Is it ever played that way? I mean stories where the obsessed stalker gets the object of his/her affection in the end – gets as in “I have her/his heart in my keeping,” not “I have her/him chained up in the basement” – and gets her/him by stalking or stalking-related activities, not because of some unconnected and impossible set of circumstances.
There’s an episode of Frasier called Desperately Seeking Closure where a woman breaks up with Frasier. He spends the episode calling repeatedly and showing up where he knows she’ll be to get her to tell him why they broke up and reconsider. Finally he realizes that he wasn’t broken up about her but about the lifestyle (she ran with a pretty famous crowd). But then she decided she liked him and wanted him back. She said she was unsure about the relationship but his persistent wooing made her realize how special he was. Of course then he still has to break up with him so it doesn’t actually work but it does work in that it makes her want him back…
Say Anything?
Michael Douglas snagged Catherine Zeta-Jones in real life by stalking her.
Had Joe Schmoe, rather than Mr. Bigshot Movie Star, stalked Ms. Zeta-Jones he’d wind up in Leavenworth of course.
The novel *Seven Types of Ambiguity * by Elliot Perlman.
An awful lot of rom-coms.
- You’ve Got Mail*? I don’t know if it’s exactly stalking, but it was sure pretty creepy.
Ok, I haven’t read it so I might be talking out of my ass, but didn’t Edward more or less stalk Bella in Twilight? Like, comes into her room to watch her sleep and other creepy shit?
Since the days of early talkies, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, this has been a constant theme in romantic comedies. ‘Keep persevering’. ‘She says no no, but she means yes, yes’. ‘Just keep on trying, she’ll see the light’. I HATE THIS. It’s carried over right into modern times. All I can think is, the audience needs the tension of will they/won’t they before the inevitable capitulation. And stupid women who think, well, he won’t take n-o for an answer, he must reeaallllly looooove me tee-hee! Not so cute in real life, my friends. It won’t be a lovestruck George Clooney stalking you…
Meg Ryan, who’s already engaged, stalks Tom Hanks in “Sleepless In Seattle.” But since it’s Meg Ryan, this is presented as cute, rather than as a betrayal of her perfectly nice fiance or as sick, compulsive behavior.
The line between creepy stalking and romantic gesture is whether the woman finds the guy attractive.
And Ben Stiller is one of SEVERAL guys stalking Cameron Diaz in “There’s Something ABout Mary.”
No, it’s usually more like a love-struck Clint Howard. Clint Howard in Ticks.
Exactly!
That’s not fair! She just can’t see the real me, dammit!
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! goes beyond stalking and into outright kidnapping.
Heh, and now I see that Wikipedia has this phenomenon covered.
Just what I was going to mention. And, like you, I’ve never read the books nor seen the movies, but my girlfriend (who LOVES them…sigh, they can’t all be perfect :p) pretty much said that yes, he does stalk her, but it’s ok, since he’s so sensitive and in love and knew the moment he saw her he was destined to be with her or some stupid crap like that.
My first girlfriend apparently stalked me before we got together and AFTER she dumped me.
She was such a sweet girl, it wasn’t until we met again after 20 years that I got the glimpse into the Bag O’ Crazy.
RomCom isn’t my favorite genre, but wasn’t there one where the woman (Sandra Bullock) stalks a guy right into his hospital room? She ended up not liking him post-coma, but did hook up with his brother. If I remember right, the brother is the same actor who gets dumped on in the dreary and definitely creepy “Sleepless In Seattle”.
Spared Meg Ryan, to end up with Sandra Bullock. Out of the frying pan …