Saturday, September 3, 2022

Barefoot (2014)

  I don't even think I can blame Christy for this one.  I think Netflix recommended it to me and they were wrong and should be ashamed of themselves.

Jay Wheeler (Scott Speedman) is a perennial fuck-up who owes a ton of money to a loanshark and has to work in a state psychiatric hospital as part of his probation.  He lies to his parents, telling them he's gotten his life back on track and even gotten a girlfriend with a respectable job as a nurse.  Which immediately blows up in his face when they ask to meet her at his brother's wedding in New Orleans.  Fortunately, a new patient named Daisy (Evan Rachel Wood) is being admitted and she's hot so Jay springs her from the clink and takes her with him to impress his dad (Treat Williams).

There's a trope called Born Sexy Yesterday.  You see it a lot with movies about AI or aliens, where a sexually mature woman has the naivety of a child and relies completely on the male protagonist for everything.  That's what's happening here.  Daisy is completely untutored in the ways of the world and clings to Jay like a strawberry blonde dryer sheet.  He gets to be her knight-in-shining-armor, her father figure, and her love interest by virtue of the fact that she's never even met another man her age before.  It's an incel's idea of a love story.

Otherwise, it follows every cliched story beat in every other rom-com you've ever seen, to include the "post-makeover pause at the top of a staircase so the male love interest can see her as if for the first time" bit.  Jay is an unlikeable character and the main message of the story is that rich white dudes have zero consequences.  It's a no from me.

Barefoot is currently streaming on Netflix.  Avoid, and watch The Sandman instead.

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