MovieChat Forums > Happiness for Beginners (2023) Discussion > Typical Netflix Tropes on Incompetent Me...

Typical Netflix Tropes on Incompetent Men / Mary Sue Women


Movie is about a wilderness getaway and renewal of people who’ve had struggles in life. Men turned out to behave like sniveling adolescents and helpless fawns needing women to save them. Obligatory sashaying gay man caricature was also there. Woman never before in the woods becomes inexplicably proficient “Mary Sue” outdoorsman who could navigate at night on miles of Appalachian trail, administer life saving first aid, and bear blistering feet and lacerations without notice but for the warnings of her fellow hikers that she was profusely bleeding. There is a prolonged scene emphasizing that the male hiking guide is embarrassingly incapable of accomplishing an outdoor skill he imposes on the novice hikers. The dumb blond character gives a soliloquy where she suddenly reveals herself a savvy stock trader with expert-level knowledge of the markets. (Her boastful male stockbroker counterpart turns out to be an insecure charlatan). It was so over the top it morphed into one of those HR training vignettes where the men are repulsive idiots and only the women know how to behave like normal human beings

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I thought it was cute for what it was! Just a light hearted silly feel good movie

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I’m happy you enjoyed it FF1. As you can tell, it was not a feel good movie for me

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I was able to enjoy it , despite being one of the downtrodded persecuted males .
In fact i dint even notice i was being insulted!

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Luke Grimes was at least, a redeemable male character but even he had to be rescued by Hellen. I hated that scene where she, suddenly the expert outdoor survivalist, finds him in the middle of the foggy woods, crouched behind a tree sobbing uncontrollably. I knew what I was getting into though. The director, writer, editor, and original novelist were all women and they assembled a story of suited to their imagination. Male filmmakers have done the same with female characters in many movies too. I have no patience for the shallowness from either perspective.

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I found it to be quite the opposite of everything you said.

It's clear that the main character is very flawed, and by no means a Mary Sue. I think the other characters aren't developed to the point where you can determine them as "Mary" or "Gary" Stu's.

"There is a prolonged scene emphasizing that the male hiking guide is embarrassingly incapable of accomplishing an outdoor skill he imposes on the novice hikers." I didn't see it that way. The male characters are shown as capable, strong leaders throughout, and the women contribute as much as they can to help out and take charge when needed.

If you're talking about that one scene where they cater to the injury, I thought that was more just to emphasize that the male character they're with may be highly skilled in hiking and boasts about it, but is not as knowledgeable regarding aid to medical incidents. Aren't women seen as more of the nurse/caregiving types throughout history anyways? I don't see that as "women smart men dumb."

"bear blistering feet and lacerations without notice." She did notice though. She also had to get help from a man for it. She was made the butt of jokes constantly as the one who kept messing up.

" who could navigate at night on miles of Appalachian trail." They've received training and practice. Time has been passing by, she didn't just learn it over night.

"administer life saving first aid." I mean, she wasn't the only one. She got help from everyone. I don't think they were trying to portray her as a professional or anything. A lot of people try to use whatever they know in dire need.

I actually appreciated that this movie didn't seem to be agenda driven (other than some small comments like "not liking capitalism," and as a Christian I'm not into the whole "mother nature" worship, but it doesn't offend me or anything.) and instead just told a fun, clean story.

Yeah, the "sassy gay" trope is completely worn out, but it didn't bother me too much in here.

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Thank you for this thoughtful and respectful rebuttal. I’ll think about what you wrote and see if it changes my mind

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Typical fragile man that can't stand not being the center of attention. My God, how do you go through life without complaining about how much of a victim you are.

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Some people read WAY too much into things in order to validate their own beliefs.

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Maybe you’re right and I overthought it. I get too annoyed at fake one dimensional characters.

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Understandable, thank you for an open mind. I'm guilty of overthinking everything.

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OP didn't like a movie, and explained why. That makes him a fragile man/center of attention/victim?

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What did you think of the movie?

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I do not care for Netflix's rom-coms.

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What don’t you like about them?

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Not my thing. I saw Ellie Kemper on the poster and I was curious. I loved her work on Unbreakable...

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Come on sis, this is definitely not a Netflix only trope...a lot of other networks do things like this now. Just look at the Mario movie.

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No debate from me Leader.

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