Taming of the Who?

August 19, 2007 10:11 PM

Help me find some good movies in which the protagonist is an angry bitch-on-wheels, who eventually sweetens up by film's end.

Hey there-- I'm looking for recommendations of films (preferably dramas or romantic comedies) where the main character's key flaw is her anger. Something in the vein of Beatrice in "Much Ado about Nothing" or Kate in "Taming of the Shrew" (or, by proxy, "10 Things I Hate about You.") Only interested in angry women leads, here.

Bonus points for romantic films where the lead male is somehow responsible for her working through her anger/bad temper issues.

posted by np312 to media & arts (26 comments total)

The first to come to mind stars Christina Ricci: The Opposite of Sex. I'll try to think of some others.
posted by cgc373 at 10:23 PM on August 19, 2007

Frankie and Johnny comes to mind. I'll keep thinking of others.
posted by dancinglamb at 10:24 PM on August 19, 2007

Corky (Gina Gershon) in Bound.
posted by fandango_matt at 10:32 PM on August 19, 2007

Oh, seconding The Opposite of Sex - great movie!
posted by lalex at 10:33 PM on August 19, 2007

The Upside of Anger, duh.
posted by nicwolff at 10:36 PM on August 19, 2007

Kill Bill? Pride and Prejudice?
posted by stereo at 10:57 PM on August 19, 2007

"Kill Bill". Hard to get much angrier than the Blood-Spattered Bride. Except for "romantic", it fits. :)
posted by aeschenkarnos at 10:57 PM on August 19, 2007

Overboard, with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Underrated comedy.
posted by user92371 at 11:09 PM on August 19, 2007

What about The Philadelphia Story?
posted by mumkin at 11:25 PM on August 19, 2007

Freeway
posted by rhizome at 11:32 PM on August 19, 2007

The Hudsucker Proxy (kind of)
posted by travis08 at 11:41 PM on August 19, 2007

Rose McGowan plays a scowling teenage outrageous bitch in Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation, but the movie is gonzo cinema: It's violent like a cartoon (severed heads talk, is what I'm saying) but also like a movie, where some of the visceral quality is unavoidably not cartoonish. Just a warning, in case you hate that kind of thing.
posted by cgc373 at 11:51 PM on August 19, 2007

La Femme Nikita
Heathers
Mr & Mrs. Smith
Elizabeth
Thelma and Louise (TWO bitches on wheels!)
Far and Away
Moonstruck
Mermaids
posted by iamkimiam at 12:59 AM on August 20, 2007

Maid Marian, as played by Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marian and by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, goes through pretty much the arc you describe. Mastrantonio also portrays this arc in The Abyss, as does Bonnie Bedelia in the first Die Hard, though these movies aren't led by the women or by that plot.

Still thinking.
posted by cgc373 at 1:13 AM on August 20, 2007

rhizome: reese witherspoon is anything but mellowed out at the end of "freeway"...
posted by Silky Slim at 2:00 AM on August 20, 2007

The greatest bitch transformation is in the original 1974 Italian Swept Away. Stay far away from the Madonna fiasco.
posted by tula at 2:03 AM on August 20, 2007

The Long Kiss Goodnight, though I think it might be the mirror image of what you're looking for. Sort of. She starts off sweet, becomes a 'bitch-on-wheels' as you put it, and then kind of mellows again.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:48 AM on August 20, 2007

In theaters now: No Reservations.
posted by FlamingBore at 5:18 AM on August 20, 2007

Holly Hunter in Broadcast News.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:50 AM on August 20, 2007

There's a Taming of the Shrew BBC remake from 2005 set in modern England with incomprarable casting and dialogue... Shirley Henderson as Katharine and Rufus Sewell as Petruchio. It's marvelous, marvelous, marvelous even if you have no interest in Shakespeare *at all*.
posted by Arch1 at 7:32 AM on August 20, 2007

High Society is a musical version of The Philadelphia Story mentioned above. It is much less nuanced, but much more Satchmoed.

Kiss Me, Kate is a musical version of Taming of the Shrew, sort of.

His Girl Friday is not a musical, but Rosalind Russell's character does have some uptightness issues. More vaguely justified than pure bitchiness, but it's a good movie.
posted by fidelity at 8:43 AM on August 20, 2007

I used to have quite the crush on Moira Kelly after seeing The Cutting Edge, which is pretty much the Taming of the Shrew on ice. Her character's name is even Kate.
posted by kimota at 9:32 AM on August 20, 2007

This previous question will have much of this exact thing, with some TV and such mixed in with the movies.

And might I highlight in particular: The Cutting Edge.
posted by lampoil at 9:36 AM on August 20, 2007

Point of No Return (American remake of La Femme Nikita)
posted by clh at 11:23 AM on August 20, 2007

Drowning Mona
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 8:05 PM on August 20, 2007

No Reservations is a remake of Bella (released as Mostly in the States) Martha. I haven't seen the new version, but how one could find Aaron Eckhart credible as warm and sensual is beyond me--he was also miscast in Possession.
posted by brujita at 9:05 PM on August 20, 2007