Not long ago, romantic comedies were a genuinely enjoyable genre. In the 90s, Meg Ryan made a career out of many movies in this genre—Joe Versus the Volcano, When Harry Met Sally, and French Kiss to name a few. Julia Roberts had her share of crowd pleasers such as, Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and Notting Hill.
While the above mentioned movies were not perfect, they kept our attention and made us root for the leads to get together. Lately, it seems all we've got is a slew of Matthew McConaughey movies: Failure to Launch; Fool’s Gold (the title says it all) and How to Lose a Guy in 10 days. It seems McConaughey is the only one keeping this dead genre profitable and hence alive.
A good story, chemistry between the characters, funny and romantic actors all of these are essential, but those alone do not make a good romantic comedy.
How to Fix Romantic Comedies
There is no easy formula for a good movie, but all genres have some basic tenets and here are a few for the Rom-Com genre. Satisfying the following points usually makes a good romantic comedy:
- The obstacles that the couple has to overcome must be substantial. In Notting Hill, first the starlet has to believe that the commoner she fell for will not betray her to the tabloids. Later, when the starlet wants the lonely book store guy back, he must decide whether to forgive her suspicions of him and subject himself to tabloid scrutiny. As an audience, we must believe that these dilemmas are real and empathize with the characters for having to make the leap of faith with their tough choices. If the dilemmas are not substantial, the audience will feel no tension and the movie becomes banal.
- The supporting cast must be endearing, well rounded, and give a solid foil for the lead(s). In When Harry Met Sally, the two lifelong friends who resist becoming lovers frequently heed the counsel of their best friends. Being counseled by their friends makes for hilarity and also roots the movie in a warm reality since the leads share their vulnerability with the people they trust. The leads are no different than us which makes us root for them.
- The girlfriend/boyfriend or other adversary preventing the couple from uniting must not be a monster or a pushover. Making the adversary a monster will make it very easy to choose against him/her that the audience will not believe the lead has a real dilemma. Conversely, should the adversary have a sudden change of heart or be too eager to step aside, the dramatic tension goes flat and the movie loses its power. In My Best Friend’s Wedding, the lead woman wants her best friend to marry her instead of the fiancé. But changing the best friend’s mind is hard since his fiancé is very likable and sweet that the audience remains curious about how the challenge will be overcome. In The Wedding Singer, the adversary is such a belligerent jerk with no redeeming qualities that it makes no sense how he could have become the heroine’s fiancé. This makes the heroine’s decision to pick the Wedding Singer too easy and inevitable.
