{"id":2612,"date":"2024-05-14T14:07:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T20:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/?p=2612"},"modified":"2025-02-03T22:33:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T04:33:18","slug":"hitch-and-authenticity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitch and Authenticity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

""

Columbia Pictures via \u201cIMDb\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/em>. I promise I\u2019m not avoiding it, my television education has just always lagged behind my film education. (Though give me some credit, I am working to catch up and just finished watching Malcom in the Middle<\/em> yesterday.) So when I think of Will Smith\u2019s iconic roles, my attention generally defers to his 2005 rom-com, Hitch<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Alex \u201cHitch\u201d Hitchens (Will Smith) make a living as a \u201cdate doctor,\u201d helping men who are lacking in confidence win over women they\u2019re sure would never give them a second glance. Hitch is landed with the job of a lifetime when the bumbling Albert Brenneman (played by Kevin James for perspective) enlists his help to win the attention of elegant socialite, Allegra Cole. It\u2019s the kind of situation that turns heads, one of them being gossip columnist, Sara Melas (Eva Mendes), the woman that Hitch happens to be interested in.<\/p>\n

Hitch\u2019s whole promise is that you can arrange circumstances in such a way that you never have to reveal the most awkward parts of yourself. Love without vulnerability. It\u2019s easy to see the appeal there, but you can also see how it sounds too good to be true. Hitch was himself burned by a previous relationship when his girlfriend did not reciprocate his vulnerability. He says he feels \u201cobliged to pass on this education to his fellow men.\u201d He has built a career on building up a fragile ego, determined to never reveal anything vulnerable about himself or put himself in any situation in which he doesn\u2019t look like a superhero.<\/p>\n

His whole persona has a charming, even admirable bend to it. You kinda want what he\u2019s got. But it\u2019s the moments when Hitch is so clearly out of his comfort zone that stand out as the strongest, both narrative-wise and character-wise. It\u2019s also when his defenses are dropped that you get to see how Alex and Sara have a genuine rapport and level of comfort with one another. One such event has Hitch develop an intense allergic reaction, and in the fallout, Sara takes him over to her place. It\u2019s there that they share their life stories, and with them moments of genuine tenderness, setting the stage for a moment of genuine bonding between the two of them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not necessarily a viewpoint Hitch is eager to convert to. He and Albert are at odds with how to woo Allegra for basically the whole film. Hitch sees Albert as a walking disaster who is one breakdance from screwing up his chance with not only Allegra, but all of womankind. The twist is, it\u2019s his irrepressible authenticity that endears Allegra to Albert. Hitch\u2019s date doctor magic was nothing more than a placebo effect that gave Albert the confidence to open himself up to someone he was convinced was \u201cout of his league.\u201d Hitch is convinced that he has found a shortcut through living, an excuse to never feel disappointed or embarrassed, but really he is just putting up walls and closing doors. His only shot at happiness is by abandoning the facade and baring his soul to the woman he loves.<\/p>\n

Being authentic entails a lot more than just not lying. The kind of vulnerability that builds trust and companionship comes when you allow your whole self to be seen.<\/p>\n

Columbia Pictures via \u201cMovie Scope\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I promise I\u2019m not avoiding it, my television education has just always lagged behind my film education. (Though give me some credit, I am working to catch up and just finished watching Malcom in the Middle yesterday.) So when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4544,"featured_media":2615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,65,36,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happiness","category-rom-coms","category-truth","category-worth"],"yoast_head":"\nHitch and Authenticity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I promise I'm not avoiding it, my television education has just always\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hitch and Authenticity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I promise I'm not avoiding it, my television education has just always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sublime Cinema\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-14T20:07:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-04T04:33:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1414\/2024\/05\/Hitch.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zachary Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zachary Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/\",\"name\":\"Hitch and Authenticity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-14T20:07:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-04T04:33:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee\"},\"description\":\"Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I promise I'm not avoiding it, my television education has just always\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hitch and Authenticity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/\",\"name\":\"Sublime Cinema\",\"description\":\"Sublime Cinema assumes that there is light to be found in every good thing, including every good movie. Check out this blog to learn how we can find Christ, God, and goodness in films old and new\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee\",\"name\":\"Zachary Miller\",\"description\":\"Zachary Miller has been a believer and a lover of film all his life. He obtained his degree in Media Arts at Brigham Young University, and loves writing about how we can use film to draw nearer unto Christ. Read more of his writing on movies at Filmsandfeelings19.blogspot.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/author\/zmiller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hitch and Authenticity","description":"Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I promise I'm not avoiding it, my television education has just always","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hitch and Authenticity","og_description":"Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I promise I'm not avoiding it, my television education has just always","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/","og_site_name":"Sublime Cinema","article_published_time":"2024-05-14T20:07:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-04T04:33:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1414\/2024\/05\/Hitch.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Zachary Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zachary Miller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/","name":"Hitch and Authenticity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-05-14T20:07:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-04T04:33:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee"},"description":"Full confession: I have yet to see a single episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I promise I'm not avoiding it, my television education has just always","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/hitch-and-authenticity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hitch and Authenticity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/","name":"Sublime Cinema","description":"Sublime Cinema assumes that there is light to be found in every good thing, including every good movie. Check out this blog to learn how we can find Christ, God, and goodness in films old and new","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee","name":"Zachary Miller","description":"Zachary Miller has been a believer and a lover of film all his life. He obtained his degree in Media Arts at Brigham Young University, and loves writing about how we can use film to draw nearer unto Christ. Read more of his writing on movies at Filmsandfeelings19.blogspot.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/author\/zmiller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}