Rom-Com Blog Summer Watchlist: “The Art Of Getting By”

This movie is not a romantic comedy; it is a straight up dramantic movie with not much comedy. There were a few jokes here and there, but this movie had a deeper meaning and did not use comedy to fall back on.

“The Art Of Getting By” focuses on a struggling high school senior who thinks that everything in the world is pointless because everyone dies in the end. He said that like literally in the first two or three minutes of the film and I was like “aw shit, it is about to go down”. George (Freddie Highmore) did not do any homework or anything in school, the only thing he did do was get in trouble. But then everything changed for him when he met Sally (Emma Roberts). She embraced his weirdness and they became very good friends, but George wanted to be more than friends.

George’s home life was not ideal as well, which is why he was not motivated to do anything, but Sally made George actually gain motivation to do work and try. She ended up breaking his heart, and he was the never the same for a while. He was almost expelled from school and his mom was forced to sell the apartment because she was divorcing her husband. George then told Sally how he really felt and she showed him that she was with one of their friends who said that he was going to back off from her because he knew how crazy George was about her.

George was broken again, but then he rallied to finish all his schoolwork so he could graduate. The movie ended when Sally skipped out on going abroad with her boyfriend to visit George at a art studio. He painted a beautiful picture of Sally, and they ended the movie on really good terms, holding hands.

First things first; this movie is weird. Second thing, Emma Roberts is a rom-com keep getting those checks all-star. She has been in so many romantic/dramantic comedies, peep her IMDB page. The friendship/relationship between George and Sally was fascinating because she kept denying that George really liked her, but she had to have some idea that he wanted to be more than friends. George did not actually tell her that he cared for her and loved her until much later in the movie, but she had to know.

The deeper meaning and message behind this movie was that some people struggle to succeed and struggle with being themselves, but there is still a way to overcome it. For George, meeting Sally changed his mind-set, and when he lost her, he was back to unmotivated George. Even when they were not friends after she broke his heart, he realized that he had to succeed for his mother’s sake.

You find someone to motivate you if you cannot motivate yourself, that is how you get by. I would recommend watching this movie, but it is very slow, and the dialogue is boring, but the character development and growth of George is marvelous. George is a very bright kid who was lost and unmotivated, but that changed once he met sally.

Maybe they can change the movie title to “When George Met Sally”.. O wait…