25 Years Ago, This Rom-Com Subverted the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope Before It Even Existed

Critic Nathan Rabin first coined the term “manic pixie dream girl” to describe a young woman whose whimsy exists solely as a catalyst for change for the leading man. While he used it in reference to Kirsten Dunst in 2005’s Elizabethtown, plenty ofcharacters have been labeled manic pixie dream girls retroactively. This wish-fulfillment feminine trope often holds hands with traits typical of mental illness, from Penny Lane’s (Kate Hudson) struggle with addiction in Almost Famous, to the mood swings of Clementine (Kate Winslet) in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sam (Natalie Portman) in Garden State literally meets Andrew at a clinic.