Created with women in mind. Well, maybe not
all women.
"Hold it, hold it. What is this? Are you trying to trick me? Where's the sports? Is this a kissing
book?" —
The Princess Bride * Incidentally not a Chick Flick
The Chick Flick is a genre of movie which is nebulously defined, not by its content so much as its market, namely women.
They tend to be romantic in content, whether drama, comedy, or
both. Women are likely to be noble victims or sassy, klutzy twentysomethings looking for love, and men either
charmers who may or may not be secret
jerkasses or
hopelessly confused but sweet. Being centred around women you are also likely to encounter scenes of women
actually talking to each other outside of jealous
Cat Fights (though such a thing may turn up).
Sometimes movies that don't fit this formula will be considered Chick Flicks simply because they feature a female protagonist. Or, for that matter, even having women in them for reasons other than
Fanservice. However, a female protagonist is not actually necessary for a Chick Flick —
Made Of Honor or
What Women Want for example both have male protagonists while still being clearly marketed at women. A male Chick Flick protagonist is likely to be a
Handsome Lech who learns the error of his ways through coming to terms with his feelings for the female lead.
Romantic Comedy is an important sub-genre of the Chick Flick. It's worth noting that "rom-com" films are actually supposed to be popular because they serve both sexes as good date movies (romances are usually targeted at women, comedies are usually targeted at men). Some of the more successful examples do this right (usually if they have a decent comment to make
on the nature of men and women), but for the most part, not so much. Possibly the most triumphant example of this date-movie genre is
Love Story, which, according to legend, is responsible for more pregnancies than any other single film.
The literary equivalent is
Chick Lit. The polar opposite is a work
Rated M for Manly.
Compare/Contrast
Lifetime Movie of the Week, the dark, embittered and often
vengeful Evil Twin of the
Chick Flick. Some even say that Chick Flicks are what a woman's life is
before marriage.
Lifetime Movies are what it is
after she gets married. Also compare with
Josei and
Shoujo Demographics.
Examples
- 13 Going on 30
- 27 Dresses
- Beaches
- Because I Said So
- Breakfast At Tiffanys
- Bridesmaids
- Bride Wars
- Bridget Jones Diary and Bridget Jones The Edge Of Reason
- Calendar Girls
- Chasing Liberty
- Chocolat
- Clueless Any adaptation of a Jane Austen novel qualifies (this one's a modern-dress version of Emma.)
- The Color Purple No one said a Chick Flick can't tackle serious subjects.
- Compromising Positions
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Divine Secrets Of The Ya Ya Sisterhood 'Sisterhood' in the title is generally a giveaway.
- Don Juan De Marco
- The Duchess which is about the complex love triangle between the duke, his wife and the duke's mistress Lady Bess Foster.
- Enchanted April So much so it could be the Trope Codifier.
- The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain This one can also work for straight guys who enjoy subtler comedies (there must be some straights like that.)
- Enough. Well, perhaps not a chick flick so much as a big-screen Lifetime Movie of the Week turned Up to Eleven.
- Ever After
- Fever Pitch
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- Fried Green Tomatoes - A rarity for being about something else than shopping, love or men. It's about friendship between grown, mature-minded women past their teens.
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- The Help
- How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Indeed, a great deal of Matthew McConaughey's output falls into this)
- How Stella Got Her Groove Back
- I Love You Too
- In Her Shoes
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- Julia
- Julie And Julia (no connection with the above movie)
- Legally Blonde
- Little Women Any and all versions.
- Made Of Honor
- Marie Antoinette
- Maid In Manhattan
- Mamma Mia!!, at least in movie form, is a Chick Flick through and through.
- Mean Girls
- Mona Lisa Smile
- Monster In Law
- Moonstruck (arguably)
- Music and Lyrics
- Must Love Dogs
- My Best Friend's Wedding
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- My Brilliant Career A criminally-overlooked Australian gem.
- Never Been Kissed
- The Notebook
- Notting Hill
- The Other Boleyn Girl where history's Henry VIII is torn between the lady like Mary and her scheming sister Anne Boleyn.
- Personal Best Rare but valid evidence that chick flicks and athletics don't have to be mutually exclusive.
- Private Benjamin
- The Proposal
- PSI Love You
- Roman Holiday Perhaps a borderline case; the runaway-princess plot is chick fodder, but this movie also includes the male-pleasing sight of Audrey Hepburn riding a Vespa (she also gets to bash a guitar over a guy's head.)
- Romy And Michele's High School Reunion
- A Room With A View
- Rumor Has It
- Sense And Sensibility: Jane Austen, straight up.
- The Sex and the City movies.
- She's The Man
- The Shop Around the Corner- this is the original version of You've Got Mail.
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- Sixteen Candles
- Sleepless In Seattle, which for good measure includes chick flick An Affair to Remember as a recurring joke.
- Pretty much anything with both Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks will be a chick flick.
- Something Borrowed
- Steel Magnolias
- Stepmom
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Thelma & Louise
- Titanic, though it was originally anticipated as a disaster movie before it came out.
- The Turning Point
- The Twilight movies.
- Two Weeks Notice
- The Wedding Planner
- Waiting To Exhale - A much more bitter take on this than usual.
- What Women Want
- When Harry Met Sally
- Yentl
- The Young Victoria about the famous British queen growing up.
- You've Got Mail
- Most of Lifetime's line-up are the "embittered and disillusioned" version.
- When they aren't movies about crazed stalkers and serial killers, anyway.
- Pretty much anything starring Meg Ryan, Hugh Grant, Julia Stiles*, or Creator Drew Barrymore*.
- Brians Song is a chick flick FOR MEN.
