The Tragedy (and Triumph) Of Romantic Comedies
Love romantic comedies? Hate them? There's plenty of "juice" to infuse into our life love lives...
Do romantic comedies nudge us towards unrealistic expectations?
Of course they do!
Romantic comedies are just like the fashion industry. They set wafe-thin models prancing down a runway as the norm to aspire to, even though most women don't normally look like that or do that.
Yet many women still take their cue on what's "hot" and what's not from fashion icons, just as they still like watching romantic comedies. Fantasy is fun. It helps escape everything we don't like about our own lives. So no wonder the ages-old love story formula still works.
What's the formula? Well, it comes in a few common flavors:
- Nice guy meets nice girl
- Nice girl meets nice guy
- Bad boy meets good girl
- Sensitive “besty” guy befriends ever-heartbroken girl
After fighting obstacles and cutting through tension (which often includes some seemingly-insurmountable Goliath defining moment) you can guess what happens next...
Maybe they break up for awhile, BUT hidden chemistry and compatiblity has them back together again by the end. And the ending implies they live happily ever after.
Does real life play out that way?
Sometimes. Uh, sort of. But even then, the road is much rockier than on screen. The partners just love each other enough to find their way through. (My clients are proof!)
My favorite movie examples:
- Ground Hog Day
- Serendipity
- Say Anything
- There’s Something about Mary
- Roxanne (the modern version with Cyrano De Bergerac)
- LA Story
Where real life serves up half-cooked scrambled eggs (often thanks to poor connection and communication), romantic comedies hand you neatly wrapped Egg McMuffins with a smile.
While they do mirror real-life drama in some ways -- single parents dating while dealing with custody issues, depression and anxiety, grueling corporate jobs -- most of these messes get magically mopped up by the end.
So fairytale is the tragedy of romantic comedies. Yet `tis is also the triumph, because we can take a break from our real lives and renew our hope about what's possible.
Maybe that's why even the Italians gave up the the “neo realism” cinema they long cherished before World War II. It was magnificent movie-making, with tremendous depth and weight, yet American-style romantic comedies proved too alluring in the end!