By Aadesh Ramaswamy
This is not exactly how I thought my Romance series would start, but holy fuck, this was brilliant… So, a bit of a prelude….
I don’t know if this is the place for closely opening up my heart, but the base line is that I’m single, and this series was an attempt to find if I can placate that “I’m single” feeling by watching films of people, who aren’t single, or if it would only aggravate it.. It isn’t simply said that “Art imitates life”… I wanted to get a pie of the action. So, what best way than to watch a film?
And I thought the film I chose, whose title ends in a similar way to another film about which I had submitted to BR’s blog before, would be just like the other film. Surface level character issues, sex, the romance, the “Po maaten nu sollu, unna thirumbi kootindu poidren” moments et all.. But Anyone not just does that, but also goes far beyond that. We are introduced to the characters, their first meet, their meet-cute, their dinner together, their sleeping together, their conflict with each other, all in just the opening 10 mins… How fucking cool is that.
That was the first thing that took me in.. But what was also interesting was the form. Will Gluck isn’t only interested in showing this couple, he is interested in framing this couple.. It was quite relieving to see a modern-day film without handheld cameras.. The clean wide shots (of which Sandeep Vanga is a fan too, like all of us) blocking (literally) the characters in the respective places…
Like in the above mentioned first meet-cute, Bea (played by a terrifically charming Sydney Sweeney) is “trapped” in a toilet, while Ben (played by Glen Powell, with that Star-thanamaana charming and cool performance) waits for her outside the toilet, as they are in a coffee shop..
Gluck goes for a clean wide showcasing Sydney being trapped in the room, rather than going for the customary close-up (except when needed).. As both Bea and Ben are in the “just met them” period, Gluck goes for a very simple but also logical intercut..
He shows Bea talking excitedly as a child (like Muthaiyan’s sister Abirami) to her friend in the toilet as she cleans up, unable to handle her obvious excitement while intercutting to show Ben, awkwardly tucking his shirt in and out.. It is not only a psychological cut for Bea (her tension of making him wait too long when something funny happens in the bathroom), but is also psychological for Ben, in the way that he changes his appearance… She comes out awkwardly and says Bye and goes.. He is perplexed.
He turns to her to point out the toiler paper sticking to her sandals or shoes, when she asks him if he was going to ask her out… This scene, when I saw it, felt to me as a result of the films that have come before.. The need for the male to ask the woman out..
But later, when she simply walks away after the very beautiful romantic night, we are confused. Ben is confused. Why does she do it? And when she herself realises this and decides to come back, that is when we realise… She is just a Graduate.. She doesn’t know about this… She doesn’t know how to handle this situation, which is exactly why she said bye… This also comes as a point when she eventually reveals to Ben as to why she broke up with her ex-Jonathan, a guy whom her parents want her to marry.. He was just “perfect”…
It reminded me of a news I read of a wife, who divorced her hubby because he was “too good”. He didn’t put up any fights with her (same as Bea and Jonathan) and always abided by her.. The lack of spark.
The news clipping perplexed me. But not anymore.. And so, when Bea had the moment with Ben, she didn’t know how to react. Of course, since this is a mainstream film, we have Bea saying “You lit a fire in me.. I didn’t know what to do”… But even then, the way they visualise this is beautiful… And thus, after this brilliant 10 mins, begins the remaining 1hr 20mins of them, which involves them not being snarky at each other surprisingly …
I mean sure they do for a small period.. But It is succeeded by a greater amount of time, where they spend moments with each other… A Dumb-Charades game involves both of them giving snarky descriptions of each other… But they do get back together, as an act, for a period of time, for each of them have issues that would be solved by this act of “being together”. The issue is that Bea’s parents want her to marry Jonathan and Ben wants his ex-Margaret, and all this happens during the leadup to the marriage between Bea’s sister Halle and Ben’s friend’s sister, Claudia.
Now what is most interesting here is that, apart from the lead pair, we are also simultaneously viewing, 3 relationship all in different stages.. Maragaret and her casual bf Beau, Claudia and Halle, who are to marry and the respective parents of Claudia and Halle, who have lived for many years… The writing is brilliant… But the beauty of the film is that, the form isn’t behind the content… Take the scene where they all come back after a hike..
Ben teaches Bea’s father to dive and that leads to a moment of talking. They repair the issue that had happened in the opening of the film.. And after this goes to talk with her ex, Jonathan… They play chess (which is a life size version, not the board version we poor people know). Bea’s parents see this image and are happy.. Ben sees this image and gets a bit… iffy and at that moment, we see that Margaret is present in the same floor he is there in…
Or take the beautiful tracking shots used in the film.. They are used when Bea and Ben go to a ship’s end to recreate the iconic Titanic pose (because who else, apart from virgin lovers, who’d recreate this cringe, as Ben says)… Or in the genre-staple climax of “getting the girl back” when he runs back to the spot where she told she had wanted to come.. But even this scene has a beautiful setup… When the two perform the Titanic shot, we expect them to fall into the river (because like a Chaplin/Keaton film, its shown to us that things can easily go funny here)… But they don’t. They are able to convince everyone of their “love”. But after the beautiful Titanic “cringe”, suddenly Bea falls down and Ben jumps in to save her, like the classic Romantic hero that he is…
They swim to a safe holding thingy, with the aforementioned place in the backdrop, where they talk about Bea’s personal life’s situation… A small thing of beauty here is that, even here, Bea’s revelation of a very important personal thing to Ben happens because of the situation they are in and not because she likes Ben…
The most exciting thing is that, after all the above-mentioned things have happened, we still have 30-40 mins left.. And that’s when the film gives another banger of a writing point..
Post the “being rescued from the river”, both come back and we now get the classical romance genre “Making Romance” montage… It’s beautiful, heart touching, all touching..
But post sex, when both are cuddling, Bea offhandedly mentions that she feels all her recent actions have been mistakes… This causes Ben to go into his painful area, and what happens is the opening scene once again, except now, Ben is the one leaving her and sneaking out.. How do you top that?
So, when you look from a top shot (of the many that appear in the film), it is still firmly in the genre of romance. But what makes that top shot, a closeup, is the structure of the film. It is the moment an info in a comedic scene in a plane is used for a beautiful emotional moment.. It is the top shot when Margaret and Bea are bringing the wedding cake out.. It is the tracking shots spread all over the film.. It is the respect to not only content, but also the form…
ALSO: The film (apart from Vaazhai this year) has one of the best end credits sequence..
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