What defines a 'jerk' anyway? He didn't treat anyone badly, he just doesn't have status or PUA skills, and he tries his best with his ignorance to get laid. It's not his fault the world is crazy and doesn't reward nice guys.
But a jerk? He just lacks information, and that makes his behaviour look a bit weird and foolish - he has probably seen 'cool guys' (charisma, or another form of status) put their arms around women and it having worked for them, so he's just trying all kinds of things on the vain hope that it works.
Phil is naturally way more 'jerk', but Phil has been put to a hellish timeloop-prison for decades, so it's not really a fair situation - of course Phil can be 'cool' in that situation, where he has no worries. If one thing doesn't work, there are no consequences, and he can try another.
I don't think Larry is a jerk, he's just an everyman 'nice guy' who doesn't have any PUA information, or knowledge about female psyche or psychology. Back in the day, this stuff was really difficult to research and come by. What should he have done instead of what he did to not be labeled a jerk?
If you try to pick up women without having any knowledge about what actually works and why, you're bound to do very similar things to what he did in this movie. This is actually a surprisingly realistic point, I was almost shocked to see Nancy reject him so realistically, just as would happen in real life in that situation. Movies don't always depict relationship-, or seduction dynamic this brutally realistically.
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bigbadwolf666 (4707)
3 years ago
This plot was trash. She gives it up to Phil over straight manipulation bullshit while he erroneously didn’t remember her name. She seemed like a hot single over the hill loner and ended up that way instead of putting two and two together and ending up with Larry who genuinely liked her and had nothing else. So a bad ending for both but a good ending for the narcissist and greedy ego Phil. A bad message for the movie.
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