The Noel Diary is the worst example of a romantic comedy that I’ve ever experienced. Movies can affect our minds and our way of thinking. (I learned that from the Coursera class about Movies and Memory.)
The Romantic Movie Formula
It’s particularly annoying how sex and love are portrayed in romantic movies.
I get it. Movies are fictional stories meant to entertain. I, myself, love happy endings and resolved conflicts. But many romances follow this very unrealistic formula that goes something like this:
Two gorgeous people meet each other and immediately make passionate love and declare their love for one another. They have some obstacle, which they’re able to overcome. They live happily ever after.
The Noel Diary, listed as a “romantic comedy,” followed the predictable formula. There were so many things about this movie that were unrealistic, cliche, and ridiculous. Frankly, I found it offensive that it was classified as “romantic” and it absolutely wasn’t funny enough to be a “comedy.” I plan to leave a scathing 1-star review.
The main characters, of course, are gorgeous. They “fall in love”even though they just met. And here’s the real kicker, (spoiler alert) they have sex, even though the woman is engaged!
Online dating is NOT that easy at any age
One of the tiny subplots in this movie is that the 70+ neighbor woman goes on her first online date with “Ian.” They return the next morning, clearly a romantic couple. By the end of the movie (which spans a timeframe of a few days) she and Ian are acting as though they’re married! So even with these minor characters, they are gorgeous older people who supposedly spend the night together and are an immediate happy couple.
That does NOT happen with senior online dating, people! (I am at least glad they did show older people who were dating, even if they completely misrepresented how hard it is to find love that quickly.)
Being single is not something to be pitied
Also, another minor point, but at the beginning of the movie, the housekeeper and the neighbor are so sympathetic because the main character, Jake, is single and alone. The guy is super-handsome, rich, and famous. He doesn’t need sympathy for being single! Let’s stop the mindset that being single is something to be pitied!
There’s a whole lot more about this movie that I find disturbing, but I will save that for my 1-star review.
