My Last Five Girlfriends

My Last Five Girlfriends reminded me of nothing so much as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  There are differences to be sure.  Scott Pilgrim was about a man facing his girlfriend’s exes; MLFG, rather, concerned a man coming to trips with his own exes.  Scott Pilgrim made heavy use of metaphor to make its point, whereas MLFG, as narrated by its central character, more directly analyzes the subtle traps relationships fall into.  Yet both make use of paranormal interludes.

[Spoilers follow]

Here, for instance is Duncan explaining how fate was surely responsible for putting him together with GF #1:

My Last Five Girlfriends–Heavenly Dating

The joke is, of course, that Duncan’s statistics here are pretty weak.  As it happens, GF #1 had insufficient closure with her own ex boyfriend.

With GF #2 (Jane March in a rare movie appearance), Duncan tries too hard to mold himself into somebody that would please a way too mercurial woman.

And on it goes, each relationship falling to different stresses and incompatibilities.

Of course, no relationship post of mine would be complete without an obligatory mention that Duncan’s sex-and-shackup approach to dating is highly likely to lead to a string of bad outcomes.  I’m not sure if the movie itself is fully aware of this.  It does bring up the interesting question as to whether “relationship experience”, while undoubtedly vital to success in attracting women (as I learned myself by not having it), is much conducive to making the relationships work in the long run.

But on other issues, the movie shows a surprising degree of perspicacity.  Here, for instance, it explains the rules of sulking at the downside of GF #5:

My Last Five Girlfriends–Successful Sulking

Well played.

I enjoyed this movie more than Scott Pilgrim, whose extended martial arts scenes I found tedious.  But they nonetheless should be companion pieces, the first dealing with one’s partner’s relationship history, and the second dealing with one’s own.