How I Fell In Love With... Vince Vaughn

(by Emily)

For most people, it was Swingers that first heralded Vince Vaughn as daydream-worthy. At the time of its release (1996) a lot of my friends fell for his charisma and enigmatic swagger. Oh, right, and that shockingly beautiful face that seemed to be carved from some flawless hunk of marble. But, for me, Vince Vaughn in Swingers (and the subsequent media bonanza) struck me as blatantly ego-tastic. I thought his performance was good, but the swagger ran hollow. Also, there was the little matter of his bouffant hairdo swathed in enough gel to keep a battalion of Dolly Parton impersonators coiffed for decades. In short, I found Vince Vaughn a little too "money" for his own good.

It wasn't until four years later that Vince began to wiggle his way into my heart. The film was The Cell. I know --bizarre. I don't understand it myself, really. All I can tell you is that something about the cheap, ill-fitting suits and deadpan delivery of Agent Novak intrigued me. To be honest, I think I have a thing for lovable but misunderstood losers with hidden talents. (Don't tell my boyfriend I said that. He thinks he's understood.)

In The Cell Vince's confidence didn't seem to be all swagger anymore. His acting was anything but hollow. His face was even more shockingly beautiful. Thus, a teeny tiny little spark went off in my heart. And, as is usually the case with these things, I would not rest until that spark was stoked into the kind of fire that requires an aerial dousing mission.

I devoured all the Vince I could get my hands on. I rented Clay Pigeons, and the horrendous Return to Paradise (Yep, I'm the one). I re-screened Jurassic Park: The Lost World, which I had completely forgotten he was in--probably because immediately upon exiting the theater, I tried to erase the entire movie from my memory. Yet, none of these satisfied.*

It wasn't until I discovered a tiny little film called A Cool, Dry Place that I really fell hard for Vince Vaughn. The film, based on a novel called Dance Real Slow, is about a man who's forced to give up his career to raise his young son after his wife abandons the family. In it, Vince is a deliciously flawed man. Oh, and drop-dead gorgeous. Now, I'm not going to lie to you, the movie's a sap-fest. But, it's a sap-fest with good performances and characters that are really human. The critics almost universally panned it, but I really think A Cool, Dry Place is a little gem, especially for a lazy, rainy Saturday afternoon. Vince is lovely in it. Really. You just want to cuddle him. And then makeout with him for an extended period of time--forever, if possible.

Since I saw A Cool, Dry Place Vince has been consistently funny and charming. Dodgeball and Wedding Crashers are a couple of hilarious plotless-wonders. Also, I admire Vince for being Jennifer Aniston's rebound guy and, ostensibly, helping her through this difficult time. This admiration is itself testimony to his drool-power as a) I don't particularly care for Jennifer Aniston's work; b) I don't spend an awful lot of time pondering her emotional well-being; and c) I assume that at any time Jen could quite effectively sooth any emotional turmoil by rolling around naked in her massive piles of cold, hard cash.

Anyway, though not currently on my top-tier of shamefully one-sided imaginary love affairs, Vince Vaughn has a very special place in my heart. And until he does something really silly, I imagine he'll stay there.

*Note: Not even Vaughn-love could make me watch Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Psycho. I am a geek who went to film school, I admit it. That being said, I am not a movie snob. I promise. The film Wind is seriously one of my favorite movies ever. (Go ahead, laugh at me if you want.) However, in my opinion, even thinking about doing a remake of Hitchcock is a crime. No, I mean it, an actual crime. There should be a court for these things. . . perhaps televised like "Judge Judy."