A must-have guide to the most underrated films of all time: chick flicks!
Whether you need to heal a broken heart, have a case of the “mean reds,” or are just yearning for a cozy night at home, nothing is more satisfying than a good chick flick. Now there’s finally a book that celebrates the genre that has brought you the tearjerkers and Cinderella stories that have been your guilty pleasure for years.
Inside, Kim Adelman, author of The Girls’ Guide to Elvis and The Girls’ Guide to Country, shares:
A full year’s worth of chick flicks
Cinema’s most memorable fashion statements
Hundreds of DVD recommendations
Little-known gems waiting to be discovered
The best sequels to your favorite films
A chance to test your chick-flick IQ
Recipes for disaster, heartbreak, and fried green tomatoes
The inside dirt on Hollywood hunks
The chick flick Hall of Fame
And much, much more
You’ll find this photo-packed guidebook to be as entertaining as the films it honors.
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 1
From Meeting Cute to
the Ultimate Happy Ending
How to Create the Perfect Romance
So what exactly is a chick flick? Perhaps the classic definition of pornography applies: we know it when we see it. (Not to imply in any way that chick flicks are pornography, though I do have a friend who calls Sandra Bullock's Hope Floats "porn for girls.") A more concrete definition might be a movie that specifically appeals to viewers with a feminine sensibility.
Quite often the stars, story line, and marketing campaign make it immediately obvious whether something falls in the chick flick camp or not. Male teenagers, in particular, seem to have an infallible radar detector warning them away from a film that their mother might enjoy, while female teenagers innately sense that anything with "wedding" or "princess" in the title is worthy of their patronage.
Most chick flicks aren't concerned with winning the male audience over. The films might feature car chases and explosions (typical guy flick modus operandi), but those chases and explosions are employed in pursuit of the most important thing of all: love. Why are chick flick enthusiasts so fascinated by the twists and turns of love? "Love is the ultimate magic," theorizes Practical Magic writer Alice Hoffman, "the ultimate goal with no reason, often making no sense. We spend our lives trying to make those kind of things practical—why do I love him, why does he love me. Basically, it's just magic." Nothing captures and displays that magic better than a chick flick.
Incorporating everything from epic costume dramas to old-fashioned Hollywood musicals to family-friendly fables to contemporary working girl comedies, the chick flick genre is too broad to analyze as a whole. Nevertheless, an examination of the fundamental ingredients in a chick flick romance reveals a prototypical pattern that can be broken down into ten basic steps.
Step One: Create a Sympathetic Heroine
Even if the female lead is a prostitute or the Queen of England, she should be saddled with a plight not so removed from the viewer's own life. The heroine needs to be a character whom everyone in the audience—from a teenage bookworm secretly in love with the big man on campus to an overworked at the office/under-appreciated at home C.E.O.--can relate to. The actresses playing these heroines don't seem too far removed from the girl next door, which is why we deem them to be mega-love-worthy and embrace them as America's sweethearts. Consequently, Renee Zellweger can play a socially inept neurotic in Bridget Jones's Diary and a cold-blooded murderess in Chicago and still have the audience rooting for her. Inaccessibly beautiful actresses are usually cast as the villains, the "bad girlfriends" whom the male leads are superficially attracted to before realizing their mistake. "Invariably the 'third character' part in a romantic comedy is a bitch or an ice princess or really unlikable," agrees Alicia Witt, who played Sandra Bullock's rival for Hugh Grant's affection in Two Weeks Notice.
Step Two: Offer up a Love-Worthy Hero
Of course, the heroine doesn't realize how loveable the hero is at first--if they were a perfect match from the start, there wouldn't be any story to tell, would there? Because he'll change over the course of the movie, the hero is often flawed at the start. To compensate for this handicap, the actor has to use his personal charm and charisma to infuse likeability into the role. Analyzing Dennis Quaid and his character in Something to Talk About, producer Paula Weinstein comments, "Dennis made Eddie, who after all, has been stepping out on his wife, an immensely compassionate and complicated human being." Tom Hanks is also good at playing a cad worthy of redemption. "Tom has such charm," proclaims You've Got Mail director Nora Ephron, "he is so irresistible that he can play a bad guy and you never once believe that he doesn't truly have a heart."
Love at first sight can occur. However, this instant love connection is tested by a series of bumps in the hero and heroine's relationship. To permanently win the affection of his true love, the hero must make a grand gesture, a public declaration of everlasting love. But wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves . . .
Step Three: Don't Forget the Best Friend
If the heroine needs to explain her feelings to someone, or perhaps she requires additional motivation to do the right thing, she should come equipped with a best friend. Because this character often provides comic relief and can't be perceived as a potential rival for the hero's affection, the best friend role is usually cast with quirky comediennes or gay men. Whoopi Goldberg is an excellent instigator in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Rosie O'Donnell provides a similar nudge in Sleepless in Seattle, and Rupert Everett proves to be Julia Roberts's ultimate champion in My Best Friend's Wedding. The hero, by the way, often has his own Sancho Panza, usually a coworker. But unlike their female counterpart, the male best friend sometimes poaches. Think Jason Alexander in Pretty Woman.
Step Four: Something's Wrong with the Heroine's Life
Sometimes our girl isn't fulfilled at work. Or she hungers for a family. In the Britney Spears vehicle, Crossroads, the teenage heroine (Lucy) has mother-abandonment issues. "We all have certain questions in life, and Lucy's is finding her mother," explains Kim Cattrall, who plays the AWOL matriarch. "Once she does, she can put that to rest and get on with her life, as opposed to always being connected to this phantom figure."
The heroine feels incomplete because she has not yet achieved her destiny. While in limbo, she can fall victim to Bad Boyfriend Syndrome. Bad boyfriends are not to be confused with bad boys. A bad boy is a beast who just needs a little tender loving care from a beauty before he can be recognized as a true prince. A bad boyfriend, on the other hand, might be a prince, but he's not the heroine's true destiny.
Meg Ryan has Bad Boyfriend Syndrome in Sleepless in Seattle. "Walter represents the perfect man to take home to your family," the actress says of her character's initial wrong choice in potential mates. "He's wonderful, but something is wrong with the relationship, and Annie doesn't know herself well enough to know what she really wants."
What's worse than having a bad boyfriend? Having no boyfriend! Renee Zellweger's problem in Bridget Jones's Diary is written in capital letters on the DVD cover—she's UNMARRIED. Director Sharon Maguire can relate to her heroine's plight. "I know the world so well because it's mine. We were having a really good time, going out partying, and we didn't really want that to stop. At the same time, we were anxious why we hadn't settled down yet. Yet, we thought we shouldn't be striving for male approval anyway because we were feminists. That contradiction is the thing that [writer] Helen [Fielding] so brilliantly captured in Bridget Jones's Diary. There are a lot of women out there who've got their careers, their independence—but they're constantly thinking, 'I just want to be in love. I just want a man.'"
Step Five: They Meet
Unless the chick flick is a tearjerker, our heroine and her true love are guaranteed to end up together in the final reel. But first they have to meet, usually in a memorable way—or better yet, a "cute" way. In The Wedding Planner, Matthew McConaughey saves Jennifer Lopez from a runaway garbage bin. "They have this kind of chance meeting," J.Lo explains. "It's a big accident, and then they get thrown together for the rest of the day. She definitely feels something right away, and it's something she hasn't felt in a long time. It takes her by surprise. She really doesn't know what to make of it, but it's exciting."
"I think the most incredible thing about love is the actual moment when the two people find each other," agrees Drew Barrymore, who starred with Adam Sandler in another wedding-themed flick. "In The Wedding Singer, they literally find each other over a kid throwing up. It just doesn't get much more romantic than that!"
Step Six: Toss in Impediments to the Romance
"The trap in making romantic comedy today," complains Neal Moritz, who produced the Reese Witherspoon vehicle Sweet Home Alabama, "is that audiences feel like they've seen everything that can happen already--the boy and girl are going to get together in the end. So, in order to avoid these cliches, we've tried to put in a number of twists and turns, to give the audience a movie they haven't seen before. They won't have the feeling that they know the end of the movie before it begins."
Whether it's a deadly disease, a bet, a workplace rivalry, or a romantic triangle, the best impediments have high stakes and provide a real challenge to the characters' love. It's in this "complications ensue" stage that so many chick flicks founder. Even with a tearjerker like Sweet November, the audience must feel invested in events prior to Charlize Theron's swan song. Sweet November director, Pat O'Connor, recalls, "I tried to make this film bounce along with a certain gusto and panache and style." To do that, he relied on "the delight in the challenge of the unexpected." Could he be referring to Charlize's transvestite neighbor?
Step Seven: They Dance
Waltzes and tangos aren't included in chick flicks just to spoon-feed the audience big screen images of their fondest desires (in real life, most chicks love to shake their tail feathers while most guys would chew off their own leg rather than shake it on the dance floo...
From Meeting Cute to
the Ultimate Happy Ending
How to Create the Perfect Romance
So what exactly is a chick flick? Perhaps the classic definition of pornography applies: we know it when we see it. (Not to imply in any way that chick flicks are pornography, though I do have a friend who calls Sandra Bullock's Hope Floats "porn for girls.") A more concrete definition might be a movie that specifically appeals to viewers with a feminine sensibility.
Quite often the stars, story line, and marketing campaign make it immediately obvious whether something falls in the chick flick camp or not. Male teenagers, in particular, seem to have an infallible radar detector warning them away from a film that their mother might enjoy, while female teenagers innately sense that anything with "wedding" or "princess" in the title is worthy of their patronage.
Most chick flicks aren't concerned with winning the male audience over. The films might feature car chases and explosions (typical guy flick modus operandi), but those chases and explosions are employed in pursuit of the most important thing of all: love. Why are chick flick enthusiasts so fascinated by the twists and turns of love? "Love is the ultimate magic," theorizes Practical Magic writer Alice Hoffman, "the ultimate goal with no reason, often making no sense. We spend our lives trying to make those kind of things practical—why do I love him, why does he love me. Basically, it's just magic." Nothing captures and displays that magic better than a chick flick.
Incorporating everything from epic costume dramas to old-fashioned Hollywood musicals to family-friendly fables to contemporary working girl comedies, the chick flick genre is too broad to analyze as a whole. Nevertheless, an examination of the fundamental ingredients in a chick flick romance reveals a prototypical pattern that can be broken down into ten basic steps.
Step One: Create a Sympathetic Heroine
Even if the female lead is a prostitute or the Queen of England, she should be saddled with a plight not so removed from the viewer's own life. The heroine needs to be a character whom everyone in the audience—from a teenage bookworm secretly in love with the big man on campus to an overworked at the office/under-appreciated at home C.E.O.--can relate to. The actresses playing these heroines don't seem too far removed from the girl next door, which is why we deem them to be mega-love-worthy and embrace them as America's sweethearts. Consequently, Renee Zellweger can play a socially inept neurotic in Bridget Jones's Diary and a cold-blooded murderess in Chicago and still have the audience rooting for her. Inaccessibly beautiful actresses are usually cast as the villains, the "bad girlfriends" whom the male leads are superficially attracted to before realizing their mistake. "Invariably the 'third character' part in a romantic comedy is a bitch or an ice princess or really unlikable," agrees Alicia Witt, who played Sandra Bullock's rival for Hugh Grant's affection in Two Weeks Notice.
Step Two: Offer up a Love-Worthy Hero
Of course, the heroine doesn't realize how loveable the hero is at first--if they were a perfect match from the start, there wouldn't be any story to tell, would there? Because he'll change over the course of the movie, the hero is often flawed at the start. To compensate for this handicap, the actor has to use his personal charm and charisma to infuse likeability into the role. Analyzing Dennis Quaid and his character in Something to Talk About, producer Paula Weinstein comments, "Dennis made Eddie, who after all, has been stepping out on his wife, an immensely compassionate and complicated human being." Tom Hanks is also good at playing a cad worthy of redemption. "Tom has such charm," proclaims You've Got Mail director Nora Ephron, "he is so irresistible that he can play a bad guy and you never once believe that he doesn't truly have a heart."
Love at first sight can occur. However, this instant love connection is tested by a series of bumps in the hero and heroine's relationship. To permanently win the affection of his true love, the hero must make a grand gesture, a public declaration of everlasting love. But wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves . . .
Step Three: Don't Forget the Best Friend
If the heroine needs to explain her feelings to someone, or perhaps she requires additional motivation to do the right thing, she should come equipped with a best friend. Because this character often provides comic relief and can't be perceived as a potential rival for the hero's affection, the best friend role is usually cast with quirky comediennes or gay men. Whoopi Goldberg is an excellent instigator in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Rosie O'Donnell provides a similar nudge in Sleepless in Seattle, and Rupert Everett proves to be Julia Roberts's ultimate champion in My Best Friend's Wedding. The hero, by the way, often has his own Sancho Panza, usually a coworker. But unlike their female counterpart, the male best friend sometimes poaches. Think Jason Alexander in Pretty Woman.
Step Four: Something's Wrong with the Heroine's Life
Sometimes our girl isn't fulfilled at work. Or she hungers for a family. In the Britney Spears vehicle, Crossroads, the teenage heroine (Lucy) has mother-abandonment issues. "We all have certain questions in life, and Lucy's is finding her mother," explains Kim Cattrall, who plays the AWOL matriarch. "Once she does, she can put that to rest and get on with her life, as opposed to always being connected to this phantom figure."
The heroine feels incomplete because she has not yet achieved her destiny. While in limbo, she can fall victim to Bad Boyfriend Syndrome. Bad boyfriends are not to be confused with bad boys. A bad boy is a beast who just needs a little tender loving care from a beauty before he can be recognized as a true prince. A bad boyfriend, on the other hand, might be a prince, but he's not the heroine's true destiny.
Meg Ryan has Bad Boyfriend Syndrome in Sleepless in Seattle. "Walter represents the perfect man to take home to your family," the actress says of her character's initial wrong choice in potential mates. "He's wonderful, but something is wrong with the relationship, and Annie doesn't know herself well enough to know what she really wants."
What's worse than having a bad boyfriend? Having no boyfriend! Renee Zellweger's problem in Bridget Jones's Diary is written in capital letters on the DVD cover—she's UNMARRIED. Director Sharon Maguire can relate to her heroine's plight. "I know the world so well because it's mine. We were having a really good time, going out partying, and we didn't really want that to stop. At the same time, we were anxious why we hadn't settled down yet. Yet, we thought we shouldn't be striving for male approval anyway because we were feminists. That contradiction is the thing that [writer] Helen [Fielding] so brilliantly captured in Bridget Jones's Diary. There are a lot of women out there who've got their careers, their independence—but they're constantly thinking, 'I just want to be in love. I just want a man.'"
Step Five: They Meet
Unless the chick flick is a tearjerker, our heroine and her true love are guaranteed to end up together in the final reel. But first they have to meet, usually in a memorable way—or better yet, a "cute" way. In The Wedding Planner, Matthew McConaughey saves Jennifer Lopez from a runaway garbage bin. "They have this kind of chance meeting," J.Lo explains. "It's a big accident, and then they get thrown together for the rest of the day. She definitely feels something right away, and it's something she hasn't felt in a long time. It takes her by surprise. She really doesn't know what to make of it, but it's exciting."
"I think the most incredible thing about love is the actual moment when the two people find each other," agrees Drew Barrymore, who starred with Adam Sandler in another wedding-themed flick. "In The Wedding Singer, they literally find each other over a kid throwing up. It just doesn't get much more romantic than that!"
Step Six: Toss in Impediments to the Romance
"The trap in making romantic comedy today," complains Neal Moritz, who produced the Reese Witherspoon vehicle Sweet Home Alabama, "is that audiences feel like they've seen everything that can happen already--the boy and girl are going to get together in the end. So, in order to avoid these cliches, we've tried to put in a number of twists and turns, to give the audience a movie they haven't seen before. They won't have the feeling that they know the end of the movie before it begins."
Whether it's a deadly disease, a bet, a workplace rivalry, or a romantic triangle, the best impediments have high stakes and provide a real challenge to the characters' love. It's in this "complications ensue" stage that so many chick flicks founder. Even with a tearjerker like Sweet November, the audience must feel invested in events prior to Charlize Theron's swan song. Sweet November director, Pat O'Connor, recalls, "I tried to make this film bounce along with a certain gusto and panache and style." To do that, he relied on "the delight in the challenge of the unexpected." Could he be referring to Charlize's transvestite neighbor?
Step Seven: They Dance
Waltzes and tangos aren't included in chick flicks just to spoon-feed the audience big screen images of their fondest desires (in real life, most chicks love to shake their tail feathers while most guys would chew off their own leg rather than shake it on the dance floo...
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is fun!,
By Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks: The Romance, the Glamour, the Tears, and More! (Paperback)
What's a chick flick? If I have to explain, this book is NOT for you. Most women know intuitively what they think makes a "chick flick," but after reading this Guide, they will understand what elements make up the best chick flicks; the ones we gush to girlfriends, "You have just got to see!"American's movie sweetheart (someone women will love as much as men do) today is Julia Roberts, with Meg Ryan and Sandra Bullock close behind. Can we think of Meg Ryan without remembering the scene in "When Sally Met Harry." We ALL wanted what she was having. Did you join millions of women who bought a polka-dot dress after seeing a bad girl become a fashion plate in "Pretty Woman"? You get the idea. We buy into these heroines, what they wear and how they treat men (and are treated by men). I loved these subtitles under How to Create the Perfects Romance. 1. Create a sympathetic heroine. 2. Offer up a love-worthy hero (we know, the Tom Hanks type). 3. Don't forget the best friend. 4. Something is wrong with the heroine type. 5. They meet. 6. Toss in impediment to the romance. 7. They dance. 8. Memorable moment (like Angela Bassett torching her wandering husband's car in "Waiting to Exhale." You go girl!). 9. The hero employs the three magic words. 10. Achieve the ultimate happy (or unhappy ending). I highly recommend this book as fodder for girlfriend conversation over a fudge brownie sundae. It made me check out my video (yes, video) supply. There I found almost every one of the often-watched movies mentioned in the book. Am I into chick flicks, or what?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Quintessential Guide to Chick Flicks!,
By carjoy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks: The Romance, the Glamour, the Tears, and More! (Paperback)
What is not to LOVE about this book? It's fun, totally handy, and it makes the perfect gift! I already bought a copy for my little sister. All of my favorite movies (and tons I never knew about) are listed, deconstructed, and discussed in this super-fun book. The calendar section which lists a chick flick-a-day is my favorite bit! I'm totally taking this book with me to Blockbuster.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kim Adelman Does It Again,
By Teagan Fan (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks: The Romance, the Glamour, the Tears, and More! (Paperback)
Word on the street is that "The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks" is a worthy companion to Ms. Adelman's other critically acclaimed books. I was very pleased to have this exhaustively rearched book handy when looking for movies to add to Netflix. I will not have to suffer through another bad Ashley Judd film...thank you Kim!
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
So what exactly is a chick flick? Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
flick enthusiasts, hereby inducted, chick flicks, bad boyfriend, dirty dancing, wedding planner Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Lopez, Cary Grant, Hugh Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Colin Firth, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicolas Cage, Chick Flicks Hall of Fame, Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, Barbra Streisand, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Quaid, Geena Davis, Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Bridget Jones's Diary New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
So what exactly is a chick flick? Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
flick enthusiasts, hereby inducted, chick flicks, bad boyfriend, dirty dancing, wedding planner Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Lopez, Cary Grant, Hugh Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Colin Firth, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicolas Cage, Chick Flicks Hall of Fame, Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, Barbra Streisand, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Quaid, Geena Davis, Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Bridget Jones's Diary New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 81
books:
See all 81 books this book cites
- Sally Field: Child Stars (Blue Banner Biographies) by Mitchell Lane Publishers on 8 pages
- Brad Pitt by Wallace on 4 pages
- Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) by Jane Austen on page 60, page 61, and page 97
- Love Actually by Richard Curtis on page 60, and Back Matter
- Sense and Sensibility (Oxford World's Classics) by Jane Austen on page 75, and Back Matter
See all 81 books this book cites
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