Some Tropes are Better than Others
The Thing About Harry shows Hollywood needs to expand their repertoire of LGBTQ stories.
“As long as we keep it in the friend zone, we’re good” states Sam in the gay rom-com movie The Thing About Harry. Airing on Freeform on Valentine’s Day, the movie follows Sam (played by Jake Borelli) who has been openly gay since high school, and the titular Harry (played by newcomer Niko Terho). We quickly find out Harry bullied Sam in high school and now identifies as pansexual.
The two meet again in college as Sam’s high school friend is getting married and Harry is his only ride back home.
In my personal opinion, the closeted gay bully trope is overrated and overworked in Hollywood: Karofsky in Glee, Paige in Pretty Little Liars, and Adam in Sex Education. It seems Hollywood is best at writing love stories about gay characters, as long as one of them is closeted.
Of course, there are always nuanced interpretations within each of these fictional relationships and as far as tropes go, this one is far from the worst.
But The Thing About Harry doesn’t stop at one trope, it adds the sometimes bonus trope in gay films where the closeted gay bullies the openly gay protagonist. Although this inherently adds some drama to the film, this trope has the potential to promote toxic relationship dynamics. And with limited LGBTQ+ films, representation matters.
Offscreen, there are people who might watch and then fantasize about a relationship that will never happen, and that can be damaging. This bully dynamic ultimately plays into rebelling against the status quo. The Thing About Harry, staying true to its trope, ultimately has Sam — the bullied — forgive his bully Harry by the time the credits roll.
Part of this forgiveness is tied to Harry admitting to being closeted during high school and apologizing to Sam for his past behavior. Although the bullying trope is handled as expected, Harry’s sexuality was dealt with in a nuanced, refreshing way. In the movie, as they addressed the stereotype of Harry’s pansexuality being linked to his extensive dating history, or “being greedy.”
As a viewer, the scenes pertaining to his pansexuality were hard to watch, but it is ultimately a conversation that needs to be had. While the movie progresses, Sam grows to become more unlikable. He’s judgmental to start off with, and his jealousy fuels his negative emotions. Sam pushes Harry away to protect his emotions, so Harry hooks up with Sam’s straight, female friend Stasia (played by Britt Baron). Another overused trope a la Center of My World.
Of course, the trend of hooking up with the best friend is present within heterosexual rom-coms, but taking sexuality into consideration you can empathize with Sam’s insecurity. While I can’t find it in myself to feel sorry for Sam, I recognize that it’s also because I identify with many of his neuroses and negative traits.
Sam keeps Harry in a faux relationship by virtue of their friendship and tells Harry that he doesn’t see him as “relationship material” due to his dating history — read pansexuality. Which I think in the grand scheme of things, is a strange thing to focus on considering the whole bullying thing. Harry moves on because they weren’t in a relationship and he doesn’t owe Sam anything other than letting him know something happened.
The second half of the movie is Harry apologizing on two different occasions, yet Sam never does regarding his blowup concerning Harry and Stasia’s relationship. Harry is the only one who seems to change. Throughout the movie he holds a string of retail jobs, and ultimately gives up his dream job as a marketer in LA to stay with Sam.
He apologizes to Sam for not telling him about the job immediately after patching their relationship up, and Harry has to apologize to Sam for hooking up with Stasia.
At the beginning of the film. I was rooting for Sam more than Harry, as the main character and with the bullying issue in the back of my mind. If you believe that actions speak louder than words, maybe Harry redeemed himself to some degree.
On the other hand, I didn’t witness any of Sam’s growth. He achieves his dream job but never works on his negative traits, though he can also be caring and loving towards the people he cares for. He accepts Harry at the end, demonstrating acceptance of Harry’s past.
At the end of the day, my problems with this movie are associated with romantic comedy tropes, and this movie is a genuinely sweet and relatively relatable Millennial love story.
Despite my issues with the genre, hopefully studios make more gay rom-coms because we deserve a fun LGBTQ+ movie not focused on coming out or being a drama.
