The latest Wattpad movie adaptation Girlfriend For Hire doesn’t really seem to be much different from every other Wattpad movie adaptation. The elements are getting really familiar, and it’s kind of disturbing. Nearly all of these are about young women that fall in love with abusive guys, holding on to the brief glimmers of sweetness beneath the arrogant facades. This particular story doubles down on the queasy material as it involves a contractual agreement in its bizarre portrayal of romance.
Poor girl Nami (Yassi Pressman) is a freshman on scholarship at the very exclusive Stanford College. She has a series of unpleasant run-ins with Bryle (Andre Paras), the sole grandson of the owner of the school. A troubled home situation causes Nami to run away, and Bryle just happens to run into her on the street. He brings her to his condo, and he makes her a business proposal. His grandfather is pressuring him to get a wife and continue the Stanford line. He offers other pay Nami to pretend to be his girlfriend. What begins as a business arrangement turns into something more complicated as they spend more time with each other.
The film begins by establishing a strong dislike between the two. It invests time in making Bryle out to be a spoiled, arrogant jerk who relishes in making Nami suffer. From there, the movie really struggles to make much of a case for the two being together. And in the worst of times, it's never quite clear why Nami just doesn't leave. Her willingness to put up with Bryle's terrible behavior makes her seem like a really weak character. It really borders on abuse. The story gets into queasy territory as it continues to have Nami suffer for the sake of the creature comforts that Bryle provides.
Even if one buys into the relationship, the movie still manages to fall short in its back half. The inevitable third act reversal that has the two coming apart is awfully contrived. The characters become extra irrational as they to justify their behavior. Worse yet, the resolution to all this doesn't actually involve any effort from the two main characters. Their eventual happiness is the result of the efforts of a third character, whose existence is completely artificial. She enters the picture to introduce conflict, and is herself the resolution. It is complete nonsense, and again, the movie stumbles into queasiness.
It’s all just very rotten to the core. This is a story of an abusive relationship that isn’t at all worth fighting for, but the film apparently can’t imagine happiness outside of the context of a relationship. The film’s technical package is all right, the music in particular helping things move along. The cast does seem pretty enthusiastic, even if the material just isn’t very good. Yassi Pressman and Andre Paras certainly give it their all, which is nice. They do seem to be a better fit for more openly comedic material, however. Their cartoonish deliveries don’t work as well when things are supposed to be more serious.
It is kind of worrying that so many of these Wattpad stories seem to be textbook depictions of abusive relationships. Hopefully, we aren’t developing a generation of young people that romanticize this kind of toxic setup. Girlfriend for Hire presents a version of romance that is basically a young woman either unwilling or unable to escape from a bad situation. It is understandable that the movie industry wishes to capitalize on the popularity of these stories, but maybe it’s their responsibility to try to make them better.
My Rating:
