While out in San Diego, Ariel and I took in “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.” I have to admit going in, I’m a sucker for Uma Thurman and Eddie Izzard. So I was predisposed to enjoy it, plus we had a good audience, plus my leg was hurting so I was doped up on Vicodin and probably would have applauded a Bush press conference. Thus I have to cop to the fact that I liked it, or at least I think I did.
But–and I’m probably going to do a more detailed “But I Digress” on this later–I find it interesting that fans deplored the scene in “Superman Returns” wherein our hero uses his X-ray vision and superhearing to spy on Lois and her family. “He’s stalking her” was the cry, and that was universally seen as A Very Bad Thing. But Thurman’s G-Girl not only stalks the boyfriend who dumps her because she’s a controlling, needy flake. She harasses him, destroys his property, and dámņëd near kills him. And it’s a comedy. It occurred to me that if you flipped the genders–if it was a girlfriend being harassed by an unrelentingly angry super boyfriend–there is absolutely no way it’s a comedy. It’s…I dunno…a thriller. A horror film. Anything except a comedy, because pìššëd øff girlfriend goes after guy = comedy, unless, y’know, the ex is Glenn Close. But if it’s pìššëd øff boyfriend going after girl, the threat aspect will completely overwhelm whatever comedy you’re going for.
You can do a comedy with a girl going after a guy (Super-Ex). You can do a comedy about a group of girls going after a guy (John Tucker Must Die). You can even do a comedy about a girl going after another girl or group of girls (Bad Girls). But a guy going after a girl who done him wrong? *Is* there a comedy–at least a successful one–ever made on that theme?
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