Burning Questions: Romantic Comedy Pet Peeves
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 9:20PM 
as tempting as it is, we can't blame everything on Kate Hudson Michael C. here with some constructive criticism for the rom-coms of the world. Is there any genre in more dire straits than the romantic comedy? If you counted the genuinely great recent examples on your fingers you would be back in the 90’s before you ran out of digits.
I’d love to write a post outlining a scenario where the rom-com is saved but I don’t see that happening. Not unless the current movie industry is demolished wholesale and replaced with a system that doesn’t release a shamelessly mediocre product in the hopes of turning a modest profit before forever banishing the title to the murky depths of Netflix Instant. Such daydreaming is fun but let’s be serious. Better to ask the more practical question:
What are some quick fixes for the Romantic Comedy?
I’m not asking the world here. Hollywood can keep the meet cute, the gay best friend, and running to the airport. I’m talking a few pet peeves that if eliminated could lift the genre up a notch or two. Amy Adams’ time is valuable. Let’s not waste it. So with that in mind here are a few plot devices that rom-coms should cease and desist using immediately...
Dream Girls, Opposites and Whack Jobs with Wacky Jobs after the jump...
The Blank Slate Dream Girl
Sample Offenders: Midnight in Paris, Whatever Works, 500 Days of Summer
This character pops up when the romantic leads don’t end up together and the movie needs a last minute save so test audiences don’t label it a downer. So in swoops the Blank Slate Dream Girl during the film’s closing moments. Who is she? Where did she come from? Is she compatible with the protagonist? “Who cares,” answers the screenplay. The BSDG is a big bowl of perfect that appears two steps ahead of the credits in order to fall instantly in love with the hero and rescue the film’s positive word of mouth. In Midnight in Paris Owen Wilson ends up with the cute girl he spoke to for thirty seconds about records. Happy ending!
A while back I begged screenwriters to banish the psycho boyfriend/bitch girlfriend from movies on the grounds that it’s a cheap plot device that shatters the believability of the story. Same goes for this shell of a character.
Wacky Jobs
Sample Offenders: All About Steve, Failure to Launch, The Back-up Plan
Romantic Comedies need new backup plansI sympathize with a writer's need to find ways to make characters pop, but hanging a ca-raaazy occupation on them is basically an admission that little to no thought went into them past their job title. Worse yet, it leads to excruciating scenes like the one in The Back-up Plan where dairy artisan Alex O’Loughlin explains to Jennifer Lopez that she is his “cheese muse” and inspired him to create a new strain of goat cheese that is sweet and sassy. Just like J. Lo! All this while drippy romantic music plays in a futile attempt to convince us this is charming and not creepy.
Reminder: Billy Wilder made a romance for the ages about an accountant and an elevator operator and I defy anybody to tell me the occupations of Harry and Sally without looking it up.
Arbitrary Rules
Sample Offenders: What’s Your Number?, I Hate Valentines Day, Leap Year
When the leading lady can’t find love because she clings to a random set of rules, it’s not endearing. It’s psychosis. It’s hard to engender audience sympathy when the words “or not” can be tacked on to the film’s premise without consequence. “Nia Vardalos can only go on five dates with a guy before they have to break up! Or not!” “Anna Faris has to find a soul mate from among her past boyfriends! Or not!” I get that not every love story can be the Capulets and Montagues, but a character who panics when perfect happiness falls in her lap because it defies a set of rules plucked from thin air does not a conflict make.
Opposites Attract (Beyond All Reason)
Sample Offenders: Knocked Up, As Good As It Gets, The Ugly Truth
There is a big difference between comically mismatched and utterly incompatible. Yet Hollywood is convinced that with enough screenwriting acrobatics the latter can be forced together. Thus we get romances where characters end up together who have no business sharing a cab, let alone a romance. These love stories always end abruptly in an attempt to convince us that any scene where they successfully tolerate each other for five minutes is a fairy tale happy ending and that Katherine Heigel and Seth Rogen aren’t headed for a breakup within minutes of getting that baby home.
Now that I've had my say keep the list going. What romantic comedy device drives you up the wall? Trust me, it feels good to vent. You can follow Michael C. on Twitter at @SeriousFilm or read his blog Serious Film.
Reader Comments (25)
i've lost count of the number of time's i've seen when harry met sally and i'm guessing harry's a sports writer (or is that his friend?) and sally's....some kind of editor? or a lawyer?
you make a good point
Pretty true about Summer from 500 Days of Summer. However, I feel like that movie was different enough that it wasn't dragged down too much by it. She was infuriating though wasn't she?
Love "When Harry Met Sally," no idea on the jobs. Pet peeve... you know, I really can't stand the notion that women are obsessed with marriage and nothing else, morning, noon and night. I have friends who pursue their other half more than I do, but people who have only one motivation in life are not fun to watch. It's no wonder most rom com leads these days are desperate and pathetic - they start out that way. (Also, news flash: Desperate and pathetic people are not magically transformed to content and absolved overnight. They are neurotic messes.)
Michael C,
You are so dead-on about this article!
I rememer watching UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN with Diane Lane and after her failed marriage and failed Tuscany romance, in comes a 'blank slate dream man' to save the day in the last 5 minutes... LOL
So true!
Sally's a journalist!
"You were going to be a gymnast!"
"A journalist."
"Right, that's what I said. So?"
"I am a journalist, I work for the News."
I have no idea about Harry's occupation, I believe he was either a sports writer (as guessed above) or a lawyer. But yeah, I agree with your point about the wacky occupations. I also dislike the fact that so many educated professional women are portrayed as single-minded, greedy and mean (The Proposal, seemingly all Katherine Heigl movies). The Emma Stone character in Crazy Stupid Love was a nice break from this.
Sally is a journalist and Harry is a political consultant. But their jobs had nothing to do with the rest of the movie, so the point still stands.
This sort of goes along with the "opposites attract" post, but I would like writers to think long and hard before making both of their leads awful, despicable people. I have absolutely no problem with unlikeable characters, ordinarily. But that's an incredibly tricky thing to pull off in a romantic comedy, and unless you're going full-on black comedy, you're probably not going to pull it off. Writers of "The Ugly Truth" and "Leap Year," this means you!
I've grown tired of the ploy of having the leads bond of some absurd quirk. "I only eat the purple Skittles too!" "I thought I was the only one who loves that cheesy 1980s power ballad!" "I can't believe you also arrange the condiments in your pantry according to size!" I assume these specific eccentricities are used to show how much our protagonists are meant for each other, but more than anything they serve to annoy.
Ingrid - I probably shouldn't have made the blank slate person gender specific. It crosses
Eurocheese - Bridesmaids should really put the wedding obsession movies to rest for a good long while, but it probably won't
I must be blessed...the only listed example disaster rom-com I have seen was _As Good as It Gets_ and that was because it had Helen Hunt. All the rest seemed too stupid to live.
I think I've reached a point when I can't really have more rom-coms unless there's someone new and promising (i.e. Emma Stone) or to find all the clichés the movie goes for. If an alien had to analyse heterosexual relationships by what's on rom-coms... no wonder we have never seen one.
Anyway, my pet peeve is the moment of the break up. The moment the newly found couple breaks up for some random reason (i.e. you work too much (!) how dare you) and there's the clip dialogue-less showing us how sad their separate lives are. And if you didn't notice, there's the soundtrack to help you get into the Adele's A Someone like you type of mood.
I like As Good As It Gets a lot, because it's about characters, real characters who are interesting and sympathetic and unique. They don't exist simply because HEY ROMANTIC COMEDY.
Romcoms are great when they are written as wonderful character pieces that just happen to fall into the romcom mold (Notting Hill). They're great when the writers see romcom as a wonderful way to write a movie, not as a formula (Mooonstruck). Romcoms are great when the characters matter, and are treated with respect, so that we're happy for them in the end (Four Weddings and a Funeral).
If there was ONE fix I could impose, it would be: Don't make the characters detestable. Don't make them behave badly in order to be loved. Don't make them horrible, manipulative liars. THAT'S NOT ROMANTIC.
Deborah - I too like As Good As It Get and for the same reason as you. This is why the ending has never worked for me. I feel like I got to know these characters well enough to say that there is no way these two people will ever work as a romantic couple and it is enormously frustrating to watch the movie force that ending.
I too like As Good As It Gets more than can be reasoned, this despite the one-two overacting of Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt (talk about a little going a long way).
Having recently endured the affront that is Something Borrowed, I can't help but be grateful/wistful about coming of age in an era (specifically 87-95) when rom-coms were delicious *and* good for you, culturally-speaking. (For God's sake, 1987 alone gifted more rom-com classics -- Broadcast News, Moonstruck, The Princess Bride, Roxanne, etc. -- than we've seen in the past DECADE.)
Lots of good points.
One of my biggest pet peeves is how quick everyone falls in love! So you meet a guy/girl one day and a week later you are head over heels and planning your lives together. Come on! That's not realistic.
Case in point, Wedding Crashers. Owen Wilson meets Rachel McAdams and after three days with her decides that she's the one and that he's ashamed of his life and hides away when he can't have her.
I mean, I understand liking someone on first meeting, but not to the extent that these movies make us feel we should. So many movies have men and women leaving their fiances at the alter for the girl/guy they met at the bar two nights ago (Wedding Planner, Made of Honor, The Sweetest Thing to name a few). What kind of message is that...
Peeves: public proposals of marriage before an audience which applauds. Ditto for kisses before clapping spectators. Lovers should long to be alone together. When Celine and Jesse meet again in Before Sunset, they have so much to say to each other, they don't need an audience.
Also peeves: the adorably klutzy heroine, the heroine addicted to junk food, and yes, the running to the airport and the leaving at the altar.
And I agree with everyone else: I'm not interested in watching stupid mean shallow people. The profession is crowded with actors who are clever, funny and talented. Let's see some of them for a change. And pay screenwriters a LOT for a really good script.
Ew, did you just imply that Amy Adams is good?
- the 'ugly' friend of the leading woman who has no life but to listen to her friend's problems.
- the womanizer who falls in love.
- the 'wise' child (little sister in "500 days of summer", son of carrell in "crazy stupid love").
While I get your point with the Blank Slate Dream Girl, I look at it differently. To me, this girl at the end is usually a sign that there is hope for a romantic lead that just had bad luck with love and the writer is leaving us on a hopeful note. Also, if you look at 500 Days of Summer, there it's used in a pretty ambiguous way. I see Tom meeting Autumn at the end as it was with him meeting Summer, being attracted to yet another girl and what happened with Summer may happen all over again with Autumn. When looked at that way, I think the ending to 500 Days of Summer is brilliant. It lets the audience decide whether this girl is Summer all over again or actually his soulmate.
I re-watched Sliding Doors recently, and realised that its portrayal of women - even the Other Woman - as strong, confident and not complete idiots, is something you just don't see anymore. The film is just as much about Helen finding out what she wants from her own life, and realising that her previous relationship STOPPED her from pursuing these desires, as it is about who she ends up with. There's just an ease to the chemistry between Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah that you don't really see now.
The only recent exception to the rule I can think of is Going The Distance, which, whilst not unproblematic, was remarkably fun and good-natured and completely understanding of why these two people would want to be with each other.
Deborah L said it best. Rom-coms work well when they start out to be fully formed stories that have a romantic component. Just rewatched His Girl Friday the other day (for the 1,000th time!) and while this film falls under the "screwball comedy" category, there are several wonderful romantic scenes. Just watch Rosalind Russell as Hildy, and Cary Grant as her ex, reminiscing over lunch their crazy honeymoon. There's a genuine longing and still ongoing affection for one another (also great screen chemistry) that the viewer is immediately invested in their relationship.
Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (except the Keanu Reeves' miscasting) is a great rom-com, between two pairs of lovers, and I want nothing more to watch them, laugh with them, cry with them, or just hang out with their merry band at that gorgeous picnic.
I also enjoyed the indie, happythankyoumoreplease, by Josh Radnor. A growing up story with a side of romance.
Kokolo: Huh? Her persona might get a bit cutesy at times, but she's a really good performer. Have you even SEEN The Fighter?
marcelo: I'd be even more hyper specific with that. My problem character is: "The wise, but unthreatening, child who no one EVER questions or worries about." There's DOZENS of that specific character in rom-coms and the worst example I'd think of would be that kid who shows up OUT OF NOWHERE at the end of Fever Pitch just to lecture Jimmy Fallon. Carell's son in Crazy Stupid Love, on the other hand...everyone was scared of him (and for him) and they were hesitant to listen to his advice because of it. Everyone knew that, even if he was intelligent, he was kind of creepy. That, for lack of a better word, was interesting and added an odd tension to the film that was mostly MISSING from Bridesmaids and is the primary reason why I'd call it the best comedy of last year.
I hated that 500 Days of Summer ending, despite how great the rest of the movie was. But, I'm sorry, the last minute run to the airport (or to the wedding or to the magistrate's office or to the engagement party or to the sporting event or to the bar mitzvah or to the industry speech or to any big event where there are hundreds of people around to witness the love the hero has for the woman that he, at the very last moment, understands is his soul mate) drives me crazy. Why can't one of these movies end with a man thinking, "You know, she's really great and I'm going to go tell her in a reasonably speeded response at her apartment. I hope there is a cross town bus or express train that will get me there before 10pm, in case she's already started getting ready for bed."?
I disagree about rom-coms with a back-story being better than the silly ones. I've just seen "Love and Other Drugs" today and I'm appalled by how bad it was. It perfectly summarizes everything that is going wrong with the sub-genre. The worst part is that I almost ended up hating both Anne and Jake, two actors I usually like. Their desperate attempts to be cute and adorable were almost unbearable. I can't believe they were up for awards.
Ben -- True. "Going the Distance" was a good one.
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