Day 72: Post Grad (2009)

I was at home tired and somewhat burnout from movie-watching and had no desire to watch any of the films I had on my list to watch. While in the kitchen I noticed this DVD on the counter - presumably rented by one of my sisters. I had never heard of the film before, but I recognized Alexis Bledel and decided that a chick flick was about the extent of movie watching that I could take for the day.

Ryden has her whole life planned out, but when she loses her dream job to her arch-nemesis, her car gets wrecked and she loses her dream apartment she is forced to return home to live with her eccentric family while she looks for another job.

This film is so bad in so many ways, I don't even know where to start. The first problem is that the film doesn't know what it wants to do with itself. It puts Ryden back at home with her family, all of whom are eccentric, and all of whom need a subplot of their own, which deludes the film as they try to tie each subplot off, taking away time from Ryden's story. Ryden's best friend is a guy who is in love with her, by Ryden is unaware or doesn't care, and he isn't in the majority of the film. Ryden's family has a hot older Brazilian neighbour who Ryden falls for, and who, inexplicably, also falls for Ryden.

The film could easily have been good had it focused on the trouble of getting a job for a post grad in today's market - it's a reality faced by a lot of people, and could work as a film. The problem is that they diverge from this almost instantly and try to fit in as many chick flick cliches as posssible - the best friend whose in love with her but she fails to notice, the attractive older guy, the dysfunctional family, and the biggest one of all - that despite her best efforts, nothing goes her way.

I would have been fine with the film being so overly predictable and cliche, except for the ending. So Ryden has had her life planned out from childhood - do well in high school, get scholarship, keep scholarship, graduate, and get job at company X. She, of course, doesn't get job at company X, but, wait for it, company X calls her near the end of the film and hires her! It's a wonderful world after all! Her dreams have come true! She must be thrilled! BUT WAIT! She decides that despite having no car, no money, and only just found a job that she is going to throw it all away and move to NYC to follow her bestfriend because she realizes she loves him. WHAT?! What kind of moral is this? It teaches girls that their dreams are second to that of love. Throw away a dream job for a guy? Move to NYC with no money and no job? I hope love will pay for food and a place to sleep, because NYC is far from cheap. Worst message ever. Love may be important, but so are dreams. What terrible trash.