"What Do They See In Each Other?!" Worst Movie Love Interests

[Ms Blue Jay]

5 hours ago, blugirlami21 said:

I always think of Rachel McAdams in The Vow. She was so awful to Channing Tatum's character. She gave him no grace nor did she ever try to figure out anything for herself about the life she herself chose for herself. I was irritated that he took her back at the end.

Finally watched Notting Hill and Anna is trash. I said what I said. What was the point of it all? The discovery of her boyfriend in the middle, her jerking him around. And he was a doormat. Didn't matter what she did, he would always take her back.

I didn't like The Vow, but for the life of me I have zero recollection of that entire movie experience.  And I don't want to rewatch to find out.

I absolutely adore the hell out of Notting Hill, but I understand the complaints.  Will was so desperate for Anna, and I have to admit I appreciate the depiction.  

Edited February 5, 2023 by Ms Blue Jay

[proserpina65]

On 2/4/2023 at 10:18 PM, blugirlami21 said:

Finally watched Notting Hill and Anna is trash. I said what I said. What was the point of it all? The discovery of her boyfriend in the middle, her jerking him around. And he was a doormat. Didn't matter what she did, he would always take her back.

I hate that movie precisely because Anna was such a terrible character.  I will maintain to my dying day that Hugh Grant's character should've told her to fuck off at the end.

[Spartan Girl]

On 2/4/2023 at 10:18 PM, blugirlami21 said:

I always think of Rachel McAdams in The Vow. She was so awful to Channing Tatum's character. She gave him no grace nor did she ever try to figure out anything for herself about the life she herself chose for herself. I was irritated that he took her back at the end.

I was peeved that she still wanted a relationship with her parents after they basically took advantage of her memory loss like that, not to mention she didn’t seem to have any issue with the shitty way they and her ex-boyfriend treated him. Channing Tatum deserved better.

[blugirlami21]

Exactly so. It was so gross how they tried to rewrite history when she lost her memory.

[Spartan Girl]

And she was so damn passive in the ending. When she finds that stupid vow in her box, she just stares sadly out the window. She doesn’t try to call him or make any effort to contact him, we just see her happen to wind up at the cafe at the same time he does. I mean, she SAYS she talked to her friend to find out more about their marriage, but beyond that, she doesn’t do anything to try to make amends until she just happens to see her. That’s Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity level of bullshit.

[andromeda331]

On 2/11/2023 at 6:06 AM, Spartan Girl said:

I was peeved that she still wanted a relationship with her parents after they basically took advantage of her memory loss like that, not to mention she didn’t seem to have any issue with the shitty way they and her ex-boyfriend treated him. Channing Tatum deserved better.

 

On 2/12/2023 at 9:45 PM, blugirlami21 said:

Exactly so. It was so gross how they tried to rewrite history when she lost her memory.

Yeah, that was really horrible of her parents'. I couldn't believe they did that. What a horrible thing to do.

[Spartan Girl]

Jojo in Mystic Pizza. I could understand her not quite being ready to get married, but she should have told Bill LONG BEFORE the wedding instead of making a scene right at the altar. And even after humiliating him like that, she kept wanting to have sex with him in risky places (even at her parents’ house, which almost got him killed by her father) instead of actually just talking about her commitment issues. And yet after all that she puts him through, we’re somehow supposed to feel sorry for her when poor long-suffering Bill finally grows a spine and dumps her?

Edited March 6, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Cobalt Stargazer]

5 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

but she should have told Bill LONG BEFORE the wedding instead of making a scene right at the altar.

"Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!"

[Crashcourse]

7 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

And yet after all that she puts him through, we’re somehow supposed to feel sorry for her when poor long-suffering Bill finally grows a spine and dumps her?

Unfortunately, he folded and married her in the end, which pissed me off.

[Spartan Girl]

16 hours ago, Crashcourse said:

Unfortunately, he folded and married her in the end, which pissed me off.

It wouldn’t have been so infuriating if we’d actually seen Jojo admit she screwed up and that she wanted to be with Bill, not just act sad and huffy after he rightfully called her out on using him for her go-to booty call. Heck, nobody calls her out on what a shitty thing she did to him; her dad is only upset because he wasted all that money on the wedding. It’s like the movie tried to make Bill out to be a jerk for pushing her for marriage when she wasn’t ready.

Well, Jojo, you presumably said yes to his proposal and agreed to a date before you chickened out at the altar, so all evidence points to the fact that you didn’t say anything at all before the wedding, which makes YOU the asshole.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Spartan Girl]

Whoa, did anyone know Cary Grant played Pinkerton in the 1932 film version of Madame Butterfly? If ever there was a guy that deserved to be at the top of the this thread, it’s that asshole. He marries poor Cho-Cho-San just so that he can have his way with her and then leaves her high and dry to marry his fiancée back him, and…well you know what happens in the end.

What makes it worse is that Cho-Cho actually finds a picture of his fiancée in his belongings while they’re living together, and when she asks him about it, he doesn’t even have the guts to come clean right then and there. He just lies and keeps stringing her along before he leaves, promising to come back in the spring…

And the kicker of it all?  After he finally comes back and tells her the truth (“I didn’t know you’d still be waiting for me!”), does she give him the riot act he deserves? Nope. She just handles it with grace. She doesn’t even tell him about their Don because she doesn’t want to cause HIM any more trouble!!!! ARRRRRGH. 

In fairness, it was better for the boy to be raised by his grandparents than that douchebag, but still.  

[Spartan Girl]

Enough Said: Albert deserved better than both Marianne and Eva. Kudos to this movie for averting the “woman married beneath her” trope by calling out Marianne for the way she treated Albert: people grow apart and everybody has annoying traits, but to keep nitpicking about it too his face and run her mouth off behind his back? That, my dear, makes you a bitch.

And Eva? The ex-wife isn’t always the best judge of character. It’s like she was looking for excuses to look down on Albert, even if there were things that didn’t even bother her before. 

[BlueSkies]

Billy and Gloria in White Men Can’t Jump

 

As a kid I didn’t know why in the world Billy liked Gloria.  Billy was rather chill and Gloria was very much a motor mouth type A kind of personality.  But even as a kid I kind of understood he must have some male needs she takes care of well.  Lol 

 

Then I grew up and didn’t realize now why Gloria liked Billy.  He’s awful with money and they are always on the run.  She was a very smart woman.  She didn’t need him 

[Spartan Girl]

Savannah in Dear John. Why on earth were we supposed to root for them to get back together when she didn’t even have the guts to send John a break up letter until she literally gets engaged to another man—meaning that she had been basically been cheating on him?! And then she has the audacity try and make a move on him while her husband was dying?! JFC lady, you made a choice, so stick to it!

Nicholas Sparks sucks, but at the very least, he didn’t have them get back together in the book. 

[Spartan Girl]

Hello Dolly: The romance already is a little messed up when you really consider that Dolly is deliberately sabotaging Horace’s would-be matches to skew the odds in her own favor. But at least in the stage show it made sense that her character, a middle-aged widow gunning for a last chance in romance, would be interested in him. But in the movie, we’re all wondering what the hell Barbra Streisand in her prime sees in Walter Matthau, a grumpy old man—shut up, I had to— that could easily be her father!

Even Barbra was wondering the same thing while filming it. And it didn’t help that he was an asshole to her on set.

[Spartan Girl]

Nina in The Object of My Affection. Look, even if George was bisexual, it doesn’t change the fact that he simply did not love her in a romantic way. He was honest about who he was from the very beginning, and as much as it sucks when your feelings aren’t returned, what did Nina expect? That she could magically change him?

And I have to side-eye her hard about her whole stupid idea to have George raise the baby in the first place because she loved the fantasy of a live-in Gay Best Friend at her beck and call—a relationship that frankly was only beneficial to herself. As soon as what George wanted became inconvenient for her, she got all pissy. I can’t really say that I felt sorry for her. In fact, I don’t think she even deserved that cute officer she wound up with in the end.

[andromeda331]

On 2/6/2024 at 6:18 AM, Spartan Girl said:

Nina in The Object of My Affection. Look, even if George was bisexual, it doesn’t change the fact that he simply did not love her in a romantic way. He was honest about who he was from the very beginning, and as much as it sucks when your feelings aren’t returned, what did Nina expect? That she could magically change him?

And I have to side-eye her hard about her whole stupid idea to have George raise the baby in the first place because she loved the fantasy of a live-in Gay Best Friend at her beck and call—a relationship that frankly was only beneficial to herself. As soon as what George wanted became inconvenient for her, she got all pissy. I can’t really say that I felt sorry for her. In fact, I don’t think she even deserved that cute officer she wound up with in the end.

I completely agree. Nina was an idiot. I don't know what she was expecting either. Was I really suppose to be sorry for her when she finally had to accept George was gay? I really wasn't. I agree I don't think she deserved to end up with officer. Given how she acted in the movie the last thing she needed was to end up with someone.

I also didn't like her cutting out her ex in her baby's life. He was the father and she never gave him a chance. She just decided George would be the father. 

[JustHereForFood]

Against my better judgement, I ended up seeing a couple of scenes from Troy as it was on TV. I am pretty sure that I did not care for any of the relationships back when I saw it in cinema in 2004 as a teenager and continued not to care as I've rewatched it over the years. But I don't think I realized before just how infuriating I find Achilles and how toxic it is that we were apparently supposed to like him and Briseis. Wow, yet another romance where a woman falls for a man because he saves her from rape and because he has so much decency that he doesn't rape her himself. Don't we all dream of such a man? 🤮 Nevermind that he is there to kill her family and everyone in her city. He treats her nice one time, so that is all it takes for her to get wet over him. She should have just slit his throat while he slept and run away, or if she can't bring herself to, then just run away and consider herself lucky.

I know Brad Pitt was considered hot and while I never saw him as such, I could see that he was objectively good looking in some movies, but I've always found him completely unattractive here.

I still don't care for any of the other couples either, but now I am kind of pissed over how everyone treated Helen, like it was her fault that her abusive husband started a war over her. Shut up everyone, please, she is free to leave that jerk if she wants, it is 100% his decision to kill people over that. Men have agency over their own actions, don't blame women for them, especially in times when they had it so much harder already.

[Spartan Girl]

@JustHereForFood I really wish they’d do an adaptation of The Song of Achilles. That version of the character was far superior to Brad Pitt one.

[scarynikki12]

We could have a thread devoted solely to the issues Troy has and taking away the romantic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is among the worst. In The Iliad Achilles goes apeshit and hunts down Hector because losing Patroclus, who he is in love with, rips his heart in two and the only thing he can focus on in his grief is getting revenge. He's a selfish and arrogant asshole on a normal day and only the death of the person he loves so deeply would cause him to react this way. The Achilles of the movie does not care about Patroclus so there's no reason he should feel compelled to challenge Hector over his death. 

[proserpina65]

On 2/24/2024 at 9:00 PM, JustHereForFood said:

But I don't think I realized before just how infuriating I find Achilles and how toxic it is that we were apparently supposed to like him and Briseis.

That storyline pretty much only existed so that Brad Pitt didn't have to play a gay man.

[Dandesun]

Look, the Iliad is what it is. Achilles did in fact throw a gigantic hissy fit over Briseis but not because he was in love with her. She was his spoil of war and Agamemnon (who's just a dick, period, no matter the version of the story) had HIS spoil of war taken so he needed to be petty and take Achilles' -- that's what it was, douchey warriors fighting over women they claimed as prizes in battle.

Achilles losing his shit over Patrolcus is a MAJOR thing in the Iliad. He was so distraught that he didn't just throw down with Hector but he desecrated his body afterwards which was an insult to the gods but because they can't allow gayness in the movie they don't go into that at all.

As for Helen, she gets a raw deal period. She is given to Paris by Aphrodite as a reward so how much autonomy does Helen actually have? That's often glossed over. Stories show that she was quite happy with Menelaus before and after the war. And really the Judgement of Paris and the Iliad and the Odyssey highlighted the capriciousness of the gods and the effects of it on man. To have the movie make it all about Helen escaping an abusive husband and then war happening to get her back... Helen is nothing more than a MacGuffin in the movie. But then that's what she is in the stories, too, so...

[Spartan Girl]

Not to mention that the Iliad version of Paris was a coward and a tool and probably NOT worth starting a war for a fling over!

Not one movie version of Greek mythology has been accurate. Not. One.

Edited February 26 by Spartan Girl

[Cobalt Stargazer]

5 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Not one movie version of Greek mythology has been accurate. Not. One.

Well, most of Greek mythology starts with 'Zeus got horny.'

[Dandesun]

22 hours ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

Well, most of Greek mythology starts with 'Zeus got horny.'

Zeus gets horny and then turns into something completely different to get his rocks off. A swan (!!) -- that's how Helen came to be after all. A golden shower? (Kinky.) The doppleganger of the woman's husband?! (Dude.)

Zeus fucks Leda in the shape of a swan and she lays two eggs, because, you know THAT'S normal and in one egg is Helen and Polydeucus (Pollux) -- Zeus' kids. And the other egg was Castor and Clytemnestra -- Tyndareus who was the Spartan king and Leda's husband. Agamemnon and Menelaus (members of the doomed House of Atreus) were staying with Tyndareus while in exile and they ended up marrying Clytemnestra and Helen respectively. Which really makes me wonder about the age differences but Menelaus was described as being handsome and with a pleasing personality so I often feel like he gets screwed over completely in retellings for the sake of 'romance' which Helen and Paris ARE NOT!

The vow all the suitors for Helen make to defend her husband in a quarrel and then the idiot Paris going 'give me the hottest woman!' instead of taking either Hera's or Athena's offer results in the Trojan War. And then there are four different tellings of how Menelaus and Helen reunite. Apparently he intends to kill her for the betrayal but either felt sorry for her when she wept at his feet begging for her life and had all of his wrath leave him; was struck by her beauty and all of his wrath left him; she tore her gown and revealed her breasts and all of his wrath left him; or he handed her over to his men to be stoned to death and she tore her gown and showed them her breasts and everyone was struck by her beauty and everything was cool after that.

So... go Helen, I guess? Use what the swan gave you or whatever.

Oh and then there was the whole 'let's have Menelaus and Paris fight this out because this war is draggggging on' (did Odysseus - the only one with a consistently working brain cell nap for the first ten years?) and Menelaus was winning handily when Aphrodite interfered and rescued Paris.

The thing is the stories leading up to the Trojan War are complicated enough to have their own movie or series, really, so I always hate that it gets boiled down to 'Helen runs off with Paris and everyone is annoyed by that' because it really makes Helen look bad when she gets too much shit as it is.

Things that are constant?

Paris sucks and is a coward.

Hector was a tragic hero.

Agamemnon is the worst and that's why he embodied the doomed aspects of his house.

Menelaus was a pretty good guy all said and he and Helen reconciled and even reunited after death.

Aphrodite really cause a mess with her shit.

[JustHereForFood]

Okay, another movie: The Remains of the Day. What on Earth did Emma Thompson's character see in Anthony Hopkins'? That man had no personality, apart from being dedicated to his job, and was unable to form a single opinion for himself. I am torn between thinking that she was better off with the guy she married and feeling sorry for her because she apparently never got over what she felt for Anthony Hopkins, though I can't fathom why. I mean, the movie was still interesting, mostly for the atmosphere and the political subplot with the much more interesting characters. But my God, was the romantic storyline dull.

(I hope I'm not offending anyone who loves the movie. I might be exaggerating a bit but this is the place for that, right?)

[Wiendish Fitch]

2 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

Okay, another movie: The Remains of the Day. What on Earth did Emma Thompson's character see in Anthony Hopkins'? That man had no personality, apart from being dedicated to his job, and was unable to form a single opinion for himself. I am torn between thinking that she was better off with the guy she married and feeling sorry for her because she apparently never got over what she felt for Anthony Hopkins, though I can't fathom why. I mean, the movie was still interesting, mostly for the atmosphere and the political subplot with the much more interesting characters. But my God, was the romantic storyline dull.

(I hope I'm not offending anyone who loves the movie. I might be exaggerating a bit but this is the place for that, right?)

Bolded mine, and to answer your question, heck yes, it is! I love The Remains of the Day, but you are 100% entitled to your opinion. If I disagree, I can either state a rebuttal in a civilized fashion, or say nothing. Lord knows I have a veritable mental warehouse of opinions, so I ain't gonna stop anyone from stating theirs.

[Spartan Girl]

I think Noah and Allie in The Notebook are both insufferable twits. Not just Noah for his Ferris wheel stunt to badger her into going out with them—BOTH of them. James Marsden dodged a huge bullet.

I don’t mind offending people with my unpopular opinion because as @Wiendish Fitch said, this is the thread for it, but I hate, hate, HATE that movie and I HATE that they’ve made a Broadway version of it. I’m sorry, I know I should be moved with the man tries to get his Alzheimer’s/dementia-riddled wife to remember him, but Nicholas Sparks is so blatant in his emotional manipulation that it just makes me want to barf.

[Wiendish Fitch]

58 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

I think Noah and Allie in The Notebook are both insufferable twits. Not just Noah for his Ferris wheel stunt to badger her into going out with them—BOTH of them. James Marsden dodged a huge bullet.

I don’t mind offending people with my unpopular opinion because as @Wiendish Fitch said, this is the thread for it, but I hate, hate, HATE that movie and I HATE that they’ve made a Broadway version of it. I’m sorry, I know I should be moved with the man tries to get his Alzheimer’s/dementia-riddled wife to remember him, but Nicholas Sparks is so blatant in his emotional manipulation that it just makes me want to barf.

I hate how The Notebook misrepresents Alzheimer's just as I hate A Beautiful Mind for misrepresenting... well, everything about John Nash (seriously, why'd they even bother?!).

I'm sure the songs Ingrid Michaelson (whom I love) wrote for The Notebook musical are nice (I've heard "If This is Love" and it's pretty good), but I will not be checking the show itself out. 

[proserpina65]

18 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

Okay, another movie: The Remains of the Day. What on Earth did Emma Thompson's character see in Anthony Hopkins'? That man had no personality, apart from being dedicated to his job, and was unable to form a single opinion for himself. I am torn between thinking that she was better off with the guy she married and feeling sorry for her because she apparently never got over what she felt for Anthony Hopkins, though I can't fathom why. I mean, the movie was still interesting, mostly for the atmosphere and the political subplot with the much more interesting characters. But my God, was the romantic storyline dull.

(I hope I'm not offending anyone who loves the movie. I might be exaggerating a bit but this is the place for that, right?)

I enjoyed it, mostly the non-romance parts you mention, but I absolutely think that "romance" was dull as dirt and her character was much better off with the man she married.

[Spartan Girl]

Beau from Country Strong. He’s your typical aggressive asshole that the movie portrays as a “pure” nonconformist artist and gives him an excuse to act like a self righteous asshole. He has an affair with Kelly in rehab while he’s working as an orderly, which is really gross. Then he basically goes with Kelly and Chilles at the same time, yet acts nothing but demeaning to Chilles for wanting a successful music career, calling her a dumb beauty queen and a sellout. And yet it’s supposed to be a happy ending that she gives up fame to go sing with him in dive bars? Ew.

And Kelly qualifies as a terrible love interest as well. She’s a trainwreck and she cheats on her husband, who for all his faults did love her and didn’t deserve it.

[andromeda331]

On 2/27/2024 at 2:22 PM, Dandesun said:

Zeus gets horny and then turns into something completely different to get his rocks off. A swan (!!) -- that's how Helen came to be after all. A golden shower? (Kinky.) The doppleganger of the woman's husband?! (Dude.)

Zeus fucks Leda in the shape of a swan and she lays two eggs, because, you know THAT'S normal and in one egg is Helen and Polydeucus (Pollux) -- Zeus' kids. And the other egg was Castor and Clytemnestra -- Tyndareus who was the Spartan king and Leda's husband. Agamemnon and Menelaus (members of the doomed House of Atreus) were staying with Tyndareus while in exile and they ended up marrying Clytemnestra and Helen respectively. Which really makes me wonder about the age differences but Menelaus was described as being handsome and with a pleasing personality so I often feel like he gets screwed over completely in retellings for the sake of 'romance' which Helen and Paris ARE NOT!

The vow all the suitors for Helen make to defend her husband in a quarrel and then the idiot Paris going 'give me the hottest woman!' instead of taking either Hera's or Athena's offer results in the Trojan War. And then there are four different tellings of how Menelaus and Helen reunite. Apparently he intends to kill her for the betrayal but either felt sorry for her when she wept at his feet begging for her life and had all of his wrath leave him; was struck by her beauty and all of his wrath left him; she tore her gown and revealed her breasts and all of his wrath left him; or he handed her over to his men to be stoned to death and she tore her gown and showed them her breasts and everyone was struck by her beauty and everything was cool after that.

So... go Helen, I guess? Use what the swan gave you or whatever.

Oh and then there was the whole 'let's have Menelaus and Paris fight this out because this war is draggggging on' (did Odysseus - the only one with a consistently working brain cell nap for the first ten years?) and Menelaus was winning handily when Aphrodite interfered and rescued Paris.

The thing is the stories leading up to the Trojan War are complicated enough to have their own movie or series, really, so I always hate that it gets boiled down to 'Helen runs off with Paris and everyone is annoyed by that' because it really makes Helen look bad when she gets too much shit as it is.

Things that are constant?

Paris sucks and is a coward.

Hector was a tragic hero.

Agamemnon is the worst and that's why he embodied the doomed aspects of his house.

Menelaus was a pretty good guy all said and he and Helen reconciled and even reunited after death.

That pretty much sums up it up. I'm glad Agamemnon got murdered by his wife. He had that coming and more. I hate that poor, poor Cassandra got murdered with him.

Poor Hector I think he was the only decent one out of them all.  

Quote

 

Aphrodite really cause a mess with her shit.

 

Yes she did.