As audiences, we care about the lives of movie characters. This is why relationships are part of what makes movies great. The connections between characters give us something to root for and empathize with. As most of us know, rejection is an unfortunate feature of many relationships. In film, these rejections can impact both the audience and the narrative. Indeed, some on-screen breakups have given women in film some outstanding roles to explore.
Let’s dive into a few of the relationship rejection styles in cinema.
Going to Extremes
Rejection can certainly spur some of our most extreme emotions. Some filmmakers choose to show the aftermath of a breakup as emotional behavior at its most volatile. A prime example of this is Fatal Attraction. This movie is often dismissed as a depiction of a psychotically “clingy” woman who can’t let go following a rejection at the end of an affair. In many ways, it can be seen as an instance of Hollywood studios’ hunger to achieve attention-grabbing shocks rather than focusing on rich but small moments.
Yet, Glenn Close’s performance is the most interesting aspect to examine in the movie. There is nuanced pacing in her character’s transition from attraction to desire to obsession. At the point of rejection, the filmmakers chose to focus on an almost comically extreme display of violent behavior. But this doesn’t change the fact that Close was committed to an emotional depth. She showed her character drowning — at one point almost literally — in destructive tendencies. It’s an extreme treatment of rejection, but one its female lead strived to apply some authenticity to.
Moving Away and Moving On
The rejection styles depicted on film are not always defined by the moment at which a breakup or rejection occurs. Rather, it’s often most useful and cathartic when movies depict the recovery process from the rejection. There have been popular films in the past couple of decades that display the emotional struggles in the wake of this disruption and the characters’ ability to overcome them.
This is usually approached through a very literal device of moving to a new home or city. Most people are familiar with how emotionally turbulent the process of moving can be in and of itself. Unfamiliar surroundings, being uprooted from a comfortable space, and the fact of change can all be challenging. Under the Tuscan Sun goes some way to depict how the character’s — played by Diane Lane — choice to move to Tuscany following her divorce both drives and complicates the positive changes in her life.
Lane’s character works through the difficult emotional elements of both her divorce and her move while building a new community around her. Though a featured burgeoning relationship fails, the overriding message is one of hope for the future.
Long Term Breakdown
Rejection in movie relationships isn’t always the short, sharp shock that can be the source of quick and easy drama. Couples often cohabit for a significant period of time before they get married; if they chose to do so at all. Indeed, the process of living together before, during, and after marriage can exacerbate tensions in relationships. These can make for interesting and moving on-screen examinations.
Marriage Story accentuates the experience of pain both parties feel through the process of their separation and divorce. Scarlett Johansson’s character, Nicole, is shown at first to prefer an amicable split before revealing the true depths of pain, betrayal, and rejection she felt throughout her marriage. The disruptive and toxic divorce process she experiences serves to magnify the pain both she and her on-screen husband experience.
To some extent, The Breakup also shows the emotional trauma of a prolonged rejection process. Indeed, it often features as one of the saddest breakup depictions in cinema. The characters’ shared ownership of a property shackles them together, exacerbating the damage caused by their basic incompatibility. It is only at the end of the movie when they have finally gained some distance from one another that they each find personal happiness and respect for one another.
Conclusion
Rejection in a relationship is difficult at the best of times. Movies tend to show this at its most emotionally turbulent. However, it is often the efforts of the female leads that help to explore the true emotional depths audiences can relate to.