Interpersonal Communications Movie Analysis Final
Conflict in Interpersonal Relationships
By Michelle O’Halloran

I chose the movie Hitch and will incorporate my movie analysis with conflict in interpersonal relationships. “Interpersonal conflict is an internal strain that creates a state of ambivalence, conflicting internal dialogue, or lack of resolution in one’s thinking or feeling”. Interpersonal conflict has multiple dimensions, but ultimately focuses on the interaction among humans. Although the word conflict has a negative connotation, conflict often helps individuals solve problems and help relationships develop and move forward.
Interpersonal conflict in film is the same as in life. There are times when things said that are taken out of context and you wish they could be retracted. There were many instances of conflict in the film I chose. After viewing this film, I learned to be careful of what is said and how it is said to avoid escalating any incident you may have in an active relationship. If this message had been relayed to the couples in this movie, the majority of the relationship would have been long standing.
This particular film was not shy of conflict; this paper will include ways on how the interpersonal conflict could have been resolved. One of the main interpersonal conflicts in the film was dishonesty of the main character, Hitch. He was a guy who gets hired by people to hook them up together. He basically coaches and trains them on how to be more desirable. He does a full make over from their appearance to what initially comes out of their mouth. The conflict started when the main character took on a new client, Alex, who was desperate to date this woman who was like a mogul in her field. The new client was not the best at establishing relationships with people especially when it came to love interest. “The parties in an interpersonal relationship also have consistent patterns of interacting and communicating with each other, and these patterns are unique to that relationship”. The main characters interpersonal conflict emerged when he engaged in a relationship with a woman that he was attracted to. The woman had later on found out the type of work that he was involved in and she felt that it was misleading to people. She felt that their whole relationship was based on lies. According to our textbook “conflict can be dangerous because it has a tendency to grow and worsen, but it can also have important benefits that can strengthen a relationship and might even be desirable.” Interpersonal conflict exits when people in “I-You” or “I-Thou” relationships have different views, interests, or goals and feel a need to resolve those differences. Moreover, it is expressed disagreement, struggle, or discord, and it occurs only if disagreements are expressed overtly or covertly. According to what I have learned, conflict is a normal and unavoidable part of relationship; and depending on how people manage disagreements, conflicts can either provide continuing closeness or ruin a relationship. In my opinion, a romantic relationship between Hitch and Sara who are two main characters in the movie named “Hitch” is a good example of how conflicts can lead to a lot of problems in the relationship if people don’t handle them well.
The story began when the main character, Alex Hitch, a secret professional dating consultant who makes living by teaching men how to woo women, met Sara, a journalist, in a pub and then he was attracted to her. They talked about mostly everything while getting to know each other. Sara slowly fell in love with Hitch for his charming character, and their relationship turned into intimate one. Effective communication is always a key role in any relationship, especially intimate one. People should learn how to communicate with each other effectively from the beginning of a relationship in order to avoid any conflict. In the movie, Hitch and Sara did talk a lot with each other;