I’ve got this overly complex pet peeve about movie titles lifted from song names.
It’s irrational, and I make a ton of subjective exceptions. If the title’s contextual – like La Bamba or Great Balls of Fire – fine. If the song’s used in a meaningful way, and you can tell it was there at some script stage – Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Blue Velvet or even The Pompatus of Love – no problem. Can’t Buy Me Love or High Fidelity – I give them a hall pass for thematic relevance. Totally subjective.
I’m not talking about Footloose or Flashdance either. That’s a different animal – soundtrack songs named after the movie. I actually love that. Bonus points if the lyrics dig into the plot.
What bugs me specifically, and for no good reason because I understand marketing, is when a studio grabs a song title for easy mnemonic value… especially if it’s only tengentical to the plot. That feels cheap for some reason. Take a tune everyone already knows, stamp it on the poster, and let the nostalgia do the work. If the name already comes with melody, memory, emotional weight? Even better. Would Peggy Sue Got Married still be titled that way if Coppola couldn’t get the rights to the Buddy Holly track?
The video store racks were full of them. Films named after songs your parents slow-danced to in the kitchen: Stand by Me, My Girl, Sea of Love. Or others like Book of Love, Johnny Be Good, Bye Bye Love, Oh, What a Night, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty Woman, Satisfaction, Love Hurts, Lean On Me, My Blue Heaven – all riding that built-in goodwill. Studios clearly hoped the title alone might make you feel something just by reading it. And maybe sell a few soundtracks.
Can’t Hurry Love fits right into that stack. A tropey video-dating rom-com about a guy pretending to be a jerk so women will fall for him – a plot that ages like bean sprouts. And they hand it to David Packer, un unknown asked to carry a whole film. Charm the camera. Sell a character arc that needs both pathos and comic timing. And damn if he doesn’t try. It also features a plethora of familiar faces, and Scott McGinnis who should have done big things.
It’s slick, it’s shallow, but does it earn the title? Not really. The guy is trying to hurry love, technically. There’s a lesson to be learned. So I guess it scans.
But let’s be honest, the title sold it. The movie just came along for the ride.