Archetypes: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Famously identified by film critic Nathan Rabin in his A.V. Club pan of Elizabethtown in 2007, this particular brand of cinematic male wish fulfillment fantasy has been around for ages.  The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a bubbly, sunshiney creature who, in Rabin's words:

... exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family.

The MPDG is invariably beautiful, while often in a slightly left-of-center way, quirky as hell, girly, and giving; key to her personality in the romantic comedies and other pics that feature her is a level of compassion for the male hero that's awesomely selfless: she exists, at core, to succor and service the movie's man-in-need.

One could make a case for certain silent era heroines as forerunners, and certainly Chaplin's "Girl" - see Paulette Godard in Modern Times, et al - is a progenitor.  The grandmom of MPDGs is the screwball heroine variant played most memorably by Katherine Hepburn and Carole Lombard.  More recently, the MPDG quintessence was delivered by Natalie Portman in Garden State.

Breathes there a red-blooded American male with soul so dead that he could quickly reject the looks (let alone the likes) of her?  Two words might be used as a shield to deflect such a meltingly potent gaze (they would be Black Swan), but let's be honest: looks great, has great taste in music, is smart, funny, available, and for no immediately discernible reason, seems already way into you?  Tough proposition to turn down.

There's a catch, of course (in Garden State, Portman's character is revealed to be a pathological liar), and some MPDG movies do go so far as to expose the darker sides of this archetype (in a sense Jonathan Demme's Something Wild is a black comedic object lesson in "be careful what Dream Girl you wish for," as its hapless hero is nearly killed by MPDG Melanie Griffith's psychotic ex-boyfriend).

But what I find truly amusing about this fantastical construct is how profoundly counter-intuitive it is, in terms of the kind of Manic Pixies one encounters in non-movie reality.  Reader, I have dated a few (some friends might say I even married the European version of one, once), and here's the thing: such prototypically fun salvos of idiosyncratic femininity actually tend to be fundamentally narcisisstic.  The Manic Pixies one meets in real life, generally speaking, are Damsels in Distress who are trolling for Princes, or to be more accurate, Caretakers.

It's because of this truism that personally, I'm more fond of the rom-com heroines who are Manic Pixie Dream Girl-like... but turn out to be their own, healthily autonomous people in the end.  One such classic variant was immortalized by Diane Keaton in the movie that bears her character's name:

 

Annie starts out MPDG, but once Pygmalion-ed by Alvy Singer, is revealed to be a deeply three-D human with needs that transcend his.  Which seems to be more a real-life phenomenon, if you ask me (an uncharacteristically realistic workout of the "She seems like my Manic Pixie Dream Girl but isn't" notion was enacted by Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer.)

On screen, at any rate, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl continues to delight many men's fantasies (and alienate even more women).  I recently spotted two in Midnight in Paris.  Got any favorites, or love-to-hates, of your own?

Comments

[gabe]

Could Maude from Harold and Maude fit into this category somehow? I guess this wouldn't play into the male fantasy in terms of youthful appearance for most of the audience, but otherwise she plays right into the archetype.

Thanks for brining up Midnight in Paris. I think it is all about male fantasy, which is probably why I loved it and none the women in my life really cared for it.

[DannyM]

My feeling is that there were a lot of MPDGs in the sixties and seventies—and thus that they're inextricably linked with social changes, especially the sexual revolution. Holly Golightly seems a bit of an archetype, but BAT was part of a movement, surely, along with Butterflies Are Free and There's A Girl In My Soup and doubtless many others I haven't seen for decades... Seems like any film that had a 'kooky' heroine—and there were a lot of them—might be re-classified as MPDG-driven now.

In that vein, I'd like to think that Charity Hope Valentine is a MPDG, but Sweet Charity is boldly and unrepentantly told from her point of view, so I'm not sure that counts.

And thanks, also, just for, you know, making me think.

[Teddy]

Miss Kubelik in The Apartment, perhaps.

[mernitman]

Gabe, that's a great grab. I think you're right about Maude; she doesn't fit the stereotypical MPDG profile, but she definitely performs the same function.

Danny M: I'm with you there - Holly G. was absolutely an archetypal MPDG (as was the young Goldie H.) MacLaine in CHARITY is an interesting case for exactly that POV reason (i.e. She's technically a MPDG, but it is "her movie." But see next comment...

Teddy: MacLaine in THE APARTMENT is MPDG for sure... although with an unusual added, real-life edge to her character in Act 3. I'd say she transcends the stereotype by being a 3-dimensional, grounded human being. Today's MPDG would never think of attempting suicide on the hero's watch. Bad form!

[Rob in L.A.]

First: Great post, as usual, mernitman!

Second: I would say that "The Apartment's" Fran Kubelik is definitely not an MPDG because she's neither "available" nor "for no immediately discernible reason ... already way into" Bud Baxter. She doesn't realize her feelings for him until the New Year's Eve party at the end of the movie. (Is it possible to say too often what a great rom-com "The Apartment" is? Why isn't it on the AFI's Top 10 list?)

Third: This article brings several films to mind, including a very unsuccessful one: "Watching the Detectives" (2007). In WTD, Lucy Liu plays a mysterious sprite who shakes up the life of down-in-the-dumps Cillian Murphy. The story is fairly amusing, but it takes so many twists and turns, from rom-com to noirish thriller, that you don't know what to make of Liu's character. Is she an MPDG or a femme fatale? Her character tells so many fibs and half-truths that by the end of the movie — oh, its a rom-com after all, and the boy gets the girl — the audience doesn't trust her any more and is uncertain if Murphy is really "getting" her or if she has one more twist up her sleeve. It might have been a better movie if she turned out to be a femme fatale — THAT would have been an interesting take on the MPDG.

[mernitman]

Rob: I sit corrected (you're right again, dammit!), so let's qualify: Miss Kubelik IS a MPDG in personality (this is true of most of MacLaine's early roles) but NOT in function. She's a MPDG/Damsel in Distress hybrid.

[Anthony A.]

I've enjoyed L.A. Story partially due to the Manic Pixie Bellamy that is Sarah Jessica Parker's character. I've seen many a forgettable romantic comedy in which her character would've been the answer but it rejects that notion.

[mernitman]

Anthony, I'm with you there!

[Rob in L.A.]

What do you call a Dream Girl who's not a Manic Pixie? I ask because I recently saw "She's Out of My League." (Don't rush.)

[Elizabeth Ditty]

I love MPDGs, and I think the bad rap they get is pretty unfair most of the time. They are catalysts of change for the main character. It doesn't mean they're not complex characters with their own lives and goals. On the contrary, interesting and sometimes dark histories are often hinted at but not necessarily explored. It just that it's not THEIR movie. And that's OK.

That being said, an MPDG doesn't necessarily have to be a supporting character; it's just the norm. Look at AMÉLIE for example. There's an MPDG if I've ever seen one. The difference (and probably why she's often overlooked) is that it's her movie. If the guy she was pursuing had been the main character (and thus the film from his POV), Amélie would no doubt be the Ultimate MPDG.

[mernitman]

Rob: You're an awfully brave man. You go where even the likes of me would fear to tread... Anyway, good question! We could prob'ly break the Dream Girl archetype into sub-types: The Girl Next Door Dream Girl, the Unattainable Prom Girl Dream Girl, the Rock Goddess Dream Girl (ALMOST FAMOUS and SCOTT PILGRIM, etc.)... but most likely dream girls come in as many shapes and sizes as there are male protagonists to covet them. It's just that the MPDG has been such a prominent, ubiquitous type.

Elizabeth: AMELIE is the Gallic MPDG quintessence, and you're right about the "whose picture is it" issue being the only clarifying difference to the norm. AMELIE seems to me the kind of movie a true MPDG might conceive (especially with its idea of being in service to others, etc.).

[Craig]

This was actually kind of nice to read. Always good to get something in there that doesn’t discuss how badly the team has played in the last week.

[mernitman]

Craig: Especially since in this end of the field, it's hard to say who's winning.

[Rob in L.A.]

I'd like to put in a good word for "Chungking Express" (even though WTRC already did, p. 26), with Faye Wong in the role of the Manic Pixie Stalker.

[Rob in L.A.]

Will "Ruby Sparks" be the ultimate MPDG — literally a product of the male lead's imagination?