For the first time since 2014 this Valentines Day will be devoid of Christian Grey. While the Fifty Shades Of Grey movie franchise technically skipped a year in 2016 last V Day it delivered Fifty Shades Freed the final installment in the BDSM-laden trilogy that took the spirit of Valentines Day from wholesome romance to blood-red lust. 2019 Valentines Day offerings Is not It Romantic and What Men Want are of a decidedly different genre absurdity.
Out February 13 Is not It Romantic feels like a direct reaction to the Netflix enabled return of the romantic comedy this past summer. Rebel Wilson bumps her head only to find herself inside the cliche world of your most cookie cutter rom coms skewering the genre while inevitably falling prey to its charming tropes. The key difference is that Wilsons Natalie is frustratingly aware of her participation in these hallmarks alas she falls in love anyway. The movie is in on the joke and it encourages playful skepticism of the whole conceit. What Men Want released on February 8 has a similar premise woman bumps her head and ends up in a magical situation in a gender flipped take of the Mel Gibson classic but uses it not to bond with men but to get ahead of them now thats a Valentines Day message I can get behind.
If you look at the past ten years, however we are due for this perspective. Recent Valentines movies have previously been rigidly serious. You are not supposed to giggle when Anastasia Steele Dakota Johnson asks What are butt plugs? in Fifty Shades 2015 debut even if you do and 2012s Valentines tribute The Vow certainly does not pause for laughter during Paiges Rachel McAdams coma. However that is not to say Fifty Shades was not its own genre revolution.
The Vow which starred McAdams and Channing Tatum and was released on February 10 2012 ended up grossing $196 million worldwide at the box office. It was exactly what audiences wanted to snuggle up and cry to during the romantic holiday. In 2013 Nicholas Sparks Safe Haven pulled in a respectable $97 million. Like The Vow it is painfully romantic filled with dark pasts and fraught relationships but perhaps Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel did not have the same star power to bring in that additional $100 million.
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