Tonight, continuing with my quixotic quest to see as many movies this summer, I caught Wicker Park. Whoever did the marketing of this movie should never be entrusted again with that job in Hollywood. I had seen the trailers and the commercials expecting another psycho, obsessed woman movie. Yet, it wasn’t like that at all. Yes, there seemed to be a pyschotic, love obsessed woman, but was she really. The marketing had it all wrong, and I haven’t been pleasantly surprised by a movie this year until now.
This movie begins with the cliched “love at first sight,” moves to blissful love, then evolves towards obsession. Josh Hartnett’s character follows that trajectory. But does he? Is his obsession to find the girl that was the one an example of a maniacal mind? Why is he so obsessed with finding her? Then the “crazy” girl is introduced, and we find out that she too follows the same trajectory. But does she? Is her obsession for Hartnett’s character an example of a craze, obsessed woman? Why is she obsessed with him? The movie answers these questions in an interesting way. Twisting the story this way. Flashing back to tell the story with a dash of Roshomon-like tale. It is hard to pin point, but was amusing to watch unravel on the screen.
By the end of the movie, we see that both character’s followed the same path, but one’s obsession was real and was pay back with a deserving end, and the other’s was hopeless and heartbreaking. Do you believe in love at first sight?
4 of 5 stars.
