What Happens In Vegas

What Happens In Vegas is one of my favorite romantic comedies. The movie is about a woman who gets dumped by her boyfriend and a guy who can't even hold a job with his father, both of whom don't know each other yet. In relation to recent events, both people end up in Vegas to try and have a little fun. After being assigned mistakingly to the same room, they end up all going out that night and actually getting married in a drunken haze. When trying to fit the pieces together in the morning, the man uses a quarter the woman gave him to play a slot and they win millions of dollars. When they try to file for divorce at home and see who has the rights to the money, the judge is fed up with "our generation" and how me me me it is and says they must try to make it work in the marriage and then come back to court and the money will be split half (whether or not the marriage works, they just have to try). Through hilarious pranks and events, the two opposite people who thought they made a mistake end up falling for each other in the end.

There are two theories that can explain this sort of situation.
The first is Reiss's Wheel Theory. In class, we were taught that the wheel theory has four stages of love; rapport, self-revelation, mutual dependency, and personality needs fulfillment. This wheel can stop, continue going, or even go in the opposite direction. In the film What Happens In Vegas, We can see that this wheel spins backwards, stops at stages, and even returns to stages that passed already. In the beginning, they make a mutual agreement to get married and had shared each other's lives with one another (intoxicated) which is the end of the wheel; they sort of work backwards since they married first. Throughout the movie, as they start to fall for each other, they visit each stage. At the end, when they decide to stay married because they are actually in love now, they re visit the personality needing fulfillment stage and is evident that they will work together and support each other in marriage. This just shows that the wheel doesn't have to go in order, as explained and it is also very applicable.

The second theory is Sternberg's Triangular Theory. This theory sees love as a triangle, each side being intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Depending on what type of love is being described, some sides hold more weight than others. In the case of this film, I would say that the love starts out as empty love; only staying together for the commitment. However, as the critique mentioned, this theory doesn't take into consideration time and development and this is evident in the film. They grow and end up falling for each other which, after all is experienced and said and done, it more reflects consummate love.