Radical Romantic Comedy

I found the movie 10 to be more of a radical romantic comedy in that it followed "the basic framework [of] boy meets, loses, [and then] regains girl...." (Page 72)

George and Samantha have had a relatively stable relationship until George turns 42.  He looks back on the last two years as if he’s dying since he says he's an invalid now. We see him in a midlife the night of his party as he renounces the adage "Life begins at 40" since he feels life has ended. He loves living vicariously through his neighbor since he's constantly observing the sexual activity that goes on there and he’s not satisfied with his own sex life which is part of the reason he’s a peeping tom. And being young is a recurring theme in the movie.  He tells a therapist he would settle for being at least thirty and would even consider trading places with his gay co-writer’s partner if it mean being young and virile once again. He’s become obsessed with age and looks that he goes off to find Jenny, the one who can restore his manhood.

Samantha is not the traditional woman since she knows what George uses his telescope for and is able to accept it without making a big deal about it. She's a strong willed woman who’s able to bring up the issues that bother her and can see sex for what it is without being naive about it. As the viewer, you get the sense that she knows George would stray from their relationship.  For when George sees Jenny and follows her to the church, the song that Samantha sings in the background  says it all:

Why is it I never doubt him

Then I've known all along

Now and then the very best of men must roam

Sure I get lonely without him

But a man, right or wrong

The more you bind him

The less you find him home.

Samantha isn’t one to fool and you would be damned if you tried to pull a fast one on her.  She’s a progressive woman for her time - a romantic who is also realistic.

George seems to be stuck in the 50’s - 60’s era and really isn’t the “man” out of the three main characters.  Jenny is just the huntress Samantha is.  George isn’t the hunter – he becomes the hunted. He daydreams of running into Jenny and having this romantic encounter filled with passionate and emotional sex when it’s typically the woman who fills this role. The roles are reversed in this movie. It’s Jenny who puts the moves on him and is ready and willing to sleep with him. When George realizes it’s not her first time sleeping around and that he won’t be her last, he’s disillusioned with the whole idea, just like a woman would be. There’s nothing romantic about it anymore and he’s no longer that naïve about women, young or older. He’s sort of matured at this point.

Jenny’s comfortable with her sexuality that she’s able to share an intimate moment just like a man can, which brings to mind 2011’s Friends with Benefits and the possibility for a woman to be sexually involved with a man without the strings attached. Friends with Benefits is indicative of today’s modern women who is not always looking to be in a relationship, or married for that matter, and that they can still be respectable women just like men without adding the extra baggage to their lives. But it’s the man in the 60’s and even of today’s time that are expecting to have their cake and eat too without expecting for the woman to do the same.  It’s a double standard that continues to play both in movies and in real life.