Well, friends it appears that the mind-meltingly irritating cinematic archetype that is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl isn’t going anywhere. Just yesterday I got in a DVD called The Last Word. I couldn’t find a trailer for it on Youtube. The only link I could find for it was to a clip called Winona Ryder-The Last Word-Bouncing Boobs. I will not degrade the integrity of The A.V Club nor appeal shamelessly to the prurient interests of readers by linking to said clip so instead I’m going to give you a taste of what this masterpiece of the cinematic arts is all about via the summary on its back cover:
An odd but gifted poet, Evan Merck (Wes Bentley, American Beauty), makes his living writing suicide notes for the soon-to-be-departed. So when he meets Charlotte (Winona Ryder, Girl Interrupted) the free-spirited sister of his latest client, Evan has no choice but to lie about his relationship to her late, lamented brother. Curiously attracted by his evasive charms, a smitten Charlotte begins her pursuit, forcing Evan to juggle an amorous new girlfriend, a sarcastic new client (Ray Romano, Everybody Loves Raymond), and an ever-increasing mountain of lies.
Sweet blessed Lord. I didn’t think it was possible for a MPDG movie to feature a profession more nauseatingly quirky than breakfast-bar clerk. I was wrong. Now might be a good time to note the inherent passivity of male protagonists in these movies. They’re almost invariably too filled with ennui and depression to make the first move so it falls upon MPDGs to court them in the kookiest fashion imaginable.
Judging by the below trailers, Zooey Deschanel looks to be the new face of the MPDG. Watch and cringe. Also, thanks to Carl T. Luft for bringing the "500 Days of Summer" trailer to my attention via Twitter.
Where will it end?