Hitch
“Basic principles: no woman wakes up saying ‘God, I hope I don’t get swept off my feet today!’ Now, she might say ‘This is not a good time for me,’ or something like ‘I’m really into my career right now,’ and my personal favorite, ‘I’m focusing on me.’ You believe that? Neither does she. You know why? Because she’s lying to herself, that’s why. You understand me? She’s lying! It’s not that now isn’t the right time for her. She doesn’t need space. And she may be into her career, but what she’s really saying to you is ‘Uh, get away from me now,’ or possibly, ‘Try harder, stupid.’ But which is it? Sixty percent of all human communication is nonverbal, body language; thirty percent is your tone. So that means that ninety percent of what you’re saying ain’t coming out of your mouth. Of course she’s going to lie to you! She’s nice! She doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. What else is she going to say? She doesn’t even know you… yet. Luckily, it’s a fact that just like the rest of us, even a beautiful woman doesn’t know what she wants until she sees it, and that’s where I come in. My job is to open her eyes. Basic principles: no matter what, no matter when, no matter who… any man has a chance to sweep any woman off her feet. He just needs the right broom.” – Alex Hitchens (Hitch)
Some films don’t have a WOW! effect… they can pass as simply likable. However, not infrequently in those films (which you watched earlier), with age, you begin to pay less attention to the plot, and more to details that used to escape you, like the true meaning of some sentences or the heroes’ body language, and some life lessons “hidden” in the film slowly reveal themselves to you.
Believe it or not, “Hitch” is one such film.
“Hitch” (often translated for us as “Love Doctor”) is, at first glance, a standard representative of the romcom genre, i.e., romantic comedy. Likable and attractive main heroes, their goofy friends, predictable plot, mutual attraction, beginning of love, misunderstanding and conflict, resolution, happy ending, comedy, likable music…
However, beneath all that (predictable) lemonade, there hides a deeper story about love, and male-female relationships in general.
Meet Alex Hitchens (Hitch). For the public, he presents himself as a marketing consultant and brand manager, but he’s actually a “love doctor.” He helps men win the women they care about, but can’t do so on their own due to some circumstances (they’re shy, clumsy, antisocial, unnoticeable and similar). Alex teaches these men how to behave in the company of women (etiquette, communication) and, what’s most important, how to create circumstances for women to notice them. He does his job in secrecy (takes jobs only through referrals), earns nicely and occasionally enjoys himself with women in the meantime.
However, the situation for self-confident Alex gets complicated when he takes on his next client – clumsy chubby accountant Albert Brennaman, who is in love with a client of his firm, famous and attractive (and wealthy) “celebrity” personality Allegra Cole, and thinks only of her.
Alex, although aware of how difficult this challenge is, agrees to help Albert, delighted by his kindness and sincere emotions toward Allegra.
Simultaneously, Alex meets Sara Melas, who has her own gossip column in a newspaper, is a cynical workaholic and has no problem “reading” cliché approaches from men toward her. Alex’s moves toward her “don’t land” and he unconsciously starts revealing his true nature to her, and cynical and skeptical Sara doesn’t remain immune to his intellect and humor, and especially that other side of his personality.
But in the film (as in life), things tumble, circumstances get tangled and some words get taken out of context, and things get complicated for our participants. The question is – can Alex resolve the tangled situation… and does he even know as much about love as he thought?
And you’ll find that out if you watch the film “Hitch.”
What are the “stars” of this film? There are several, but I’d mention three “abstract” ones:
Alex Hitchens as a character – An inexperienced eye might think Alex is some kind of pickup artist… you already know who they are. Although as a man I (probably) should stand somewhat in their defense, my profession and what I focus on in helping people doesn’t allow me to. Because today pickup artists are men who try to “teach” other men, using some elements of manipulation and quasi-psychology (they would say just psychology, but that’s not quite right), to successfully and quickly create (sexual) attraction with a woman (most often through provocations to slightly shake her confidence and intrigue her) which should end in sex… and if love happens by chance, great, but that’s (really) not their primary goal. Alex is, interestingly, their opposite (this is precisely shown in one particular scene). He helps men who want a lasting relationship and who are in love with a specific woman, by teaching them how to create opportunities for the woman to notice them, as well as how they should behave on the first two or three dates. He teaches them what qualities they need, how to pay attention to the woman, body language… after that, everything is on the man and how he’ll continue the relationship. Likewise, Alex, although he seems from the outside like a confident smooth-talking seducer, is in fact a good and vulnerable soul, who made love into a business that in the background has a noble motive (however strange this sounds) – not to allow men to be hurt and/or miss and/or lose love because of their ignorance and insecurity… as happened to himself as a young man. Likewise, jerks who want tricks to pick up women, he’ll dismiss without problem.
Love – We’re so burdened with some “rules” about love and how we should behave, what approach women should have and what approach men should have, that we must be “something else” rather than what we are, we forget the basic rule… “all is fair in love and war”… and if all is fair, then there are no rules! People lose authenticity, play something else, and then two souls meet who don’t know how to behave spontaneously and sincerely. Rules in love don’t exist. Psychology can help you improve your love and prevent some problems, but it can’t give you (especially “scrambled quasi-psychology”) a foolproof approach to a woman’s or man’s heart… and that’s something Alex finally realizes too… but likewise, however spontaneous love is and however there are no rules, sometimes circumstances must happen… or be created… for someone to notice you. Do you think that’s manipulation? It’s not. But if you consider creating circumstances to be manipulation… I have shocking news for you, then everything in life is manipulation. This particular scene perfectly shows how, on one hand, there are no rules in love and how important it is to be authentic, and on the other, how circumstances in life are also important.
Male-female (and generally interpersonal) relationships – “Hitch” very nicely shows that, although (painful) experiences teach us (hard) lessons, we should be cautious at first with people, but not rush to conclusions and prejudices, because however experienced or intuitive you think you are… you don’t always know everything. And you need to be patient when building a relationship, time needs to pass, and you need to fall in love with the person because of what is sincere and vulnerable and imperfect and spontaneous and clumsy in them.
Of course, the actors deserve mention too. Will Smith is… well, Will Smith (“Men in Black,” “Independence Day,” “Bad Boys,” “Hancock,” “Ali,” “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “I am Legend”). I don’t know how much needs to be said about this Oscar winner as a film (and music) star. Simply, the title role fit him nicely and he successfully breathed both a comedic and serious element into Alex, as well as that vulnerable part, complete with attention to body language (in line with his profession). All in all, a charmingly executed job. You can say about the film what you like, but not about his role in this film. And if you’re more interested in the life of this actor, read his excellent memoirs (a fresh review of which you have here).
Right alongside him is beautiful Eva Mendes (“Training Day,” “Ghost Rider,” “The Other Guys”) as cynical and suspicious (and deep down) romantic Sara. I don’t have anything particularly special to add for her either, but the final scenes in the film (and her subtle facial expressions) are breathtaking.
Kevin James (“The King of Queens,” “Paul Blart”) as Albert Brennaman is goofy as always and in scenes with Will Smith puts on a show with that good old slapstick. Whether when they first meet or Albert has a panic attack or Alex and Albert rehearse the kissing scene, the goofy humor is there.
Of the other actors, it’s worth mentioning Jeffrey Donovan (“Burn Notice”) as corrupt Vance, Adam Arkin as the head editor at the newspaper where Sara works, and Amber Valletta as Allegra Cole.
The music is also very good and covers quite a few well-known R&B artists.
All in all, “Hitch” is a generally solid film. If you set aside the predictable romcom story, it has nice (life) messages about love and that things aren’t always as we experience them. I’d even dare to (barely) place it on the border with motivational films. But it’s, in the end, a fun and relaxing film, even if you’re not a fan of romantic comedies.
Also, the message to relax while dancing is important too. 😁
“Basic principles… there are none.” – Alex Hitchens (at the end of the film)
And a few interesting facts about the film:
- Will Smith suggested Kevin James for the role of Albert, because he was delighted with his role in “The King of Queens”
- The scene where Albert dances in Alex’s apartment – Kevin James invented all the moves
- How stupid a concept racism is: According to Will Smith, it was originally planned that the lead actress would be white (but this was still considered taboo). Then the idea of her being Black was abandoned, not to alienate a good portion of the audience, so it was ultimately decided on an actress of Hispanic origin
- Jennifer Lopez turned down the role of Sara
Dear reader, if you’ve watched the film by now, watch this scene that was ultimately cut from the film. What do you think, did Alex ultimately do the right thing? 😊
Imdb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | Trailer
Release Date: 2005 | Format: Film | Runtime: 118 minutes
