Bechdel Test Movie List

This is a tough one. Really, Emily Blunt's character Elise is the only one that matters in the story. She does, at least twice, talk to other women: 1) when she wants to dance at her studio, she asks the receptionist if she's allowed (but the receptionist is unnamed); 2) she asks her friend (named in the credits), if she can use the bathroom before her wedding.

What really makes it dubious is that both times Elise is doing what she's doing because she's unsure about a relationship with a man.

^^^ That's doesn't matter. So she's there because a man (the main character, who drives the whole plot) did something... you can extrapolate that principle to render almost any movie invalid.

It's not a female-centric movie, and it barely meets the test's standards. But, technically, it does pass.

We're using the only-named-characters count method. Can anyone remember the friend being named in the movie? If not, it doesn't pass any of the tests because there aren't two female characters. (Having a nameless bit character with a line or two doesn't count even if she gets a placeholder name in the credits.)

I agree with X. If we use the "she's doing it because of a man" standard as disqualifying then virtually every movie becomes disqualified. It's not a really developed female interaction but she DOES talk to the receptionist or whatever you'd call her about the use of the dance space.

Nimravid is right. I just saw the movie two days ago and had no recollection of any other female charactors aside from Elise. My brother is an actor, and he would definitely disagree that saying one sentence in a film is the same as being a character.

I don't think her friend is ever named in the movie proper, just in the credits. I agree with Nimravid.

Just saw the movie last week -- thought "two women characters??" Asking an unnamed receptionist if you can use the bathroom is NOT a conversation between two women. Agree totally with Nimravid.

Here I thought two characters talking to each other about something meant they were required to have an actual conversation. I asked the waitress at a restaurant where I could find the bathroom, but that didn't mean we carried on a conversation. It was a cursory interaction. Elise asking a receptionist if she can use the dance floor is not a conversation, it's a request for permission. She could ask the same thing of a man, a child, or an asexual automated robot, and no one would call it a meaningful exchange.

The rule originated in a comic strip, where the language is, of course informal. Clearly, "talk to each other about" meant more than just asking where the bathroom is. Both in spirit and technically, this move fails.

The receptionist is NOT named. This movie fails technically and in spirit.