Want to meet Mr. Right? Rent a movie

By Rikki McCormick
Poca High School

Men: You can’t live with ’em and you can’t live without ’em.

Once I think a man has broken all the traditional rules of chauvinism and stupidity, another one comes along and reinforces the fact that males know squat about romance. However, this is the very reason I love to sit down and watch a good, lovey-dovey, romantic movie.

If you sit me in front of a big-screen television with a romantic movie ready to go in the VCR, with lightly buttered popcorn in one hand and a box of tissues in another, I am one of the happiest people on earth. I get so involved in what I am watching that I can’t help becoming attached to the characters.

In a love story, all men are divided into two categories. Either the man is blatantly evil or he is a gallant knight in shining armor. There is no middle ground. Therefore, there is no confusion with the role of the male star. (This is not the case in real life.) Having no middle ground helps immensely, because then one doesn’t have to question the man’s motives and intentions every time he performs an action or opens his mouth.

Of course, as always, the woman ends up with the knight in shining armor. Everything works out and they live happily ever after. For a short time, I believe there is a man, somewhere out there, who fits the role the male star is playing. I hold on to the fact that there could be a man who will sweep me off my feet and carry me away into everlasting bliss.

Unfortunately, the movie always has to end, and I am forced back into reality. Nevertheless, I am satisfied, at least for a period of time, that men can’t be as bad as they seem. Yet, when men demonstrate in real life that things are less than perfect, I reflect on various movies to give me hope.

For example, if a man seems to have trouble saying those three special words, I think of the movie “Ghost.” At the end, Sam finally realizes how much Molly needed to hear those words and he tells her he loves her before he goes to heaven.

When the male species begins to wear on my nerves to the point of madness, all I need to do is watch a romantic movie. My mind is taken to a place where men act with chivalry, where “getting some” is not the top priority, and where a man’s honor and dignity keep him from doing something stupid.

A movie may not solve all my problems, but it will certainly get me through the one at hand.