Last
night on the Hallmark premier of Dater’s
Handbook, the writer or writers painted themselves into a corner. Meghan
Markle played the heroine. She is dating two men using techniques prescribed in
a doctor’s bestseller on dating. One of the men left a note when he left her
that the dog knocked over to the floor. Her sister said, quoting from the
dating book, that the lack of a note (etiquette) was a deal breaker.
Shortly after the sister scene, she rejects by phone the suiter. We are left wondering if the lack of a note caused the breakup.
As a guy and a writer, this bothered me, especially when the note was never mentioned again. In spite of it, I enjoyed the movie. It also bothered me because the note was lying on the floor of her home and to think it wouldn’t have been picked up day after day is absurd. Every house cleaner, if she had one, knows not to throw away personal notes. No, the dog would not have eaten the paper note. That would be a case of dog ex-machina.
As a guy (and this blog is about guys and the way they think and act), we want to identify with the hero, to see him validated, not settled for. Many thoughtful men in the hero’s shoes would want to understand what caused the rejection so that he may set the record straight or know how to improve. None of that happened. Yes, the hero was happy-go-lucky. And yes, the conversation probably would occur off camera.
I know time is valuable in a two hour movie, but 20 seconds could have been invested in her waving the note and saying she had made a mistake, not only because the note went missing for a while but because she was following the book’s advice and made some mistakes.
You may say, that I as a writer am over analyzing this. Nop. My wife brought it up. She reads romances voraciously and knows when something is missing.
Shortly after the sister scene, she rejects by phone the suiter. We are left wondering if the lack of a note caused the breakup.
As a guy and a writer, this bothered me, especially when the note was never mentioned again. In spite of it, I enjoyed the movie. It also bothered me because the note was lying on the floor of her home and to think it wouldn’t have been picked up day after day is absurd. Every house cleaner, if she had one, knows not to throw away personal notes. No, the dog would not have eaten the paper note. That would be a case of dog ex-machina.
As a guy (and this blog is about guys and the way they think and act), we want to identify with the hero, to see him validated, not settled for. Many thoughtful men in the hero’s shoes would want to understand what caused the rejection so that he may set the record straight or know how to improve. None of that happened. Yes, the hero was happy-go-lucky. And yes, the conversation probably would occur off camera.
I know time is valuable in a two hour movie, but 20 seconds could have been invested in her waving the note and saying she had made a mistake, not only because the note went missing for a while but because she was following the book’s advice and made some mistakes.
You may say, that I as a writer am over analyzing this. Nop. My wife brought it up. She reads romances voraciously and knows when something is missing.
All
that being said, Hallmark is putting out premier after premier, still (and it is so wrong) employing all white
people in the leads, but still enjoyable and almost always impeccably written.
Promo for Dater's Handbook, 2016:
Promo for Dater's Handbook, 2016:
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