Friday, April 29, 2016

The Major and the Minor (1942)


IMDb plot summary: A woman disguises herself as a child to save on a train fare and is taken in charge by an army man who doesn't notice the truth.
Directed by Billy Wilder. Starring Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, and Robert Benchley.

(Spoilers.)

It's hard to know how to feel about this movie. It's got Billy Wilder's trademark clever dialogue, and Ginger Rogers does a good job of playing a grown woman clueless about how 12-year-olds act. (I especially loved that they addressed that when an actual young teenager calls her out on her pretense.) But no matter how cleverly written it is or how many funny jokes there are, there's something skeevy and off-putting about a cheerful rom com about a grown man falling in love with someone he thinks is 12. Perhaps if it hadn't jumped straight to "Let's get married" at the end, perhaps if it had ended simply with her explaining and apologizing and them moving forward to get to know each other as adults, it might have been more palatable. But in the end, as much as this movie tried to get me to like it, there was too much "Ugh, that's uncomfortable" throughout for me to really love it.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Major and the Minor > A Little Night Music
The Major and the Minor < Argo
The Major and the Minor < A Separation
The Major and the Minor < Imitation of Life (1959)
The Major and the Minor < The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Major and the Minor > Inside Llewyn Davis
The Major and the Minor > When Strangers Click
The Major and the Minor < Matchstick Men
The Major and the Minor < The Scarlet and the Black
The Major and the Minor > Frankie Go Boom

Final spot: #1164 out of 2450.

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