“The Girl” is of course a classic role in which an actress is hired to play the role of a woman whom the hero is attracted to. She doesn’t have a specific identity, she is “The Girl” a role that’s pretty much the same in any movie she appears in.
I’m going to nominate “Next” for the most egregious modern appearance of “The Girl.” When we see Jessica Biel the first few times, she almost has Disneyesque bluebirds and bunny rabbits floating around her. She serves no purpose in the movie other than to be mooned after by Nicholas Cage and later to be a DiD. (I’m not dissing Biel’s performance here, she had nothing much to work with in the role and probably did about as well as anyone could with it.)
Worse yet, the movie dragged noticeably whenever “The Girl” subplot occurred, and it occurred a LOT in Next, almost obliterating the main plot about nuclear terrorists. The movie would have been one hell of a lot better if they had left out “The Girl” entirely and focussed on precognitive Nicholas Cage who can only see two minutes into the future, vs. terrorists with a nuke. The movie was a lot more exciting and interesting whenever that plotline dominated.
90% of leading women pretty much just play The Girl in every movie, it should be noted. The one which seemed the most demeaning to the actress, that I’ve ever seen, was probably The Peacemaker. For as much as Kidman might not be the best actress ever, it was really sad to watch her act like a dumb blond and serve almost no purpose beyond as someone to sit there and gasp and clap her hands each time George Clooney did something impressive.
Admittedly, it wasn’t much different from a Bond Girl sort of role, but you don’t see A-list actresses serving as Bond Girls generally.
I’m drawing a blank as far as movies go, but in the realm of animation: Dib had a dream of growing up on Invader Zim, where at some points he had a girl on his arm who literally did nothing but smile and look pretty. Granted, said character was a roughly ten-year-old boy in the middle of an induced wish-fulfillment fantasy wherein he could also fly and shoot lasers from his eyes, but there ya go.
I have a long-standing theory that Nicolas Cage’s Hollywood career, much like Joaquin Phoenix’s rap efforts, is an enormous practical joke perpetrated on unsuspecting moviegoers. He named his son Kal-El, ferchrissake!
“Kara Zor-el” might be a better name for a child. At that point, you can just use the first name and let people guess about the Z without getting your butt kicked on the playground too much.
I’m scratching my head trying to remember the particular movie, but I recall one a few years back, quasi-mideval in setting, that not only had a Girl, but one that my co-watchers and I wondered just what the various other characters found remotely attractive about her. She was decent-looking, but really, really vapid, and people were supposed to be head-over-heals, go-out-and-defeat-all-other-warriors for her. I think that sort-of thing should be worth extra points.
That’s bound to be “A Knight’s tale”, starring Heath Ledger, with some Angelina Jolie-looking actress playing the insanely boring love interest. Funny thing is that at some point a female character with actual personality traits (the medieval world’s only girl smith) joins the cast, and I was convinced up until the ending that Ledger would ditch the Angelina for her at some point. He doesn’t.
Teri Polo in Meet the Parents. She was little more than a generically pretty maguffin for Stiller and DeNiro to fight over. There wasn’t any sense of chemistry or attraction between her and Stiller.
Yes! That’s exactly the one I was looking for. Now, to be fair, I hate that movie a lot for other reasons, but in the dinner discussion afterwords my friends and I all agreed that the Girl had everything going for her that a wet coloring book does.
Betty Ross in The Incredible Hulk, but I know that from the comics.
I don’t think remembering character names are all that important. I can’t remember names for a lot of lead characters.
Liv played the lead role in The Strangers–she had more screentime than her character’s boyfriend. She pretty much carried the movie, I think. Not a great movie, but she was convincing.
She was great in One Night at McCool’s. She wasn’t just playing “The Girl” in that, either.
Shannon Sossamyn I believe was her name - she was a DJ or something and got picked for a Josh Hartnett movie and was supposed to be a Next Big Starlet - but went nowhere. Which has never happened before.
Seriously, every year it seems like there are about 50 new ones foisted on us. They each get maybe one or two more roles. Then - poof! Gone.
I’m imagining there is a club in Hollywood somewhere where they induct a new class every year (sorts like a sports hall of fame, but it’s a hall of not-fame).
