Two people meet, they fall
in love, something bad happens, they fight or break-up and then they realize
the error of their ways and live happily ever after. I pretty much dissected
the romantic comedy in that one sentence, but when it comes to making a truly
great romantic comedy, there’s more to it than that besides the
slutty/fat/playboy/insecure best friend. Earlier today I saw The Five-Year Engagement with Jason
Segel and Emily Blunt. I was expecting a lot more laughs than what I saw, but I
did think the movie was cute. Basically Tom and Violet meet and fall in love,
he proposes, and sometime later Violet has to move to Michigan for her dream
job for two years. Problems ensue as Tom leaves his dream job of being the head
chef for a new restaurant and is having a lousy time adjusting. To sum it up,
they get into a fight, they break-up, eventually realizing they’re meant to be
and *spoiler alert* get married! YAY!
Overall I thought the movie
was cute, which is pretty much an archetypal way to describe a good rom-com
isn’t it? Cute isn’t enough though. In 10, 20, 50 years of movie history are
people going to look back and remember The
Five-Year Engagement? I don’t think so. (Sorry Jason Segel, I still love
you dearly.) What will you remember? Josie Grossie, Come what may, I wrote you
every day for a year. That’s what will still resonate. No matter how many times
the E! Channel plays Never Been Kissed I
find myself enthralled in watching it, because it’s still exciting and
heartbreaking to see Drew Barrymore waiting on the pitcher’s mound for Michael
Vartan, and after the time runs out he comes running onto the field like Prince
Charming. Dreamy sighs can still be heard. Let’s take a moment.
Never Been Kissed has
everything. The slow clap, multiple self-realization speeches, funny asides,
and finally the kiss. The kiss that makes everything comes together in a
wonderful way. There are many rom-coms that get it wrong though. Not in a
‘cute’ way either. Sometimes they can be so commonplace and formulaic, or to
put it more simply, way too cheesy. Just
Like Heaven is a perfect example. Despite Mark Ruffalo and Reese
Witherspoon’s cuteness factor the plot is so moronic that even The Room has a more balanced structure.
(Well, at least The Room is funnier.) Basically from what I recall, she’s an
uptight doctor who has no time for fun. She then gets into a car accident on
her way to a blind date and goes into a coma, and her spirit returns to her
apartment. Mark Ruffalo is the new renter and only he can see her. In a
nutshell, he helps her get back into her body before they pull the plug. They
also fall in love. She also wakes up, having never actually met him, mind you, but
remembers who he is from the spirit realm and they end up together. The kicker
is he was the blind date she was driving to meet when she got into the car
accident. It was so meant to be! Unfortunately I cannot type out an eye roll.
I could talk about every
movie under the sun that I think is a really great romantic comedy, but that
would just get repetitive. So instead, here are my top 3 non-traditional,
underrated or well done rom-coms.
1)
The Switch (2010) – Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston
Rotten Tomatoes rating – 51%
Box Office Gross – 27 million
When you watch the trailer
for this movie I will say it is very misleading. I watched the trailers for all
three of my favorite rom-coms and that was something I found with all of them.
If you’ve seen it you most likely went in thinking it was going to be some
hilarious comedy about Jason Bateman switching his sperm for the donor Jennifer
Aniston was going to use to impregnate herself with. Antics would ensue, and in
the end they’d end up being one big happy family. Yes, this did happen, but not
in the way that critics and viewers probably thought it would. Instead, I found
it to be a much better-rounded movie, with brilliant performances from Bateman,
Aniston and all the supporting cast. It was completely heartwarming, which
sounds clichéd but I actually felt a warmth after having watched it. Jason’s
character Wally, is so in love with his best friend Kassie, and even though
they are adults in their 30’s/40’s he’s still afraid to tell her how he feels.
It sounds like a cop out, but it’s not. The way he portrays the neurotic Wally
is very Jason Bateman like, but he gives him this extreme vulnerability that
makes you think of how hard it was to tell the person you love how you feel,
whether you were dating or not. I know I’ve been there. One of the rules in
Hollywood is don’t work with kids. This kid should be the exception. Thomas
Robinson, who should be getting more work soon I hope, is maddeningly adorable
as Sebastian, Kassie and Wally’s son. It wasn’t just portrayed as a kid who’s neurotic
like Wally, and he wasn’t a sidebar in a movie that was about Wally and Kassie.
Wally was not only madly in love with Kassie, he fell madly in love with this
kid, his son, and it was beautiful. A bulk of the movie was about a father
bonding with his son, the love part came later, but everything ended up happily
ever after. If you want to see a real romantic comedy, this should be on the
top of your list.
2)
Shallow Hal (2001) – Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow
Rotten Tomatoes rating – 51%
Box Office Gross – 70.8 million
Another big determinate for
a romantic comedy for me is heart, and even though it may not seem like it,
this movie is chock full of it. It may seem like another Jack Black-esque
comedy with lame, old jokes we’ve heard before. Also being a Farrelly brothers
movie, some might not really call it a romantic comedy, since they are the
creators of some of the greatest comedies of all time, but this movie teaches
an important lesson. Yes, we’ve all heard this lesson before. Beauty is on the
inside and you shouldn’t judge people by the way they look, which is all true.
Some people may think that this is just another crazy Jack Black movie and for
that may not even give it the time of day, but I promise that Black’s subdued
performance is one of his best, and teaches us to not judge anyone for their
appearance. Cheesy, but that’s a romantic comedy for you. Even after he finds
out how “ugly” Rosemary is, he still misses her and sweeps her off her feet,
not literally, and they live happily ever after. You wouldn’t think that Jack
Black and Gwyneth Paltrow would have great chemistry, but they do, and this
movie deserves a chance, or another try.
3) Down With Love (2003) – Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor
Rotten
Tomatoes rating – 60%
Box
Office Gross – 20.2 million
This is my last attempt to steer you in the right
direction for the best romantic comedies, and I wanted to end on a high note. First
of all, this movie has Ewan McGregor.
Okay, now that you’ve let that sink in, this movie has a
wonderfully fantastic twist. I will not divulge what it is, because I know a lot
of you out there probably haven’t seen it, but basically the movie is set in ‘60s
era New York and Barbara Novak is getting her first book published, Down With Love, as a how to guide for
women to become more like men, and have sex without love, because love is a
messy, complicated little thing isn’t it? Catcher Block is a handsome ladies
man, who is also the top journalist for Know, the magazine for men in the know.
His plan is to go undercover and scoop Barbara Novak by making her fall in
love. Do they, don’t they? Go see this movie and find out for yourself. Besides
the hilariously silly puns and the beautiful set and costume design, this movie
is about love. It’s as simple as that.
Honorable
Mention: The Break-Up (2006) – Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn
Rotten
Tomatoes rating – 34%
Box
Office Gross – 118.6 million
Money wise, this is a successful movie, but critically it
wasn’t. The biggest complaint and kind of spoiler alert about this movie I
heard was; “The movie was fine, but they didn’t get back together and that
pissed me off!” “What movie was this?” “The Break-Up.” (BLANK STARE.) I get it,
everyone is always supposed to live happily ever after, but sometimes that
doesn’t happen. It almost never happens, so the fact the writers were bold
enough to go against the mold and not put them back together is noble. I love
that about this movie because even though they loved each other, they weren’t
meant to be together, and that is always hard, and that is real. Sometimes it’s
nice to see something real for a change.
My last plea and aforementioned message is you shouldn’t
judge a romantic comedy by its cover. They’re all different and the same. I
believe that heart, hilarity, and the overall message make a great romantic
comedy, and the relationships established, whether believable or not should be
honest, and have electrifying chemistry. Because come what may, I will love you
to my dying day.
