Movie Review: The Dating Project

For the first time in history, 50 percent of America is single. A staggering statistic, to be sure, but what does it mean?

The Dating Project attempts to demystify today’s dating culture, by interviewing men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, giving the viewer a variety of perspectives on what it’s like to date – or not – in a world of dating apps and online profiles.

Kerry Cronin, a professor at Boston College University, teaches a class every semester designed to educate its students on dating. Their key assignment is to ask someone on a date. The date has to be in person, not involve physical contact, and last no longer than 90 minutes.

The results of this assignment are not surprising. Most of the students hadn’t asked someone on a date in years, and a few had never done it. The hookup culture they’d been brought up in, had short-circuited their brains. In their minds, it was more casual to go over to someone’s house and be physically intimate with them than to have a cup of coffee and a conversation. The former, involved a dark room and no commitment, leaving the participants risk-free from getting hurt. The latter, however, meant letting down their walls and being vulnerable.

Movie participants in their 30s and 40s were from across the United States and didn’t have the luxury of a college assignment to get them out of their comfort zone. Many were so busy, they were forced to choose online dating or apps just to meet people. Oftentimes, the people they met were just looking for sex or something casual, and many found it difficult to meet someone with similar values.

Their dating culture, albeit different than participants in their 20s, still left them feeling lonely. Their relationship with their phone and social media, had replaced true connection. When removed from their phone, even for a short time, the claustrophobia of their self-inflicted isolation hit them hard. They began to realize just how poor a substitute social media was for real interaction.

Most of those interviewed, recognized they had a problem. Yet, they went through life, year-after-year, with no understanding of how to fix it. It wasn’t until they realized that they needed to work on discovering their own self confidence and true identity in God, that they began to find peace.

Some of those interviewed found love while others found a better perspective on life and a willingness to make the changes necessary in themselves to attract the right kind of person.

In the end, the problem wasn’t necessarily with the form of dating, be it online or otherwise, but with the lack of intimacy it fostered.
 

Luke Boyd is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.

“The Dating Project”

Rating - NR

Available on DVD and Digital HD

www.TheDatingProjectMovie.com