Of course I know what a Chick Flick is, but today Mrs. Fear and I disagreed, so I leave it to the Teeming Millions. I say any romantic comedy, or romantic drama that centers primarily on human emotions and relationships is a Chick Flick. Anything with lasers, explosions or rocket ships is not a Chick Flick.
But Mrs. Fear says Fever Pitch is not a Chick Flick, by virtue of the fact that is has baseball in it. Now clearly, a romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore is a Chick Flick; does the incidental inclusion of a sports background change that?
Haven’t seen Fever Pitch, but I know what it’s generally about. The key question is this: Are the actual rules of baseball important to the plot? And if so, are they explained, or is it assumed that the audience already knows what they are?
My impression, by the way, was that Fever Pitch is a stone-cold Chick Flick. Isn’t it about her getting him to stop obsessing about baseball so much and find room in his life for love, or something like that?
But that is a different category of Chick Flick because the story revolves around women who are taking steps to make their own lives better. Empowerment is another Chick Flick theme.
It’s a matter of degree. The ultimate Chick Flick is one that appeals only to chicks. It’s wrong to assume men have zero interest in romance, human emotions, and relationships. A movie that explores such things from the male point of view (e.g. High Fidelity) is not a Chick Flick, or at least not all that much of one. But in a hardcore Chick Flick, these things are always presented strictly from the female point of view. Any men are either unsympathetic or one-dimensional—the other side of the coin from manly movies in which women are just there as eye candy, damsels in distress, etc.
I would argue that a “Chick flick” is a movie that is designed and marketed specifically to appeal to female moviegoers.
“Thelma and Louise” was not a true Chick Flick; while it appealed to women and was about women, it was more of a Kick Ass Bitches Movie - Note the prominent use of guns and a big explosion in the trailers - in the same group as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” or “Aliens,” which is a different kind of movie that invites men to enjoy lots of high-quality ass-kicking, the twist being that it’s chicks who are kicking the asses. (Actually, Thelma and Louise was about half Kick Ass Bitches Movie, and half Standard American Road Movie.)
“Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants” is a true Chick Flick, since it’s clear that from a marketing standpoint they aren’t even pretending to try to entice men to see it; the film is exclusively aimed at women, and if some drag their boyfriends along that’s just gravy.
Consequently, I would have to argue that “Fever Pitch” is not a Chick Flick. While it was primarily about romance and relationships, the film clearly was marketed to both men and women. Note that much of the second half of the trailer is baseball scenes, such as crowds cheering or David Ortiz smiting a home run. That’s clearly meant to excite male viewers.
I don’t know…there’s a whole lot of distance between say:
Bridget Jone’s Diary
Kate & Leopold
Maid in Manhattan
and
Steel Magnolias
Fried Green Tomatos
Joy Luck Club
The former I would call chick flicks. But the latter…well, regardless that the people who would watch these have girly bits, I’m not sure that the intended audience are people you would call “chicks.”
