If you haven't seen Air yet, I recommend you go watch it. I streamed it on Amazon Prime and enjoyed it thoroughly. At first, I thought I liked the following attributes the most:
- The soundtrack captured the 1980s perfectly.
- The montages of 1984 images brought me back to ninth grade.
- Matt Damon is amazing as the star.
- Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Ben Affleck, and Marlon Wayans all give stellar performances.
- Jordan is the GOAT. Anything about him is critical viewing in the year of Michael, 2023.
You should take everything above as absolute; what follows is my hot take. The morning after I watched the movie with my family, I realized that part of my joy in viewing was in knowing in advance that the film would have a happy ending. And the more I thought about that fact, the more I realized that the movie fulfills many of the other romance tropes I love as well.
- Primary plot is the growing relationship between two beings (Damon's character Sonny and Michael Jordan).
- If you've ever bought shoes, you know that the ending will be a happily ever after.
- There's a third-act break-up, when Nike can't match the offer MJ gets from Adidas, the company he seems to want.
So some of you might still live under the (false) impression that you don't like the romance genre. I challenge you to watch this movie and share your thoughts about it in the comments. Once you admit defeat, I'll give you other book/movie recommendations that you might not have categorized as romance and will love. Game on?
Loved it!
Me too, and not only because it was (1) Chicago, (2) MJ, and (3) romance-structured.