You know those silly, large, rectangular frames that the heroines in typical Hollywood ‘more shots less talk’ type movies always wear, at least used to; and then in the last five minutes (or first five if it’s a porn flick), with such dexterity, takes them off, and the hero shows true signs of joy when he sees he has not just fallen in love with an intelligent, brave, blabidiblah, woman; but he has really got lucky, for she turns out to be a real babe!
You know it and I know it: she really is a bimbo but he doesn’t know, because he is too busy dodging bullets, and making sure her glasses stay on her face so they can get away from the baddies without them ever knowing it. You also know that he is falling in love in love with her as she with him, and if she has got a role with more than two different lines, she will make use of reverse psychology geyik, and be condescending (that might be too big a word for her though), a bitch throughout your large bowl of popcorn, calling him an empty headed brute, a womanizer and definitely not her kinda guy because she goes for the ones whose brains are not in his balls, but rather his balls are in his brains. You also know when your director is actually quite brilliant, and has a panoptical eye for detail, when at that unraveling moment when she unveils herself, and Mr. The Hero, having given us, throughout the whams and bhams, the certainty that he suffers from a jawfix, suddenly shows true signs of possessing facial expressions: i.e. he does something to his face that vaguely resembles a smile; the kind that every guy in the world has after that first ejaculation. It is a very particular torsion of utmost pleasure in the security of knowing that man’s best friend is not his dog; no, man’s only friend is his right hand…
Yes, yes, I know: in a world without paradoxes, which is what such films are made about, her looks wouldn’t mean a thing only her brains, blabidiblah…But 3 very important ‘matters’ need to be taken into consideration which are the secret formula in certifying how many thumbs up Siskal and Egbert would give. So here’s the deal (and I have given this a few minutes thought so here me out):
Such stories are always depicted to be as real as possible. And if its done really well, we are supposed be persuaded that is what America is all about and if it’s just pulled off, we’ll settle for thinking that it must just be LA (I think most Americans even in America are cajoled equally to the rest of us 2nd rated humans). Hold on!
The scenario and the acting are set within various settings that we know exist: Mafioso; bad/good cop; government conspiracy; the Mexican/American border...The plot unravels by way of ‘just another day in the life of the American Hero. So, the point: Regardless of our total submission to the story, it still takes a lot to convince the audience. By convince, I mean, when watching the film we are so grabbed (that sort of hypnotic effect when you feel within the screen), or conditionally grabbed, that, for that period, we take/accept it as a ‘reality’, an event of ‘truth’; i.e. this is what it all about to be an American Hero rather than a couch potato sort-of-thingification. Anyway, the point is that upon entrance into this simulation we still have expectations, or more so, we know and demand that certain things must happen in a certain way. Thus, one issue is that the hero always gets a babe; there is no other possibility. And so, the heroine has to conventionally ‘beautiful’.
And in a world without paradoxes such is the case, so the framed face is only a means to delay this revelation, so that we can derive pleasure from it. I think Freud had something to say on this matter of delayed pleasure if you wish to bear with a quote:
“Under the influence of the ego’s instincts of self preservation, the pleasure principle is replaced by the reality principle. This latter principle does not abandon the intention of ultimately obtaining pleasure, but it nevertheless demands and carries onto effect the postponement of satisfaction, the abandonment of a number of possibilities of gaining satisfaction and the temporary toleration of unpleasure as a step on the long indirect road to pleasure” (From, ‘Beyond the Pleasure Priciple)
Furthermore, (and this I believe to be the crux of the matter), the story is attempting to simulate a reality, and as we all well know about the real world, any guy would jump for joy when he finds out that the woman he has no choice but to fall in love with, when unveiled turns out to be a babe!
So, what makes this whole ordeal of film scenario business a little more of a success for all of us (i.e. both the filmmakers and film takers), is when Mr. The Hero subtlety shows a slight relief, that despite her being practically blind (note the thickness of the lenses the next time you are in for a show of this sort), she is actually very seductively proscribed (and maybe, he is already thinking to himself that this must be the reason she chose those awful frames), and he sighs with joy, and smiling reaches fro the frames, dexterously removes them and kisses her (why he must remove her glasses to kiss her lips, well, we could write a whole load more bullshit on that alone). And in this sigh of relief, this letting out of air (and, very importantly, even though this is in the world where paradoxes to do not exist), it must be the kind of release that conforms to the now to be Mrs. The Hero, that he is just glad they won (or at least don’t have to repeat this scenario again), and he is pride fully relieved that she is alive and save in her hands. But, this exhale tells us the audience, he is just relieved she is not a dog. Hence, they embrace…‘The End’ (of the film that is but I still have a thing or two to say to you).
In a world without paradoxes looks don’t matter. That’s why she wears the frames. But once the picture comes out of the frame the hero who only bags babes can live happily ever after (or at least throughout the next umpteen sequels to the film).

Come to think of it these, glass really do hold a lot of responsibility...