“Forrest Gump” has some enjoyable moments. If nothing else, I enjoyed the soundtrack. However, I find the film’s portrayal of Jenny problematic, and this prevented me from enjoying the film.

Forrest Gump and Jenny have been friends since childhood. Forrest frequently professes his love for Jenny, but she treats him as only a friend for most of the film, dating several other men, some of them abusive. Forrest is frequently set up as Jenny’s “Knight in Shining Armor”. Eventually, Jenny moves in with Forrest for a period before leaving again. Later, it is revealed that she gave birth to Forrest’s child while way. She then returns home with Forrest, and a short time later she dies.

Thus, the primary emotional conflict of this film is that Forrest loves a woman and she doesn’t love him back, or at least refuses to be in a relationship with him. This doesn’t work for me as a narrative conflict. My admittedly unsympathetic response to Forrest was “deal with it”. People are not required to reciprocate romantic love. If Jenny doesn’t love you, find someone who does. I don’t like the idea of Jenny being painted as a villain, because she’s not. Maybe she’s a bad friend sometimes, but it seems to me that’s she’s doing the best she can in difficult circumstances.

The film reveals early on that Jenny’s father was abusive. She goes on to have abusive relationships with men. It seems to me that Jenny’s shutting Forrest out was not about being cruel to him, but was rather inspired by a desire to protect him. Jenny is processing a trauma – one that Forrest does not seem to fully grasp the impacts of – and any relationship between them is unlikely to work out. It seems to me as though, by refusing to be in a relationship with Forrest, Jenny is protecting them both from pain.

What really bugs me is that Jenny dies at the end of the movie. Having Jenny die enhances the “tragic” element of Forrest and Jenny’s romance, but it feels unfair to Jenny, who I feel deserved a happy ending – as did Forrest. For this reason, and because Jenny is unfairly portrayed as a villain, when she is really a victim of unfortunate circumstance, as is Forrest, I did not enjoy this movie.