What Is The Prom Trying to Be?
It has been a while since I have found so many things to dislike in a movie that I ultimately loved. “Love” may be a strong word, but by the end, I was grinning, dancing, and desperate to talk about the movie with my friends who enjoy musicals.
The Prom had not only multiple plot holes but also entire arcs that seemed (at least to me) completely unrealistic. I don’t mean unrealistic in the sense of “multicolored lights don’t magically appear when you’re performing at a PTA meeting”—I have no problem with the suspended reality required when watching a movie musical. I mean that the premise in general, and many of the characters’ choices specifically, didn’t feel based in an emotional reality. I graduated from high school in 2016 in the conservative suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska. Homophobia and misogyny were serious problems at my school, and I am sure they continue to plague schools across the country. However, the students’ and PTA’s hate at the Indiana high school in The Prom was presented in such an over-the-top manner that it seemed completely out of touch with the youth experience of the 2010s. For example, the homophobic student’s bully Emma overtly, pranking her locker and insulting her to her face. I remember thinking that this would never happen, that students today must bully subtly and clandestinely, often with greater psychological consequences for their victims. High school is complicated, and The Prom made it seem simple.
One of the main questions of the second half of the film is whether Emma (the student who has been barred from prom for wanting to bring her girlfriend) will speak about her experience publicly. It was painfully predictable that she at first refuses, then eventually comes around, releasing an original song on YouTube that goes viral. My reaction was, “Of course she goes viral!” The idea of a high school barring a girl from prom, then ultimately throwing a separate prom without her is so absurdly cruel that it is obvious the internet would rally around her. However, I was willing to forgive all of this, since the conflict gave us the somewhat ridiculous yet immensely entertaining number from Nicole Kidman: “Zazz.”
In the next scene, Meryl Streep and James Corden are in a hotel room doing LED light face treatments. They have a long conversation about their characters’ central problems (Dee Dee’s romantic relationships and Barry’s relationship with his mother). Coming directly after the delightfully zany “Zazz,” this scene ground the film to a halt. The more solemn tone took me out of the movie’s spirit thus far, making me question what the tone was intended to be. Does it want me to care about Dee Dee and Barry, who thus far have been mostly farcical and entertaining in their antics?
However, I adored Andrew Rannells, and I adored every moment watching him sing in a mall. At the same time, it was laughable that just a few lines on biblical hypocrisy would convince the students who had so cruelly bullied Emma to join her side. It was around this point that I began to wonder whether the film was in on the joke with me. The plot points were growing so detached from anything real people might actually do that I began to think that maybe this was the point (i.e. the movie is silly, and the movie knows it’s silly).
I admit that, even though it bothered me, I was happy to live in The Prom's world for a little while, where the bigots see the errors of their ways and everything works out. Maybe it’s okay to imagine the world is a bit nicer than it truly is. Even when it felt ridiculous, the movie was great fun. The final number was a blast—I may have audibly cheered when Alyssa and Emma finally kiss. I admit that I found myself queueing the Broadway soundtrack on Spotify for weeks to come.
