Case Study No. 0267: Mandy

You.Me.Dupree[2006].WMV
0:40
Librarians
Tags: Librarians
Added: 2 years ago
From: deanxavier
Views: 2,159

[Molly and Carl are discussing possible ways to convince Carl's friend Dupree to move out of their house]
MOLLY: What if ... he had a girlfriend?
CARL: [sarcastically] Good idea, but ... how's a guy with no job, no car, living on somebody's couch, gonna find any kinda girlfriend?
MOLLY: Our new librarian ... She seems really nice.
CARL: [incredulous] You wanna fix Dupree up with a really nice librarian?
MOLLY: [coyly smiles]
CARL: Listen, I've known the guy for twenty five years. I think he's more into the young, foreign ... non-librarian type.
MOLLY: Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask.
CARL: I wouldn't get my hopes up.
[cut to Molly showing Dupree a picture of the librarian in her elementary school's faculty guide]
DUPREE: [without hesitation] I'll do it.
MOLLY: [surprised] Oh, that's great ... Do, you wanna know anything about her?
DUPREE: Nope ... Well, does-does she have a car?
MOLLY: Yeah!

---

From earthlink.net:

YOU, ME AND DUPREE

Russo, Anthony & Joe Russo (Directors). You, Me and Dupree. United States: Universal Pictures, 2006.

Starring: Owen Wilson (Randy Dupree, Librarian lover); Kate Hudson (Molly Peterson); Matt Dillon (Carl Peterson)

A newly married couple -- Molly and Carl -- find their lives disrupted when Dupree, Carl's lifelong friend and the best man at their wedding, crashes on the couch and shows every intention of simply staying there. Molly (an elementary school teacher) suggests to Carl that she arrange a date between Dupree and Mandy, the school librarian.

"She seems really nice," she tells her husband. Carl is skeptical.

"You want to fix Dupree up with a really nice librarian? Listen, I've known the guy for 25 years. I think he's more into the young, foreign, not-librarian type ... I wouldn't get my hopes up."

Yet when she asks Dupree his immediate response is "I'll do it." His only question is, "Does she have a car?" Fortunately she does. He half smiles, murmurs "Librarian!" and nods knowingly.

That night when Carl and Molly return home from a company dinner, they interrupt the couple ... um ... getting to know each other, shall we say? ... on their fold-out couch. All we see of Mandy in the flickering candle-light is one shapely elevated leg which Dupree is smearing with butter. Molly runs outside, shocked -- Mandy, after all, is a Mormon. (Carl, beyond surprise now, states flatly, "You fixed Dupree up with a Mormon librarian.") Molly is horrified by what she witnessed. "That butter dish was a wedding gift!"

Dupree rushes out of the house (holding couch pillows in strategic places) and wants to thank Molly for the best night of his life. "I'm in love!" At this point we see (through the window) the living room burst into flames. Later we get only a glimpse of Mandy's curly brown hair when Dupree sends her home in her car. (He compares her to Audrey Hepburn, if that's a hint as to her appearance and how classy she appears to him.) Dupree is asked to leave the next morning, when he announces that he's going to move in with Mandy ("The librarian," Carl confirms.).

That night they find Dupree sitting on a park bench in the pouring rain listening to Barry Manilow ("Mandy," of course). "Don't ask," he says miserably to Molly. Of course they take him home, one condition being "no more naked stuff." Later, when Dupree fills in for Carl for "Career Day" at Molly's school (despite his lack of one), he begs her to get the librarian to come to class and watch. "I think this will win her back." Of course she doesn't show, and after class Molly, with difficulty, explains that Mandy didn't come because "Mandy ... she has to ... she had ... she ... had a book ... that was ... lost." He's clearly upset.

"Dupree, there's something you need to know about Mandy. Well, it turns out ... she's a total slut. She's sleeping with half the male faculty."

"What?" he cries, "My Mandy?" He's tormented by the news. At this point we see a nerdy teacher going into a classroom and Dupree looks at Mandy and she reluctantly nods, and then the hunky coach passes by with his team (nod) , and then the janitor rolls his cart past them ("I'm afraid so." "He's not even on the faculty!"). Dupree concludes that he's a sucker and is heart-broken.

The (mostly unseen but still detailed) character of Mandy runs counter to the public image of "librarian," especially one who works in an elementary school, but the only character in the film who reacts to the label is Carl. I propose that he mirrors the reaction the screenwriter expects to get from the audience -- Carl voices what we're supposedly thinking. Molly's surprise that the woman is a slut is not related to the job title, just her being unaware of what was apparently common knowledge at the school.