The Judds’ tune “Why Not Me?” was covered on The Voice tonight, and you might-could listen to it while we talk about it:
The lyrics to the song answer the question in the headline: The song is The Chorus to the whole story, but the action at the moment the song is being sung is the second-act crisis: Boy is about to Lose Girl for good.
They were high school sweethearts or maybe even more to each other – best friends. He went off to rope the wind and she stayed behind, perhaps with the wrong guy. Now he’s back to stay, even if he’s not all the way sold on that idea. She knows how the story should end, and she’s putting him to the test. The refrain “Why not me?” sounds desperate, but in fact she is stooping to conquer.
As story, it’s “Thunder Road” inverted, which I think is fun. But as cinema, it’s a sweet rom-com aimed right at the sweet spot in the rom-com marketplace: People who are ten years late to the wedding chapel. Showing how to make that kind of romance endure happily will prove to be a growth industry.
