The synopsis of this movie should read: Romantic character gets badly mistreated by two emotionally unstable, immature, egotistical twits and ends up alone as a result. The problem with this movie is that the two twits are the leads, and the only actually romantic character is "the other guy". This really kills its aspirations of being a romantic comedy, since the fundamental premise of this genre is that the viewers root for the leading pair to get together, while all I was thinking as this flick drew to its inevitable conclusion was that "the other guy" was by far the better catch in every imaginable way, far more deserving of love and affection, and infinitely more graceful in handling himself and the situation than the "leading man", and that not seeing that in itself really disqualified the leading woman.
As a consequence, this flick may be credited as spawning a new genre --- the romantic tragedy.
The whole point of Darcy/Wickham (or Darcy/Cleaver) type of romcom setups is that one of the leads (and ideally the reader/viewer) is initially misguided in their views of the prospective mates, and the story is then about the bumpy road to enlightenment, at the end of which the more worthy mate wins. In Austen terms (apologies to those unfamiliar with them), this story is that after Lydia has been after Wickham for some time and without success, she gets to know and falls for Darcy, and decides to marry him, whereupon Wickham, true to form, concludes that he wants Lydia after all, does his very best to torpedo their impending happiness, and as a result of Lydia's profound airheadedness, succeeds. Darcy is left alone, and the final shot shows Lydia and Wickham bonking.
The audience supposedly should feel happy about those two getting together, and in a way it's probably a comfort to think that a guy like Colin should have no difficulty finding a much more worthy woman to make happy.
There isn't much to make up for the silly plot and its absurd conclusion, either. The comedy is mostly unsubtle (some slapstick, a few rather crude jokes about a fat girl), the acting is okay but not great (to be fair, there is not much opportunity for greatness in the script) --- even as "guilty pleasure" (a category I would put most romcoms into), there just isn't enough pleasure for the considerable amount of guilt involved in watching this. There are probably many better ways of spending one's time.
As a consequence, this flick may be credited as spawning a new genre --- the romantic tragedy.
The whole point of Darcy/Wickham (or Darcy/Cleaver) type of romcom setups is that one of the leads (and ideally the reader/viewer) is initially misguided in their views of the prospective mates, and the story is then about the bumpy road to enlightenment, at the end of which the more worthy mate wins. In Austen terms (apologies to those unfamiliar with them), this story is that after Lydia has been after Wickham for some time and without success, she gets to know and falls for Darcy, and decides to marry him, whereupon Wickham, true to form, concludes that he wants Lydia after all, does his very best to torpedo their impending happiness, and as a result of Lydia's profound airheadedness, succeeds. Darcy is left alone, and the final shot shows Lydia and Wickham bonking.
The audience supposedly should feel happy about those two getting together, and in a way it's probably a comfort to think that a guy like Colin should have no difficulty finding a much more worthy woman to make happy.
There isn't much to make up for the silly plot and its absurd conclusion, either. The comedy is mostly unsubtle (some slapstick, a few rather crude jokes about a fat girl), the acting is okay but not great (to be fair, there is not much opportunity for greatness in the script) --- even as "guilty pleasure" (a category I would put most romcoms into), there just isn't enough pleasure for the considerable amount of guilt involved in watching this. There are probably many better ways of spending one's time.