Wikipedia shows its reliability as a source by calling the movie a romantic comedy. I'll take the comedy, but can't figure out what is so romantic about it. Dustin Hoffman (with ten years taken from him by a bad haircut) falls in love with Elaine, the daughter of the old family friend who seduced him after he returned from school in a directionless haze after one date and proceeds to go after her in an almost stalkerly way once she finds out he was doing her mom. She then waffles between Hoffman and some blonde frat boy (from a house that apparently only accepts Aryan pledges) having said that maybe she would marry either of them. Hoffman uses the only strategy any self-respecting man who is in love with someone he has only spent a few hours with can to get the answer he wants. He badgers her until she says maybe and won't stop until they've said "I do." Of course they never do, because her parents are (rightly, yet comically) furious that he's trying to get in bed with their daughter after bedding her mother countless times in a hotel. Apparently Elaine is forced to marry frat boy Carl because Hoffman has to speed all over California to find the secret wedding, crash it after the deed has been done yelling "ELAINE!" over and over until she yells back. They fight to be together and only get away once he rips a cross off the wall, brandishing it against the shocked family and using it to lock them in the church. Then, in the famous ending scene, they snag a bus full of confused people and we watch them catch their breath, falling from giddy to pensive (which I am convinced is actually terror before it really takes hold, because what the hell can they do now?)
I'll believe the romance part when I see them ten years later and they have a happy family. Until then, it seems like a sad recipe for divorce. A recent college grad seeks meaning in his life by trying to marry the first girl he makes a connection with in his time of complete malaise. Now there is something that always turns out well, at least in the movies.
It only took me a couple years during college to realize the glamorous life I was told stemmed from impulsive behavior and its inevitable drama was boring and completely unfulfilling. Had I seen The Graduate any time before my junior year I might have tried to ruin my life a little harder (truth is I didn't have much of a stomach for it, and was therefore pretty bad at it.) I don't think I would have been fooled into finding romance in the movie in the happily ever after sense, but I definitely would have in the hitting rock bottom to really find who you are and make something of yourself sense. It probably wouldn't have been the straw that broke my camel's back, but those dumb ideas in my head didn't need any more validation.
In conclusion? I loved the movie. I feel like it's a prequel to a Wes Anderson movie, setting the stage for personal growth and closure in ten or twenty years once that past catches up with them.
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