Thursday, June 26, 2014

What Happens In Vegas

What happens in Vegas is a movie about a girl who gets dumped and a guy who is having a hard time getting onto his feet that meet in Vegas and have a wild night. They end up getting married in Vegas and get into a pickle that involves them fighting over a large amount of money but having to stick to their accidental marriage in the process. They end up falling in love through their ups and downs. This movie rated a C on the Representation Test.
There is a woman playing a lead role who is Cameron Diaz. She is not colored nor does she have a diverse body type. She is young but not too young. Her best friend, who is also a main character, is beautiful and young as well.
Cameron Diaz is 36 in the movie and Kutcher is only 30. Though the Rep takes into account the fact that not many lead roles are held for people in the age of 45 to 50 or older, the plot of this movie makes much more sense in having younger people play the roles. This is relevant because Kutcher works for his father in the movie and neither of them are married. Vegas is also a place that is more prominent to have younger people there. You are less likely to see a 50 year old in Vegas rather than someone who is 30. With this being said, according to the article, Leading Men Age, But Their Love Interests Don't, many men in movies are older than the actress they are in a romantic relationship with. This does not apply to What Happens In Vegas because Cameron Diaz is older than Kutcher which emotionally permutes the fact that it is okay to be an older woman to get married and it is also okay to marry a younger man. It takes away the number of age from effecting a loving relationship.
I also think this movie does a good job of incorporating female and male friendships in the movie. According to filmschoolrejects.com, many movies fail the Bechdel test even though they have important female characters. What happens In Vegas shows a lot of Diaz's relationship with Kutcher but also shows many scenes consisting of displaying her strong relationship with her best friend and how her best friend helps her through issues throughout the movie. This applies emotionally to girls in the audience because friends play an important role in our lives. They also show Kutcher and his friend working through issues together a lot as well. It shoes each female and male relationship in everyday activity such as working out or going to lunch. This is also a logical approach because movies that do not display friendships are not being realistic because things that happen between friends are typically huge parts of people's lives. Especially people of that age that are not settled down with a family.
With this being said, the "best friendships" do not involve conversation other than relationship ups and downs. The girls even go to Vegas to get rid of all of their worries about men.
The movie does not do a good job of incorporating a person of color or diffract racial ethnicity in the movie. They do not have a person of color playing an important role or even in the role of cast members online. This is what really lowered the movies score. They did not have a male or female person of color. Therefore they were not really able to stereotype anyone in the movie which gave them a point, but you can't really stereotype anyone in the movie when there isn't anyone to give a stereotype too. There were way to many white actors in the movie that could have easily been played by anyone of another racial background.
Also, both of the main characters are great looking people and decently young, but they did include one of the main best friends who is a good guy, but not the best looking guy.
I was not surprised by the results but I never really paid attention to any of it until I studied it in the Bechdel test system. After analyzing it deeply, what surprised me the most was the lacking of actors of color. It is disappointing that they did not incorporate different races into the movie when they easily could have.
I do believe this overall is a far scoring system when it comes to everything besides dealing with people that have disabilities. I think that a little bit of it takes into account of people with disabilities. Although it is not fair, it is hard sometimes to incorporate a person with a disability into a main role because they may not be capable of comprehending or physically caring out something that they need to do for the part. I guess it all really depends on how you interpret the term "disability."
Though I really enjoy the plot of this movie, when it comes to the Bechdel test and Representation Test I give this movie a one because they do a decent job of including female and female friendships but do a terrible job of including actors of different races or even adding someone of disability.

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