is there charm in a set-up or construction of how the movie is told, or is the charm in the characters themselves? Based on your descriptions here, I don't quite see "charm" but "cleverness." Those are very different things. You waffle, too. You say it's a "good example of the independent film" but then you say it's "not the best of the genre." So is this mantinee-only viewing? Wait for Netflix? Why the discrepancy?
ReplyDeleteWhat other films does this remind you of?