I think Arthur is a great example of a movie to tie in the growing up from a boy to a man trope with the romance being part of the catalyst for the change. Hell, in the remake starring Russell Brand he drives the friggin batmobile.
Which leads us to
Manchild. This seems like the typical example that Bly describes.
From the trope:
The Man Child, a term invented by William Faulkner, is usually an adult who possesses a very childlike or childish demeanor. He's emotionally both simple and fragile; he prefers (although does not always need) to have a parent figure to look after him. He usually isn't very worldly and is typically pretty gullible. The Man Child's interests are usually what most people consider to be immature or childish, even in comparison to actual children.
In the vast majority of cases, the character is Always Male.
In addition to the remake version:
Well Done Son Guy: Nearly all of Arthur's emotional troubles stem from his awful mother (he calls her by her first name, Vivianne) and the fact his perfectly healthy father died suddenly at the age of 45, when Arthur was 6. By the end of the film, he openly considers his nanny Hobson to be his real mother.
I think the shear number of these films might be indicative of a situation not unlike the quote above. Although I think Bly would be wholly disagree with the fact that Hobson should have been a female. In the original Hobson
WAS a male.
I wonder if the fact that in the remake Hobson's role being taken by a rather more masculine woman is a closer example of the norm of today. I, however, don't doubt that a woman
can take on that role of teaching a boy to be a man (I disagree with Bly on that note), at the same time, I can't think of any examples off the top of my head.
Edit: In bold ... sort of said what I didn't intend to say.
