Caroline Siede explores the history and comedy of rom-coms through the years with When Romance Met Comedy.AdvertisementGigli de premiered on Starz a few weeks after it was released theatrically. The promos contained only quotes about how horrible the movie was. Starz Encores publicity chief Steve Belgard said that if we promoted it as a good movie, our credibility would be damaged. It is rare to see a movie that not only fails to impress critics but also loses $70million at the box-office. This can also turn the public against celebrity relationships and kill an Oscar-nominated director's career. Gigli, like Ishtar before him, became the go-to joke for all things cinema. Gigli is, like Ishtar for Ishtar's humor, something that many people have laughed at but never seen.In truth, Gigli was not something I had ever seen before the recent hubbub about Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez getting together inspired me finally to address my long-standing blind spot. I was certain that the romantic-com lover contrarian in my would find something to love. It couldn't be so bad, I thought to my self. Oh, how naive I was. Although Gigli is really quite bad, I was only able to feel the full force of the movie's madness a few minutes later. Gigli is so bizarre it kept me on my toes, curious about what else might be up next. Only after the jarringly sentimental end, I was able to let out a belly laugh that I hadn't even realized I had been holding back.AdvertisementIt is a solid premise. Larry Gigli is Affleck, a low-level gangster who desperately needs to assert his masculinity. Lopez plays Ricki, an independent contractor who is adamant about his work and wears low-rise jeans from 2003. They are paired up to kidnap Brian, the younger brother of a federal prosecutor and intellectually disabled. Larry and Ricki realise they are in over their heads and must dodge a suspicious detective as well as a pissed off mob boss to keep Brian safe. Gigli may not have the most ideal set-up, and almost everything about Brians disability falls under the oh no category), however it does provide a working premise. Get three unlikely people together to commit a crime spree and watch the sparks fly. It's Tarantino Lite with Out Of Sight and a little Rain Man.The opening title card is a reminder that Martin Brest, writer and director of Giglis, has not fully mastered the film's tone. Gigli, despite its high-stakes crime plot, is a talky, narratively inert movie that mostly takes place in Larry's small L.A. apartment. The movie feels like an Off-Off Broadway play because Brest's characters are prone to ranting and pontificating. One GQ retrospective said that this makes it feel weirder than the best Off-Off-Broadway plays. For those who aren't familiar with Gigli, it might surprise you to find out that the movie's part in the Ben Affleck cinematic universe features lesbians. To sell the movie as a romantic comedy, the trailers tried to conceal Lopez's homosexuality.Over its two-hour duration, Gigli's deranged personality slowly increases. The most famous line is Lopez' seductive bedroom invitation. It's turkey time. It's turkey time! Ricki does sexy yoga while extolling the superiority of the vagina over penis. In a supposedly comedic scene, a character that we have never seen before appears at the apartment and slits Ricki's wrists. Then, she vanishes completely from the film. While Brian sings Baby Got Back, Larry cuts off the thumb of a corpse's hand with a knife.AdvertisementAll of this could work in a dark comedy but it is strange in a movie with a gospel choir that underscores Brian's abstract longing for a fulfilling adulthood. He tells Ricki and Larry earlier that he thinks that's where the sex was. Giglis' finale shows Brian crashing a beach-themed music videos shoot and flirting with an Australian woman while a deformed Larry watches like a proud papa bear, before riding off into sunset with J.Lo. These final minutes are far more shocking than the scene in which Al Pacino randomly shoots someone in their head. The camera zooms in on a tank full of tropical fish, before J.Lo rides off into the sunset. This film is a classic example of a film that required more than a happy ending rom-com.It had one at first. Gigli's ending was supposed to be with its protagonist dying on a beach. Although Gigli is funny, Brest wanted to bring out the dark side of the story. The movie's half-funny and half-grim cut was rejected by test audiences. Revolution Studios head Joe Roth attempted to take control of Brest to make it more commercial. Lopez and Affleck, who met while filming, were celebrities at their peak. Roth wanted to make sure that his studio's investment was a good return. Brest technically did not have final cut privileges but he was forced to recut large portions of the movie and reshoot them again. This at least partially explains the discordant end product.Michael Dequina, a film critic, published a detailed description of Gigli's original cut, where Larry died. It also included other plot threads like Walkens suicide and Rickis ex-girlfriend. The final version revealed that Ricki was simply posing as an contractor. This is something you can sense in the film's lead up but not following through on. Dequina acknowledges that the darker ending was not without its problems due to the more serious first half. However, he says it felt more cohesive and emotional. It is hard to imagine Gigli being viewed worse than Gigli, so it makes you wonder if the original film would have fared.AdvertisementIt takes more than just a good film to make it a joke of Gigli-level quality. Bad buzz and simmering frustration at Bennifer's ever-present presence created the perfect environment for an epic fail. I don't think a different ending would have prevented this. Giglis production notes lauded Affleck's enthusiasm for the role. However, Lopez and Affleck are too well-known in a mainstream setting for people to be open to their heightened verbal artifice. (Gigli was a follow-up to Lopez's charm in Maid In Manhattan, and Afflecks shaky performance in Daredevil. Although Gigli's final version is supposed to have a crime-comedy-romance tone, it often feels like several not-all that-great concepts are muddled together.To be fair, Ricki/Larry's relationship is probably the most fascinating, even though it doesn't get much from the rom-com ending. Their relationship is part of the larger film's thesis that Larry's machismo is a prison for his naturally feminine spirit. Gigli believes that Larry needs to be kind to friends and not dominate in the bedroom. Ricki is the perfect woman to teach Larry that lesson with her confident swagger, empathetic spirit and charming demeanour. Gigli's investigation of Larrys gendered transition has an oddity. One of the most charming scenes in the film is when a postcoital Larry reveals that he was meant to be the cow and not the bull in his romantic relationships.Gigli is such an absurd product of its time that it has a strange charm to watch it today. It wasn't the career-killer it was once destined to become for all its stars. Lopez and Affleck have both reached a higher level of artistic appreciation than they did in the early aughts. It is quite remarkable that Justin Bartha, who played the most offensive role in one of the most hated films of all time, has had such a successful career. Brest is the most victim of Giglis criticisms, having not worked on another movie since. It seems that at least some of his retirement was voluntary, given his commercial and critical hits such as Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run and Scent Of A Woman. Playboy published a 2014 article that attempted to unravel the mystery surrounding his disappearance after Gigli.AdvertisementBrest is still a champion to Affleck, who thanked Brest in his Best Picture Oscar acceptance speech. Affleck even said that Gigli was where he learned how to direct because of Brest's ability to make actors feel comfortable and supported on the set. Walken said, "With Marty, every evening I went home thinking it wasn't good, but it was a chance to do what I could." However, the faults of Gigli don't fall on any one person. It's not the acting, the writing, the chemistry, the reshoots and the intense public scrutiny. This is a perfect storm of worst-case scenarios, all piled on top of one another to make this bad rom-com. Gigli is an extraordinary feat of terror, and it is not easy to replicate. Even if one tried, it couldn't be duplicated.Next time: Legally Blonde turns twenty. Is it really that hard?
