What women think

During the promotion tour of Long Shot, Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen went through Cyril Hanouna’s show. During a sequence, by surprise – not necessarily a good one to see the young lady’s face – the presenter kissed the actress’ assistant. She had reacted immediately by telling him, politely but firmly, that the next time he should ask permission from the person concerned before touching him. It might seem trivial: a good buzz, a metaphorical slap to a lout and a right Charlize Theron in her feminist position, the trick is done. But it’s actually totally like Long Shot !.

It looks like a classic romantic comedy in which a beautiful woman with an incredible job and an even more incredible wardrobe falls in love with a brilliant but lost and poor boy. Yet, the film offers a serious reflexion about woman’s load, a better version of a heterosexual relationship, a critic of subterfuge (in politics or elsewhere) and a lot of good, very good jokes. On a rhythm close to screwball comedy (Capra) with a few elements of slapstick (Chaplin). The film follows the story of Charlotte Field, youngest US secretary of state and candidate for the presidential elections, who’s going to hire Fred Flarsky, a journalist who has just lost his job, so that he can write speeches for her. They’ve known each other since they’re kids but haven’t seen in a while. Of course, spoiler alert, as they hang out and talk, they’re going to fall in love.

Predicitible? Maybe but that’s a convention of romantic comedies. But it’s really deeper than what it seems. Through her position of secretary of state, Charlotte embodies what women have to go through: she must be at the same time, to the eyes of voters, beautiful, elegant but approachable, funny but not exuberant, clever but not the scary type of clever. She must manage everything. People tell her how she would be much more appreciated with a man by her side and she also has to anticipate the way the others’ actions are going to impact her. Long Shot is aware of women’s state of mental (and physical) load, and plays with it in a clever way, which makes Charlotte a true and attractive character, and not an umpteenth object of desire. Also, her couple with Fred, who’s an honest and gentle character, constantly evolving, is a positive couple as the male character doesn’t ask to the female character to give up on her career for him and, on the contrary, he supports her and admires her. Long Shot is a progressive version of romantic comedy that never forgets what’s essentiel, that is to say being romantic and funny. And a film starting in a white supermacists’ meeting where a character is called  « Aryena Grande » can only be very funny.