A Review of Forget Paris

   

From the left: Ellen (Debra Winger), Mickey Gordon (Billy Crystal)

     I am sure many of us has been in a puppy love, honeymoon phase or mere infatuation to a certain someone in our lives. Now, take that and add Love Steroids and the most romantic scenery you can imagine, you get this movie. Hello Everybody, my name is John Ng and today we will be reviewing the film, Forget Paris. Let's get Started.

     Overall the theme of the movie revolves around the theme of love or the lack there of. As portrayed by most movies, they portray the romantic courting stage of love but not what happens after. The weight-gaining, stress inducing, hair-pulling marriage is often left out after the "Happily Ever Afters". Ellen and Mickey spent one of their most electrifying week in Paris but that didn't stay that way for long. One of the factors that influenced the decrease in attraction between Ellen and Mickey was their distance apart from one another due to initially Ellen's job and later Mickey's job. Thus, there attraction for one another reduces as they spend more time apart from each other. Another factor in the lack of attraction is the lack of similarity between them. One is a referee that goes around the nation. have a house that every man dreams of and eat veal Parmigiana, while another is a elegant and respected figure in the aviation industry that appreciate the finer things in life and trying new things.
 
       They have vastly different interest, however, they do have similar attitudes towards one another. They love each other enough to make the difference to stay together. I think they name of the movie is as such because a marriage is not about the happiness that it brings but it is about persevering through the difficulties. I disagree what Dr. Goh said about love, that love is about understanding yourself and your chosen path. I believe that love is about finding someone that you love and that make you forget about your own ambitions and focus on creating something new with that special someone.

     When we talk about movies, we often associate it to this fairy tale romance in Disney movies. However, this movie was special as it also discussed a troubled relationship. One is obviously the negativity reciprocity cycle, where Mickey and Ellen both was letting their negativity over rule their relationship, where there was elements of lack of communication between them to the differences in jobs. Their couple troubles reach to a point where they no longer feel attracted to one another to also breaking up. My thought on the matter is that they was no real resolve to solve the problem and they kept on swallow by their circumstances. Both of them was clearly unhappy but they let their frustrations grow larger and larger. Men should conquer waves and not be conquered.

        Another characteristic of the movie to emphasize on the troubled relationship is the fact that the two people can continue to feel lonely even though they are stay together. There was a scene of them staying on the same bed facing the opposite side. They were together but they felt lonely and unhappy. Loneliness is not about the amount of experiences but the quality of such experiences.This further escalates with the lack of self-disclosure where Ellen was asked by Lucy whether Mickey knew how she felt. She immediately dismissed her by saying that Mickey wouldn't have cared anyways. Thus, they have given up on each other and instead choose to confide by their loneliness, which adds to the negative reciprocity cycle.

      This movie is a reversal of how a regular movie should have been with the happily ever after first and the problems come later. The resolution was also special as it never promised a happy ending but more like a promise to try to make it work. The movie portrayed brilliantly the factors that cause lack of attraction and characteristics of troubled relationships. For me, this movie did a great job in the portrayal of the dark side of coin of love. No wonder they say love is blind! Stay tuned for the next movie!