The Heartbroken Bride

And I still haven’t seen The Glass Coffin. But I did see The Heartbroken Bride!

So now I have finally encountered the infamous Laura that a Perry fan can’t help having heard about, particularly among the fanfiction writing circles. I liked her, and I liked Della’s interaction with her. I loved how Della said she knew about how close she and Perry had been, even though Perry really hadn’t told her much. Della knows how to read between the lines.

I used to think Laura appeared somewhere in the television series. I looked for her there and was puzzled when I didn’t find any trace of her. Then I realized she must be from the movies.

I’m assuming one of the main reasons some of the fans find Laura so interesting is not just because she and Perry apparently had more of a past together than was outright stated, but more because there were so many hints that Perry might actually be the father of her daughter. Admittedly, I didn’t grasp the double-meaning nature of most of those comments until the very end, because my mind is so wrapped up in not making everything a romance that I took the surface meanings to heart and thought that Perry was just a very dear friend and a surrogate uncle to the girl. But when Della commented on the daughter, “Her father loves her very much” and Perry said, “Yes. Yes, he does,” the way he said it suddenly made me realize the double entendre and the true nature of the hints they’d been throwing all along.

I’m not entirely sure what to think of the idea. On the one hand, I loved Perry’s interaction with the girl and thought it was very sweet as it was, just on the surface meaning. But thinking that he might actually be talking to his own flesh and blood puts a whole new adorable, beautiful spin on it and on his words about how far he would go to protect her and her family.

On the other hand, Laura was married at the time (albeit she and her husband were having problems) and I don’t entirely like the idea of Perry getting so deeply, romantically involved with a married woman. Of course, even if she wasn’t married, I wouldn’t be terribly thrilled about them sleeping together when they weren’t married to each other, since I prefer to think Perry has higher standards than that, but it seems even worse to think of since she was already married to someone.

In the end, really, I think it can be taken however one wants it. Everything Perry says and does could indeed have the surface meaning and only the surface meaning. The second meaning was probably inserted deliberately to tease the fans, and may very well be the real meaning they were thinking of, but since it wasn’t firmly brought out in the movie, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the truth. Of course, I don’t think of the movies as part of the official television series canon anyway, but I don’t even know that I consider the second meaning part of the official movie canon. I imagine it’s something that some of the other fanfiction writers have a lot of fun playing with, though.

Moving on to other elements of the film, I liked the close-knit nature of the family (regardless of who the girl’s biological father is). There’s so many dysfunctional families on television, including on Perry, that it’s refreshing to see one that’s really banded together.

I also liked the girl’s fiancé. He was adorable in how determined he was to prove she was innocent of murder.

Ken was kind of an idiot at some parts of the film, particularly concerning the Rocky’s club subplot. He was away from his mobile phone for literally hours, then just tries a couple of times to call Rocky’s and doesn’t get anyone, and from that promptly decides that lead is a total bust? He doesn’t even once think that maybe the tattooed lady tried to call him during the many long stretches when he was away from his phone (which was exactly what happened)? Good grief.

The mobster’s henchmen were really pretty stupid too, not even checking for identification the moment Ken showed up. Okay, so they thought he was the murdered man because he had a key to the apartment (and didn’t deny the wrong identification because he wanted to meet their boss), but they should have searched him and found his I.D. immediately. They didn’t even ask him who he was! I loved when the fiancé showed up right in time to save Ken from being eighty-sixed by them once they learned the truth.

I liked the young fan of the defendant. Sneaking into the house for the wedding was a nasty invasion of the privacy the poor bride wanted, but since the girl wasn’t trying to do anything wrong, it was still amusing and cute on some level.

I was slightly annoyed when she ran from Ken as soon as he said he wanted to talk to her about what she saw. It didn’t seem like the bad guys had threatened her, so I’m guessing she just didn’t want to testify because she was worried her idol really had killed the guy, as her friend surmised. It’s definitely understandable she wouldn’t want to testify under those circumstances; she wouldn’t want to be part of possibly getting the defendant convicted. But I felt kind of sad that the fan didn’t have a little more faith in her, especially since she was so obsessed she tried to get into the wedding.

There was far too little time spent in court during this installment. I like when there’s a good, long, meaty amount of time in court.

I can’t say I was terribly surprised by the reveal of the guilty ones, although I was a bit surprised that it was both of the security guards together. I figured it was probably one or the other.

One intense bit was that the one bad guy attacked the other one, right in the courtroom! And poor Perry was caught in the middle of the mess and hurt his shoulder crashing to the floor! Owww.

Overall, it was quite an enjoyable film. I imagine it’s one of the fan favorites.

I’m not totally sure if I’ll post the weekday post right on Thursday, since that’s Thanksgiving in the U.S. I might post a day in advance (or end up not posting at all, ooops).