A small rant on Prom Pact.
I don't know if people have watched this film, but I recently rewatched it and have a lot of thoughts about it, namely on how it treats its main character Mandy terribly but treats its second lead Ben like some golden boy!
I'll try to keep this rant short, but man the way this film treated Mandy was so weird in contrast to Ben who was treated like some golden child who was wronged the entire film.
Let me explain;
The entire film centers around Mandy who wants to get into Harvard, and to do that she needs a recommendation letter from Graham's father, who is a harvard-alumni (the blonde boy in the poster). To do this, Mandy starts tutoring Graham. However, rom-com hijinks ensue and Mandy starts getting closer to Graham.
Sounds fine and dandy right? Well, the more she gets closer to Graham the more badly she is viewed by the film.
This is due to a couple of reasons; one, Mandy cancels friday night or movie night with Ben (the other boy in the poster). This is viewed badly which is absurd because they have and will be friends forever, they have all the opportunity in life to watch movies.
Then, she forgets Ben's birthday which is admittedly a little a bad of Mandy, but c'mon that's a common occurence among friends! And she literally makes up for it by buying Ben a present AND setting him for a date with his long-time crush.
After that, Mandy finds out Graham's feelings for her have been flimsy and that he had 3 girlfriends (which the film completely sweeps under the rug by the way) all the while Ben is getting so much more closer to his crush to the point that they are quite close to becoming partners.
Then, Graham gives Mandy a promposal to which Mandy accepts FOR NO REASON. Terrible writing all around. Ben finds out and gets angry because he and Mandy made a "prom pact" which is understandable but then he blurts out how Mandy was using Graham to get into Harvard.
Now this is the only objectively bad thing Mandy has done all movie, however! SHE LITERALLY SAID NO WHEN GRAHAM'S FATHER OFFERED TO GIVE HER A RECOMMENDATION LETTER. So while yes it was bad of Mandy to use Graham like that, at the end of the day she chose Graham and didn't accept the letter. Then she finds out he was just toying with her feelings?
After all of that crashes down Graham starts actively ignoring Mandy WHICH IS RIDICULOUS WHEN HE OF ALL PEOPLE HAS NO RIGHT TO DO THAT. And Mandy's own friends started ignoring her. Mandy literally becomes a social pariah which is just so unfair when she literally rejected the offer from Graham's father.
The ending is where I get really annoyed because IT IS ALL CENTERED ON BEN. Literally. Ben gets everything HE wants Ben becomes prom king and gets the girl while Mandy gets nothing. She gets into harvard at the end but at that point its basically throwing just her a bone. Nothing with Graham gets resolved until the end where they "meet" again and all of a sudden everything gets ignored and they kiss happily ever after.
I know I'm getting too frustrated on a silly rom-com like this, ut the way this film treats Ben like some injured puppy who was done wrong the entire film when that is just objectively untrue is just so frustrating to me because the film was great when it was just on Mandy and Graham, Ben didn't need to be more than just a side character.
I apologize if my thoughts seem scattered on this film or that I seem too heated. At the end of the day it's just a silly rom-com! I just really wish the storyline was better because the chemistry between Mandy and Graham were so good.