Varun Patel
Romance is perhaps the most relatable movie genre since almost everyone feels the universal emotion that is love. That is also the reason romance movies feel profound because they can often contain messages that would be relatable to everyone due to the universality of love. Netflix’s ‘Desperados’ is a romantic comedy that also attempts to pack in a universal message about love. Whether it manages to do that effectively is a matter of personal opinion. However, apart from that, there is also a ton of comedy to complement it, thanks to a hilarious premise.
The leading character, Wesley is essayed by Nasim Pedrad. Pedrad gained prominence for being a part of ‘New Girl‘ and ‘Aladdin.’ Pedrad’s ‘New Girl’ co-star, Lamorne Morris is also a part of the ‘Desperados’ cast. Robbie Amell of ‘Upload‘ and ‘The Flash‘ fame is also an integral cast member of the movie. Other cast members include Anna Camp and Sarah Burns.
Desperados Plot Summary:
Wesley or Wes is struggling to find a job and a partner and desperately wants to settle down in life. She goes on a date with a man named Sean. However, Sean ends the date abruptly when she mentions marriage and kids too frequently. Immediately after that, she slips, falls down, and meets a charming man named Jared. Jared seems like the perfect guy and Wesley starts to hide her true self in order to make the relationship work.
After Jared and Wesly finally have sex, the former does not contact her for a few days. Upset, Wesley gets drunk with her friends and writes a long and insulting email to him. However, Jared calls Wes after that to inform her that he had gotten into a car accident in Mexico, without having checked the email. To save her relationship, Wesley decides to go to Jared’s hotel in Mexico, sneak into his room and delete the email. She takes her friends, Brooke and Kaylie along.
Coincidentally, Sean is at the same hotel. Wesley gets chucked out of the hotel due to a few mishaps. However, she tries to break in again (against her friends’ advice), gets caught, and is jailed. After her release, Sean comes to pick her up. Wesley decides to meet Jared at the Mexican airport and fly back with him. She plans on deleting the email on the flight. Sean agrees to drive her to the airport. On the way, Sean tells Wesley that she had been his first and only date after the death of his wife. He had ended the date because it had gotten too real too fast. The two bond over the drive.
On the plane, Wes tells Jared about the email and comes clean to him. However, Jared breaks up with her since she (Wes) had been hiding her true self. After that, Wes ends up fighting with her friends since they feel neglected by her. Back home, Wes finds a job due to Sean’s recommendation. Then, she apologizes to her friends and they forgive her. Wesley goes to Sean, who is at the restaurant where they had gone on a date, to ask him out. However, Sean is on a date with another girl (that he doesn’t seem too interested in). Yet, he agrees to date Wesely and the two kiss on the street. The other girl walks past them, complaining to her mother about her terrible date.
Desperados Ending Explained:
‘Desperados’ ends with Sean and Wes kissing on the street and the other girl walking past them, complaining to her mother about her terrible date. Well, the ending signifies Wesley’s self-journey from the start of the film to the end. The other girl is like a caricature that represents Wesley’s past self when she and Sean had had a failed date. The ending signifies how one has to work on one’s own flaws before seeking a flawless relationship that can work.
It is not that Sean and Wesley worked because they spent some “real time” in Mexico. They worked only because Wesley had changed (and so had Sean). Even if their first date had not ended abruptly, they would not have worked since both of them were going through issues of their own at the start of the movie. Wesley was jumping into relationships as a means of external validation because she desperately wanted something to work in her own life. She wasn’t actually chasing a real relationship. She was chasing the idea or notion of it.
However, she has that self-realization with her desperate and stalking ways with Wesley. During the drive to the airport, she finally realizes that she was pretending to be someone else just to have a relationship because she was severely underconfident due to being unemployed. Sean makes her realize that. That realization sets in more deeply when Jared does not accompany her in poking fun of a guy cutting his nails on the plane. Sean had mentioned how the best part about his relationship with his late wife had been laughing at people at parties. Wesley had agreed that she liked that aspect of relationships too. When Jared does not laugh, Wesley realizes that her relationship with him might not be real and decides to confess.
When Wesley asks Sean out towards the end of the movie, she knows it is real. She is not doing it to chase some idea of perfection. She is doing it because she truly, genuinely wants to be with him. Sean, on the other hand, is also more accepting and has finally moved on. He becomes ready to plunge into a new relationship: something he is scared to do at the start of the film. Hence, the girl at the end signifies why Sean and Wesley do not work out at the beginning of the film, but after introspection, manage to work later.
Read More: Best Romance Movies on Netflix
