K. Krombie

“Write what you know” is what writers—established or otherwise—hear from those in the know and from those who don’t know much at all. Meanwhile, visitors to places I have either lived in or been to, regularly ask me, “What bars would you recommend?” Penning my advice on this particular topic is, needless to say, writing what I know, but occupying the go-to pub whisperer position can be a tricky bar stool on which to balance.

Crimson Peak tells the story of a young heiress, Edith (Mia Wasikowska), who is lured into marriage by the seductive Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). Thomas and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) are not the most welcoming hosts at their gothic estate in northern England. Edith soon learns that the siblings have lured her there for their own gain.

Comedy movies often play on simple character archetypes as a springboard for humor, and one of the most common is the “mean girlfriend.” Often, their crime is behaving like a grown-up woman in a man-boy’s world. They are a force to be reckoned with, usually usually paired with a lead male character who is more fleshed out. In the comedy film set-up, the intermittent presence of a hen-pecking girlfriend - apprehensive and with arms folded - constitutes a conflict enabler to move the plot along.