Confessions

Confessions of a romance junkie and a loser at love

There are a lot of love stories out there, but none of them happens to me. I live in a world of make believe, while the ratio of contentment in love to a big no is in the real world is 2:8. This is why saccharine-infested movies like Titanic or Jerry Maguire are on everybody’s lists of favorite movies: we watch these films and think that someday, somehow, a dazzling Dorothy Boyd or a natural comic Jack Dawson will come our way.

We all have our preferences, the standards we made for our future princes charming/damsels in distress and set ourselves out to go looking for them from the 6 billion inhabitants of the earth. The funny thing is, movies always have, in one way or another, the perfect leading men/ladies we wish we had in our own private movies.

For one, there’s the ditzy lawyer by the name Elle Woods. She’s rich, pretty, witty and a Harvard Law School grad: a surefire hit among guys. Forget that she wears pink all the time, it also matters that a woman has a trademark of her own, and she’s not overdoing it. And then there’s Tom Cruise’s Jerry Maguire. He’s handsome, has a good job, has a way with kids and says very Hollywood lines: You complete me.

All the things we hope we’d hear are in these movies. Who wouldn’t agree with Julia Roberts when she said, “this is my life’s happiness. I have to be ruthless.” Or when you’re about to leave, you see Mr. Loverboy at the top of the airport escalator dramatically; and as you say, “I’m surprised,” he’d reply, “I’m in love.”

Most of the time, we can just melt a la Amelie while hearing these lines. What more when Leo looks straight into your eyes, looking cutesy and all, and utters lines like: “Rose, you’re the most astounding, amazing girl, woman I’ve known. I know how the world works, but I’m too in love now. If you jump, I jump, remember?”

We ogle at the virility that is Brad Pitt. We drool after Sandra’s long locks and cleft chin. Freddie Prinze Jr. can just smile and take our breaths away. We wonder at Hugh Grant’s famous stutter and eye-flicker combo. There are a lot of them we can’t get enough of. Be it Latinos, Asians or Caucasians, whatever our types are, they just keep on coming. Whatever our preferences are, these movies have them. An attraction we can’t say no to. They have the grooming that’s perfect for our tastes. They know what look to enhance and what camera angle will sweep us from our seats. Eye candy that keeps our eyes glued to the silverscreen.

If there’s eye candy, there’s also ear candy. Who didn’t memorize My Heart Will Go On that catapulted Celine Dion to meteoric heights? Who could forget ‘Til I Hear It from You in Empire Records/Stay in Reality Bytes/You Wanted More and Sway from American Pie/Out of Reach from Bridget Jones’ Diary? Lines from these songs pull our heartstrings, put some melody in it and it will kill us. Music is a big factor in movies. That’s why soundtracks sell as much as movies on video do. And oh, who didn’t have that fantasy of being serenaded with Growing Old with You and Kiss Me and I Wanna be with You?

Speaking of fantasies, we have conjured a lot in our minds. Scenes we make-up while we wallow in loneliness. The thing with romance is filmmakers can mix it nup with any genre. The Matrix trilogy cooked up Neo and Trinity as the main love team. Amores Perros showed Octavio’s unrequited love for Olivia in the end. Adam Sandler stole our hearts in the Wedding Singer. Drew made us kilig in Ever After and Never Been Kissed. Whether you love action, heavy drama or comedy, the world is not enough to fill with and mix-match these stories of love, unrequited or not.

More important of all, our sentiments and emotions are what these flicks depict. Whether about the-one-that-got-away or childhood sweethearts or relationships in the workplace or Romeo and Juliet-ish types of love, screenwriters can come up with more and more plots that we can relate to or make us think: “Heck. I hope that happens to me”

And while the world cries or laughs with theses movies, I’ll just sulk in a corner and wait for my own Mr. Big to come. [Lord, hint! Hint!]