Projects like this series (which we’re now halfway through!) are actually perfect for me, as my mind already organizes things into categories like “My Favorite…” or “The Very Best Of…” I arrange things thus all the time on the fly, but it’s also what my brain refuses to stop doing when I’m trying to fall asleep. (It’s not a pretty place, the inside of my head.) The point is, I’ve pretty much had the answer to a number of these memes at first read, and that’s definitely the case with today’s, “Favorite Title Sequence.” There isn’t even another I can think of, so well have I remembered the credits from My Best Friend’s Wedding since I saw the movie in the theater years ago.
Four young women, one dressed as a bride and the other three as her bridesmaids, dance about lip-synching to “Wishin’ and Hopin’.” The backdrop is a solid hot pink, the costumes and hairstyles evoke the early sixties era of the song, and the fresh faces and retro choreography are simple and precious. The girl who plays the bride is bubbly and adorable, and the whole sequence is nothing short of delightful. The only thing that all of this has to do with the movie it’s introducing, however, is that it also features music by Burt Bacharach. If you thought from this that you were about to see some fluffy Doris Day-type flick, then you would be in for a bit of a surprise.
Because the movie is as far from the innocent boy-meets-girl, fall-in-love-and-get-married story as you could get in a nineties romantic comedy. There’s no flattering and buttering up of men in this plot, waiting for the day when “you will be his.” The only character who resembles that sort of attitude is the actual bride, and though she’s not a villain or caricature in the end, she’s still not our protagonist. And it’s the heroine, Julianne – the messed-up girl who is hopping on a plane to break up the wedding of her best friend – with whom we identify.
Because for a generation (or two or three) of us, relationships are not as linear or simple as the song describes. Instead, we meet and make friends for awhile and then maybe something grows out of that before growing back into friendship. Sometimes, we hook-up after meeting at a bar or club and we somehow weave our way into each other’s lives from there, in whatever capacity we choose. Or, we build a life without a relationship at its center, having a network of people on whom we rely and with whom we form a family.
The original ending of My Best Friend’s Wedding had Julianne meeting a hot stranger at the wedding, tying the plot up in the neat little bow of romantic love and the fulfillment that comes from being half of a couple. Test audiences hated it. They wanted more of Rupert Everett (who can blame them), and they probably felt that it rang false. Because the movie is about giving up the dreams you have as a young adult and readjusting them to fit what you actually need now. It’s about being happy and fulfilled with the kind of life Julianne has at the end of the picture, even though one’s teenaged self had fantasies that were far more wishin’ and hopin.’
It’s ridiculously charming, no? It puts us in a brilliant place to receive the movie that’s to follow. To love the movie, you don’t have to disdain this incredibly romantic view of relationships that prefaces it; it’s got a great beat and it’s fun to dance to, and everyone loves pink.