Forget Paris

    This movie reflection is based on the romantic comedy film named “Forget Paris”, directed by Bill Crystal in 1995. In this movie is mainly focused on a couple’s love and work in early adulthood, and in newly married life.

 There are two main characters. Mickey is a NBA basketball referee who flies France to bury his father but is detained because his father’s coffin is missing. Ellen, an employee of American Airlines, assists Mickey in retrieving the lost coffin. They met and fall in love, but they are separated soon because Mickey has to go back to America. Finally, Mickey and Ellen reunited and marred, but their relationship goes through many difficult patches. The story is told in flashback by their four couple friends at a restaurant waiting for them to arrive. Different couple speaks different topics on Mickey and Ellen’s marriage through encounter and marriage, conflict and resolution, separation, and encounter again.

    

Basically, people have some stereo types on romantic comedy may include an attractive woman, a handsome guy, pleasantness, unrealistic story, and consequence of happy ending. Thus, this movie is big challenging to the stereo types of romantic comedy.

Unlike other romantic movies, the ‘Forget Paris’ deals with some realistic marriage issues include adult’s work and love which can’t be satisfied on both together. Love is romantic but married life is not so romantic than expected. For example, living with elderly parent and failed to attempts at child conception, conflict on moving accommodation, and feel loneliness because of lover’s absence. 

 

Based on the Fisher’s model of mate selection, in evolutionary perspective, the ultimate goal of love is in ‘ethnic breeding’ and human finally choose a partner. Usually men choose attractive women whose youth signifies beauty and more childbirth, while women choose men whose male maturity signifies higher social status.

According to stage second of the family life cycle suggested that newly married couples without children joins new families through marriage. They are establishing home base and a satisfying romantic relationship, but demands on new roles. Besides, this period is the process of adjustment to a mate. Thus, Mickey and Ellen are experiencing emotional conflicts frequently.

Attachment means a special relationship, feels a deep bond of affection and experience between child and parent's love or two people’s love each other. To get a true perfect love, each of adults should be experience four components of attachment; safe haven, proximity maintenance, separation distress, and secure base from the lovers. When Ellen left to Paris, both of them experience separation distress and loneliness.

 

In order to have secure attachment bond among of newly married couple should help and encourage each other to adapt a new ways of environment. Ellen wants to spend more time and warm responsive interactions with Mickey via secure attachment relationship, while Mickey showed avoidant attachment relationship. Because he cares much on work rather than love, so has business travel frequently.

 

  

According to Sternberg’s triangular theory suggested that love is made up with 3 components, intimacy, passion, and commitment. Using these with high or low levels, love can be categorized with different 8 types. For the first time, Mickey and Ellen’s love type was liking love then romantic, companionate, and finally they got consummate love in the last scene. Ellen and Mickey develop a sense of certainty in each other’s love and respect, and a feeling of mutual understanding. This film is shown that truly mutual love is willing to give the subject’s important part for their opponents. Besides, to live happily ever after, keep the balance between work and family (love) are important.