Post 130: Why do we root for Elle Woods: Man-Stealer?

It didn't occur to me until I'd watched it a few times, but the major premise of the movie is following a man's ex as she tries to ruin his current relationship with his fiance. I mean, she does have an epiphany later on that she doesn't actually want to be with him, but the main motive she has is getting him back and proving herself to him. This is not the character we usually root for. This is the character that is usually the antagonist, but in this movie the fiance is the antagonist.

Elle goes so far as dressing up as a playboy bunny and flirting with him at a party. Honestly, i understand why Vivian is so hostile towards her. If I was engaged to someone and there ex started following him around and flirting with him with the clear intention of getting him back and acting as if I didn't exist and he was single, then I'd be pretty pissed off too. 

I think that they both crossed the line. I mean, it was one thing for Vivian to want Elle out of her way, but another to turn other students against her for no reason. For example, when Elle went to join a study group, it made sense that Vivian wouldn't want Elle to be in the same group as her and Warner, but telling the head of another study group that Elle had called her a 'dyke' was crossing the line. It hurt the girl she told and it hurt Elle, because it meant another study group she couldn't join. 

Elle does have a change of heart after the party when Warner still doesn't seem to be interested, even though she basically showed up in lingerie to flirt with him, and she becomes more interested in proving herself to him more than getting him back- but even then, it starts off mainly for him. 

I think that Elle is actually pretty self-centered. She didn't even think about Vivian's feelings OR Warren's. I mean, if they had just split up then it would have made sense, but he was ENGAGED to someone else - that would suggest that he actually CARED about someone else, but Elle didn't even think about that. She didn't ask him about it or anything.

She basically just acted like he was single and if she hung around enough that was all it would take to win him back. 

It was Paulette's advice, but still...it was not a good plan. 

I think the reason we still root for her is because we are first hit with an emotional connection to her pretty soon, when we see her get dumped when she thought she was going to be proposed to. It helped create a connection to her of sympathy so we wanted her to have a win. So, this way we could better ignore what it was we were rooting for her to win. 

It also didn't last very long. I mean, she didn't say she wasn't interested in getting back together with him until the end, but after the party she stops flirting with him and that certainly helps it from being hard to root for her. 

Still, I think it is interesting to wonder, if the movie was from Vivian's point of view or if the movie had started with Elle just deciding to go to Harvard to get her ex back, would we have rooted for her or just seen her as a crazy, obsessed ex-girlfriend?