Kelly Rowland’s Relationship Goals has come out exactly 10 days before Valentine’s Day, but does it actually put you in the mood for love? The film tells the story of the ambitious and enterprising Leah, who is up for a promotion at the morning show she’s been at for years, only for the higher-ups to pit her against a man in the 11th hour. A man with whom she’s already had history. I don’t know about you, but I certainly wasn’t happy with how this film ended. It somehow manages to undermine Leah as an individual and make it seem like she can only be happy if she has a man by her side. Additionally, is Prime onto some weird faith-romance trend? Because why is this the second thing I’m seeing this week that is forcing this connection down our throats? The thing is, neither story really expresses how faith can lead to romance. “It’s Not Like That” simply has a pastor in the leading role, and Relationship Goals focuses on telling people to have faith to be able to find love. Anyway, I don’t intend to blabber on about this, so let’s just get straight into the ending of the film.
Spoiler Alert
Who Gets The Job?
In Relationship Goals, Jarrett and Leah reunite when they’re eyeing the same job. One that she was literally promised by her boss, but Jarrett also happens to want. The only problem Leah has here is that she’s apparently not a “team player,” so they’re willing to bring on an outsider to try and give him what she so clearly deserves. The film follows the duo as they build an enemies-to-lovers connection while working “together” to make the job happen. It doesn’t look like she was not a team player; it simply looks like she wasn’t going to be able to do it alone, so they got this big man to help her out a little. The worst part is, for Valentine’s Day, Dan, the boss, chooses Jarrett’s idea of diving into a book titled “Relationship Goals” to show people what real-life connection looks like for 40-year-old Christians.
Right from the start, Leah’s clear about one thing. She doesn’t want to work with Jarrett; she doesn’t want to give him her job, and neither does she want to get back with him. However, as the film progresses, all of this changes bit by bit. Sure, she still wants the job, but we’ll get into that in a bit. After a whole lot of working together, Jarrett and Leah continue to have arguments, but when it comes time for the edits, the editor throws his hands up and says he’ll work on both of their edits together to decide what the final cut should be. Basically, he doesn’t want the headache of dealing with them separately. This is when Leah loosens up a little, and the duo have a dance party while waiting for the final edit of the Valentine’s Day morning show.
Finally, to celebrate the success of the show, Jarrett asks Leah out, but she tells him that she wants to go back to being enemies. She breaks this rule the second they’re in the restaurant and kissing. It appears Jarrett had an ulterior motive that even he didn’t know about. But Leah was always serious about her role. So it’s basically an insult to her when, after they sleep together and she walks away telling him it was the worst decision of her life, he decides to walk out of the race altogether. Really, she never should’ve been put through any of that, she had the job in the bag right from the start. This was all just a terrible setup that didn’t work.
Why Is Leah Unhappy?
In her friend trio, Leah’s the independent one who would prefer to spend the rest of her life alone, because the only other option she could consider is a checklist of so many things, no man could ever come close. However, her friends aren’t doing that much better either, so as soon as they see the book Jarrett is referring to, they decide they want to get their hands on it too, because they’ve really given up altogether. Brenda’s been dating a basketball player named Ayden for the longest time (4 years, but they’re past 35), whereas Treese just hasn’t had any luck finding a sweet partner that’s worth her time. They realize the only thing they can do is listen to the words of Michael Todd (turns out he’s playing himself) and focus on their fate, and romance will follow. Somehow, it takes Brenda reading the book to realize her boyfriend isn’t actually taking things seriously, and Treese realizes she’s trying too hard, so she’s going to approach things differently. Ultimately, Ayden does propose, and Treese realizes she’s missed an important step in her romantic life, her single season. Though I do think she and Ted are going to be a thing super soon. But despite getting her dream job and making sure everyone knows how great she is, Leah ends up very unhappy. This is because, apparently, she’s still in love with Jarrett and is missing the main item in her buffet, the sweet cake of romance.
Does Leah Get Back With Jarrett?
In Relationship Goals’ ending, Leah rips up her list of ideal man things and tells her friends she’s in love with Jarrett, but they already know, because they’re her best friends. Leah runs to JFK, because the dude is flying off to the other side of the country for a new job. When she gets there, she gets him in trouble just so she can steal a moment with him. Don’t worry, though; he doesn’t miss the flight, because hey, we’re all career people. Apparently, Leah had to “change her aim,” and success wasn’t enough until she had someone to share it with (sigh). But hey, at least I like the sound of “hate love.” The film ends with Ayden and Brenda’s beautiful wedding, and of course, Michael had to be there to call them true “Relationship Goals.” How’s it romance if the cheese isn’t oozing out like a Chili’s mozzarella stick? The film ends with the two driving off happily, singing together this time, unlike the road trip, where it was just Jarrett singing. In the end, it’s always about a woman changing what she wants in life and a man changing “himself” to be a better (decent) human being. Ted and Treese are the only pair I really care about here. Sorry and goodbye. Guess the movie is trying to make a grand statement about connections in the modern day and how we’re stuck on certain unrealistic things, but really, it does a terrible job at keeping us believing in those exact words. Girl, I was not rooting for that couple because I never saw any real love there.
