Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Film critic Nathan Rabin coined the term ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ (MPDG) after seeing Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown (2005).  MPDG is a “bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures."  MPDGs are usually static, stock film characters that have eccentric personality quirks (eg, kooky) and are unabashedly girlish.  According to Rabin, MPDGs attempt to help their men without pursuing their own happiness, but such characters never grow up, so their men never grow up. 

Examples of other cited MPDG characters include:

• Sam (Natalie Portman) in Garden State  (2004).

• Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) in Almost Famous  (2000).

• Zooey Deschanel's character in Yes Man (Allison, 2008), 500 Days of Summer (Summer Finn, 2009) and the TV show ‘New Girl’ (Jessica "Jess" Day, 2011).

• Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand) in What's Up, Doc (1972).

• Maude (Ruth Gordon) in Harold and Maude (1971)

• Goldie Hawn's characters in Cactus Flower (Toni Simmons, 1969) and Butterflies Are Free (Jill Tanner, 1972).

• Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).

• Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) in The Apartment (1960).

• Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) in Bringing Up Baby (1938).

Kate Winslet's character, Clementine Kruczynski, in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is notable for acknowledging and rejecting this label, in a remark to Jim Carrey's Joel character: "Too many guys think I'm a concept, or I complete them, or I'm gonna make them alive. But I'm just a f-up girl who's lookin' for my own peace of mind; don't assign me yours."  ‘Eternal Sunshine’ validates the MPDG premise since the film was released before Rabin coined the term (Elizabethtown).

The Filmspotting podcast created a list of "Top Five Manic Pixie Dream Girls".  Among those included were Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) in Jules and Jim, Jean (Barbara Stanwyck) in The Lady Eve, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) in Some Like It Hot, and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) in The Palm Beach Story.

Zach Braff, of 'Scrubbs' TV fame, directed Garden State. Financially it was very successful film - box office receipts exceeded $36M with only a $2.5M budget.  Critically, Fox Searchlight Pictures president Peter Rice said of the film, "Having enjoyed the film immensely, we look forward to working with Miramax to bring Garden State to audiences worldwide."

Film critic Roger Ebert gave ‘Almost Famous’ four out of four stars and praised it for being "funny and touching in so many different ways".