Writer's Favorite

There are movies I love beyond reason. On this blog, I refer to these films as Writer’s Favorites. A Writer’s Favorite doesn’t necessarily have to be a guilty pleasure (although it often is), it’s just a movie I love so much there is no way I could ever watch it objectively. Rather than try to give these films any kind of grade, I hope to illuminate why I love them despite (or sometimes because of) their flaws.

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE KATE & LEOPOLD

 

Oh Kate & Leopold. You are bad. Oh so bad. I watch you and I see that, I really do. I see your nonsensical time travel plotline, I see your past-her-prime-Meg-Ryan, I see your blatant female wish fulfillment, I see your happy-ending-with-a-terrible-message. But then Hugh Jackman tucks me into bed and lays with me and holds me in his giant, manly arms as I fall asleep. Oh, wait, that’s not me? That’s a character in a movie? What’s her name?

You see even though Kate is a titular character in this 2001 movie, she doesn’t really matter. She’s a stand in for every woman who’s ever wanted a man to make her dinner, hire a violinist, waltz with her, make love to her, then have coffee and breakfast ready in the morning when she wakes up. Like I said, she’s a stand in for every woman.

Plot? I guess that’s important. Only in the sense that some mumbo-jumbo about time portals and a criminally-underused-Liev-Schreiber transport Leopold (Jackman), Duke of Albany, from 1876 to early 2000s New York where Meg Ryan has terrible, pointy hair and people still use palm pilots. The science doesn’t make sense, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that overworked, sort of sexually-harassed Meg Ryan gets a polite, sensitive, noble, man who falls in love with her. Did I mention he rides a horse through Central Park to chase down the guy who stole her purse?

Kate is an amalgamation of all of the worst female rom com tropes. She’s a neurotic career woman (she wears pants so you can tell), she’s stressed over a bad breakup, she’s clumsy for no reason and she yells a lot. But Hugh Jackman is so good it literally doesn’t matter. Kate could be played by Roberto Benigni and I would still love this movie.

Jackman is unique in his ability to be both utterly masculine and gracefully feminine (for comparison take a look at his turn as Wolverine in X-Men and his performance as Peter Allen in the Broadway musical The Boy from Oz.) It’s an ability that makes him perfectly suited for playing a 19^th Century Duke. Men were men back then, but they were also fairly effeminate- waxing poetically about the culinary arts and having manservants dress them. Jackman balances Leopold’s brazen courage with a polite attentiveness and just a hint of emotional vulnerability. He plays Leopold entirely straight and his stone-faced shock at modern life (where you need to pick up your dog’s poop) provides most of the film’s rather thin laughs.

The other highlight is Breckin Meyer (aka Travis from Clueless) as Kate’s brother Charlie. He’s a modern day pseudo-slacker-actor who provides a nice counterpoint to Jackman’s buttoned-up propriety. He’s a sweet guy trying too hard to be cool and all he needs is for Leopold to tell him what women want- to be complimented and pampered. (Is that so hard?)

Did I mention this movie pays homage to my all time favorite movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s? It’s enough to make a girl swoon. Thankfully it’s also enough to make me forgive (more like ignore) the film’s “happy” ending, which starts to seem a little less happy once you think about it. Leopold has to go back to the 19^th century, seeing as how he’s got to invent the elevator and all that. Kate, in a literal leap of faith, decides to follow him back in time and live out her life as a duchess. It’s all nice and peachy and they waltz away as the credits role. The thing is, Kate has to leave her job (where she just got a promotion), her brother (whom she seems close with) and her friends (I’m not sure she has any, but she seemed to like her assistant okay) for a man she’s known for, at tops, a week. Not only that, she has to leave behind things like modern medicine, running water and the right to vote. Not quite as peachy as it’s originally depicted.

And then…who am I kidding? If Hugh Jackman wanted to marry me I’d probably give up the right to vote too. Just kidding! That’s horrible! (Hugh, if you’re reading this, I’m not kidding. Call me.)