Graphic courtesy of Adriana Colón.
Age disparity in films has been around since the conceptualization of visual media, possibly even before, with stories told in other ways like word of mouth. But in film, love stories sell, and those have been around since the beginning of time. With each conceptualized pair presented in a film, debates arise and people nitpick on what is appropriate and what’s not.
With the release of Miller’s Girl, starring Morgan Freeman and Jenna Ortega, and The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, the debate between the two films has been similar in content but different in reaction.
Miller’s Girl starts with a bang of humor. In their first interaction, Cairo [Jenna Ortega] is confident, and astute and has already established her focus on Mr. Miller (Martin Freeman) before their meeting. In how she turns up to class an hour early despite living “…a walk away”, and in the latter half of the scene, discovering she is the only one who has read not only the entire semester’s reading list, but Mr. Miller’s book from the library. His wife makes her opinion known on how the book is trash, which then allows us to take curiosity in Cairo’s intentions. Following that devastating blow she deals him, the tone switches almost immediately as Mr. Miller and his wife engage in a monologue of foreplay revolving around “cum” and “money”.
It is interesting to watch a film that is assured to end in tragedy, but they do utilize the slow burn aspect to the maximum. They play into that danger with dramatic warm light and low beam lighting, drawing you in, each scene more intimate than you expect it to be. A passing look, a close-up with ethereal music—everything is a tool to tempt you. Playing on the ‘forbidden fruit’ theme, it’s all very dangerously sexy.
Mr. Miller’s life is not ideal, with a marriage that has been on the rocks for a while, no inspiration, and being stuck in Tennessee, it’s no wonder he feels drawn to Cairo’s pure writer’s spirit.
But every character seems to be a little off-kilter, Cairo and her obsession, her friend, Winnie, a lesbian whose forwardness is uncomfortable to watch, and aggressively flirts with Mr. Fillmore, the gym coach, who indulges in it but never crosses certain “boundaries.”
The issues lie in the pushing of those boundaries in the film as a whole. The outfits used to age up Cairo, the busty white sundress at the Victorian Market, short skirts, dainty damsel demeanor, the satin dress she wears lays on her body like a second skin when Mr. Miller drops off her phone—everything is a tool, but should it be?
When he gets her midterm paper, the fears come true in the worst way. The definition of literary porn starring Mr. Miller as the muse and the words are pure sin that tempts and turns him inside out, and his hands take the bait as though acting on instinct. I imagine Mr. Miller being in a state of ‘Oh fucking shit, what have I done?’ as we reach the climax, of the plot and the scene.
This then kicks off the second half of the film to a stimulating start that goes exactly as you would expect with a teacher-student relationship, putting in a twist that puts you in a position to question whether things are really what they seem and who is the greater villain.
Now onto ‘The Idea of You.’ This steamy duo meet at Coachella! She walks into his dressing room thinking it’s the bathroom and it turns out he is the star she brought her daughter to meet. The plot is very cliche. But this is a slow burn in different ways, the stakes are heightened and the world might find out about this risky affair. For a global pop star group, this could signal shifts in reputation, fans, and money, and for Solene, her relationship with her daughter would be on the rocks given the lies that were unconsciously wound.
But why does this older woman/younger man theme keep recurring? Firstly, because it’s considered ‘forbidden’ and that’s what makes the situation enticing. Of course, the dynamic between two consenting adults is very different and so are the themes, but the disparity is too vast not to mention. Several other films have utilized similar concepts like ‘May December’, ‘I Could Never Be Your Woman’, ‘An Education,’ and ‘Liberal Arts.’
With an IMDB rating of 5.2/10 Miller’s Girl, while artfully and creatively portrayed, falls short, and allows The Idea of You to take the lead with a 6.2/10. Not that much better, but the reviews rave about the complexities of age-related relationships, but in vastly different attitudes.
In theme, Miller’s Girl explores the realities of lives of the affected in this dynamic, and how things may not always be as they seem, while the adult and refreshing worldview created in The Idea of You broaches a more idealistic and alluring view in the curiosity of horizons that could be.
In society, a woman is a nurturer, a person of comfort may she be a girlfriend, wife, grandmother, mentor, or lover, a mature woman is portrayed as a ‘prize’ and thus, makes the chase worth it as the younger man expands his horizons and sometimes going through growth on this journey to be good enough for her to say yes to him. On the other hand, a male in society is the provider, a protector from a traditional lens. Because of this, and other factors, a male being associated with a young female in a romantic sense does not ring the same. The man coming from a position of authority appears imposing in such a role. This is not only reflective of Miller’s girl, but all other films with this particular dynamic.
