Who's Rescuing Whom?

Chuck applauds the role reversal in Two Weeks Notice

By Chuck Nice

I've never purported to be a truly sensitive man. I'm more of a dichotomy than anything else: I'm just as comfortable shopping for shoes, as I am kicking back with a beer and watching a football game with my boys. That's why I find it oddly amusing that I have to watch chick flicks in order to do Cinematherapy. You see, I don't like chick flicks. I find them a little boring and emotionally manipulative - and if I want to be emotionally manipulated I'll call my mother, she's the best.


So I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really liked the movie Two Weeks Notice, starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. The story revolves around billionaire George Wade (Hugh Grant) and his newly hired legal advisor Lucy Kelson (Sandra Bullock). George is a typical playboy who runs through women and toys like I run through a bottle of scotch during a visit from my in-laws (don't worry -- they don't read this blog). He's more in need of a nanny than he is chief legal counsel and he finds both in Lucy, who is a brilliant lawyer and a bleeding heart social activist. George is interminably charming and easy on the eyes, but he's insufferably childish and a selfish boss. The breaking point for Lucy comes when George calls her away from her best friend's wedding to ask which suit he should wear to a function, which causes her to give her two weeks notice. Of course in that time they both realize that they are in love, but it may be too little too late - I'm not going to play spoiler.

I liked this movie because although it was replete with every chick flick mechanism, it was still funny and entertaining. I also liked the hidden message that you won't find in many chick flicks: Women want to rescue a man. Okay before you take to the streets with torches calling for my head on a stake, just hear me out. The biggest myth that's still perpetuated in movies is the "knight in shining armor," who saves the damsel in distress. Listening to today's music you hear female artists loudly declaring their financial and emotional independence. Television shows and movies like Sex and the City, The Women, and Lipstick Jungle portray strong female characters who handle life on their own terms; and, in real life, women are graduating from college at a much higher rate than men and the prospect of a woman President is no longer an absurdity. The 1950's myth that a woman's survival depends on a man has long since gone the way of the poodle skirt. But the caring, nurturing nature of a woman is something I hope will never diminish no matter what advances the gender makes as a whole, because it is human nature. Seeing the good in someone, despite their not seeing it in themselves and wanting to cultivate those qualities, is as natural as Richard Simmons wearing striped short shorts. Even when men watch a sporting event (excuse the cliché) with no rooting interest in the game, we inevitably root for the team that has been pegged to lose, the underdog. It's just who we are as humans: We want to see David triumphing over Goliath, an ordinary citizen taking City Hall or M.C. Hammer making a comeback.

Betting on an underdog is always risky business but the payoff is always more handsome. For women, that risk can often lead to the embarrassment of friends and relatives saying I told you so, or the feeling of investing so much in a relationship that you can't let it fail. But the pay-off of success is the feeling that you are responsible for shaping and making a man out of boy. Some would say stay away from any man who needs work -- look we all need work -- but there's work and then there's a full on rehab. There's nothing wrong with a fixer-upper; believe me, I live in one and I couldn't be happier with the results. But those results came with a lot of hard work and tears and now I live in a beautiful home. So I say don't be put off by a man that might need a little effort to get him on the track that you want; just make sure he wants to be on that track as well... and as in the case of Lucy Kelson, it won't hurt if he's a billionaire.