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Finding a Formula for True Love:
Analyzing the Romantic Comedy and its Effect on the Movie Industry
By: Michelle Wilson
Each and every genre of film has certain formulas that are associated with it. Action
movies often have the hero who no one will believe. Horror films always tend to follow a similar
pattern as to who gets killed in what order. Arguably the hardest genre to find only one formula
for is the comedy genre, because there are several sub-sections to it: the slapstick, the drama-
comedy, the parody, and what many consider the lowest of the low, the romantic comedy.
Perhaps that is why people who have studied the romantic comedy genre, or the ³rom-com,´
have such a difficult time finding one universal definition for it. In the simplest terms, a romantic
comedy is a romance told with a light, humorous touch. The America Film Institute (AFI)
defines it as a genre in which the development of a romance leads to comic situations. It has also
been described as a narrative of the heterosexual couple with a happy ending in which humor
does not necessarily play an important part. There has been debate over whether the romance or
comedy is more important, or whether one or the other should be treated more lightly. In any
case, the way it is defined has been changed, stretched and extended through the decades by
many films, actors and directors, which will be highlighted throughout this paper. Another aspect
that will be reviewed is the impact these films have on audiences and society, and vice versa.
Romcoms fill viewers with the feeling that romance can overcome all obstacles, that true
love exists and if you find that person out there for you, then you can experience true love as
well. These feelings generally tend to draw in a specific audience type: women. In the 1993 film,
Sleepless in Seattle, there is a moment when Suzy (Rita Wilson) explains her love for the
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romantic ³old movie´ An Aff air To Remember , to her husband (Victor Garber) and friend, Sam
(Tom Hanks). As she recounts the plot, which involves two star-crossed lovers meeting, falling
in love, and nearly failing to reconnect, Suzy begins to cry. The male audience around her is
unimpressed by the story, and Sam even replies, ³That¶s a chick¶s movie!´ This testifies to the
assumption that romantic films are made for and to be enjoyed by female audience members
(McDonald, 1). The question then is, if romantic comedies are so popular with that gender, why
do dozens of romantic comedies fail at the box office? The easy answer is that they are too
formulaic in plot and characters. More than with other genres, romantic comedies need to speak
to that generation¶s audience in fresh and provocative ways, with more story than boy meets,
loses, then gets girl (Mernit, 6). The films discussed here are those that changed and influenced
the genre and film industry as a whole, as well as surviving by adapting to changing societal
circumstances.
The late 1920s brought changes to the film industry that would affect the way every
movie from then on would be made. The major change was the switch to sound film, or
³talkies,´ which meant that silent films were quickly on their way out. Many silent film stars
found themselves out of work because they didn¶t have the voice to make it in the up-and-
coming industry. Despite this drastic change of sound becoming the standard, Charlie Chaplin,
the most recognized silent film comedian of all time, and his company United Artists, continued
to create silent films. One of the reasons for this was Chaplin¶s iconic on-screen character, the
Tramp. Chaplin knew that this character was universal, and if he added a single, monosyllabic
voice, his worldwide audience would shrink (Robinson, 4). Although it was an extremely risky
move, the result of this choice was the production of very popular films, including a picture,
which is known as one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time. C ity Lights, which was
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starring, written and directed by Chaplin, told the story of the Tramp, and his attempts to win the
heart of a blind woman he loves. In the film, the tramp stops a drunken millionaire from
committing suicide, and the millionaire befriends the tramp, giving him nice clothes, a car, and
other amenities. The blind woman, who needs money for a surgery that will help her see,
mistakes the tramp for a millionaire. This causes the tramp to go through many odd jobs to get
money, in order to keep up the charade and pay for her surgery. Chaplin has said that he was
nervous about whether or not the film, which was released almost three years after the firm
establishment of sound film, would be successful. Regardless, C ity Lights ended up being one of
his most financially successful and critically acclaimed films (Robinson, 5).
There are overall themes in C ity Lights that become cliché in romantic comedies to come,
the greatest of those being a man going through elaborate, often comedic stunts to win the heart
of a woman. The 1930s and 1940s brought other films with original themes, some of which
hadn¶t been really done before sound film. In silent films, women were often weak characters,
waiting for a man to save them; a perfect example is the aforementioned C ity Lights. The blind
woman as a character doesn¶t serve much more than fuel for the Tramp to enter comedic
situations, and she certainly doesn¶t do much to raise the money on her own. What the late 1930s
and 1940s brought, with the help of sound, were more powerhouse women. Although these
women were still dependent on men, which can be attributed to the social climate of the time,
they had their own independent characters and weren¶t afraid to give their opinions.
The film It Happened One Night , starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, which
premiered in 1934, is great example, and another that paved the way for other films. Colbert
plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who escapes her millionaire father when he kidnaps her
for eloping with a man whom he thinks is a fortune hunter. After running away, Ellie boards a
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bus to New York, in order to see the man she eloped. On the bus, she runs into Peter Warne
(Gable), a recently fired newspaper reporter looking for a story. After Ellie¶s bag and money is
stolen, Peter agrees to help her, in exchange for rights to her story about running away. Peter and
Ellie highly dislike one another other at the start of the film, but throughout the story, slowly
begin to fall for each other ± another cliché that will be discussed later on in this paper. Despite
Ellie desperately relying on Peter throughout the story, she also manages to contribute to their
journey. In one of the most well known scenes of the film, the two characters are on the side of
the road trying to hitch a ride. Peter tries and fails several times with his technique, and Ellie,
with a raise of her skirt, manages to stop a car on her first try. Little moments like that
interspersed throughout the film, set Peter and Ellie as equals ± or as close as men and women
could be to equals in the 1930s. This film helped to set the bar for the female characters in films
to not have to be as subservient to the males as they had been in silent films.
Katharine Hepburn, one of the ³It Girl´ actresses of this time, was known for portraying a
strong female character with a sassy attitude, specifically in the film The Philadelphia Story, in
which Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and John Howard co-star. Hepburn plays Tracy Lord, a proud
woman from a wealthy background, similar to the character of Ellie. The film begins with her
about to embark on her second marriage to George (Howard). On the eve of her wedding, her ex-
husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) shows up with a reporter, MacCauley ³Mike´ Connor, and a
photographer (Stewart and Ruth Hussey, respectively), who are doing a story on the family for
their magazine. As the story progresses, it leads Tracy to have to choose between her past love,
her current love, and her potential new love.
Both of the aforementioned films, It Happened One Night and The Philadelphia Story,
follow the theories of ³commitment comedy´ and the ³reaffirmation comedy.´ These themes are
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both apparent in the romantic comedies of the 1930s and the 1940s, in films such as Bringing Up
Baby, Holiday, and His Girl Friday which all share general themes, plot elements and character
roles. Commitment comedies develop along two plot lines: one of these, concerns a character¶s
commitment to career and social advancement, which runs alongside this character being
introduced to a love interest for whom attaining wealth is unimportant. In It Happened One
Night , Peter¶s character is looking for a new story to save his career, and Ellie has never worked
a day in her life. The working protagonist in commitment comedies doesn¶t give up their
profession and accept the easy lives of their counterparts. They must, however, make some
sacrifice to reach the correct balance between professional and personal concerns, usually
dealing with their career or money. Peter must choose between Ellie and the ³scoop´ that he¶s
been working towards the whole film. The upper-class character must also give up something ± a
life of inherited wealth ± so the couple can be together. At the end of the film, Ellie leaves the
lavish wedding she was going to have, and goes with Peter to a run-down motel in Michigan.
When both characters relinquish something that was important to them, it creates a happy
equilibrium, that is assumed will be maintained when the film ends (Karnick, 133-4).
Reaffirmation comedy, on the other hand, is more about what happens after the assumed
equilibrium. In many ways, reaffirmation comedies are continuations of the stories established in
commitment comedies. However, the formula followed for reaffirmation comedies is a bit more
complicated than that of commitment comedies, because of the spheres of action, or character
roles, that are assigned. These roles include the first and second partner, the first and second
blocking figure, a conscience figure, and a common denominator that brings the partners
together. At the beginning of reaffirmation comedies, the comic/romantic couple has been
married previously, but their divorce is looming, if it has not already been done when the film
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begins. In these films, one spouse always leaves the other; however, the one who is left has
usually abandoned the relationship emotionally (Karnick, 136). In The Philadelphia Story,
Tracy, the first partner, throws C.K. Dexter Haven, the second partner, out of the house, due to
his drinking. After this flaw established, there is the introduction of the conscience figure; in this
case, that character is Dinah Lord, Tracy¶s younger sister, who comments to Tracy about her
aversion to George, the man Tracy is marrying. Then the fault in the first partner is revealed, and
with Tracy it is her pride, which is the other reason for the original divorce. The film suggests
that Dexter drank so much due to Tracy¶s emotional and sexual coldness. The common
denominator then comes into play, when Dexter comes to keep Tracy and her family from being
blackmailed by a magazine. From then on, the stories with the first and second blocking figures
begin ± George and Connor ± all leading to the ³ideal couple,´ or the first and second partners,
finally holding a civilized conversation, where the discuss their relationship. This is particularly
important, because all films that follow this formula focus on the romantic couple¶s recapturing
some important yet temporarily missing aspect of their relationship. After the couple has that
conversation, it leads to the conflicts being resolved. When The Philadelphia Story ends, Tracy
decides to remarry Dexter, making the assumption that in their second marriage, they will
tolerate each other¶s imperfections. When the narratives are arranged in this way, it is possible to
examine the importance of single actions to the overall structure (Karnick, 142). It also helps to
show how homogeneous the romantic comedy can be and continues on to be in the preceding
decades.
The 1950s saw the rise of a new ³It girl,´ and a different Hepburn. With films such as
Roman Holiday, Break f ast at Ti ff any¶s, Sabrina and C harade, Audrey Hepburn very much
dominated the romantic comedy market. The film that wowed audiences and won her the 1954
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Academy Award for Best Actress was Roman Holiday. Hepburn plays Ann, a sheltered princess,
who while on vacation in Rome, falls for an American reporter. In this film, we see yet another
example of rich girl meets poor boy. Roman Holiday was Hepburn¶s first American movie role,
having done European films and stage plays in the past, but it was that role which shot her
stardom. The director of the film, William Wyler, is quoted as saying that Hepburn, ³had
everything I was looking for: charm, innocence and talent. (Ford)´ These qualities are what
Hepburn became known for, along with being style icon, with a waifish figure, elegance and
grace.
In B
reak f ast at Ti ff any¶s, Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, her most recognized and
memorable role. Holly is a naïve, outgoing woman, who pretends to have her life put together,
but is actually very troubled. Hepburn has said that it was the hardest role for her to play,
because she is introverted and Holly is very extroverted character (Ford). Along with the
identifiable character of Holly Golightly, Ti ff any¶s brought an interesting way of looking at sex
in romantic comedies. In order to make ends meet, Holly ³spends time´ with wealthy
businessmen and aristocrats. It is never actually said or shown that she sleeps with them just
heavily implied. Even after Holly and her romantic interest in the film, Paul (George Peppard),
kiss for the first time, it is only assumed that they slept together.
Obviously, before and up to this point in the film industry, sex was a taboo subject, and
was not shown in films of this genre, or any genre. The word ³sex´ itself is hardly ever used, if at
all, until the 1960s and 1970s. Perfect examples of this are the films that starred Doris Day and
Rock Hudson, like Pillow Talk . Despite being labeled as ³sex comedies,´ they were, for the most
part, squeaky clean. With the rise in age of the baby boomers, another major cinematic trend
were ³clean teen´ beach films, meant to counteract the rebellious teen films of Marlon Brando
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and James Dean. These films, such as 1959¶s Gidget, were meant to be comic, idyllic romantic
escapades, without heavy melodrama, and starred actresses like Sandra Dee, the archetypal
³good girl´ (Dirks, 4). Even with the good intentions those films were made with, they never put
a huge dent in the memorable romantic comedy market.
A film that brought a new, refreshing take on this genre was 1959¶s Some Like It Hot ,
starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe; it was one of the first films that had
cross-dressing as a central plot element. Curtis and Lemmon play Joe and Jerry, two musicians
who witness a mob hit; they try to find a way out of the city before they are found and killed by
the mob. The only paying job they can find is in an all girl jazz band, leading the two to covertly
dress as women. Both of the men run into problems while in the band; Joe falls for Sugar Kane
(Monroe), the lead singer of the band, but can¶t tell her his real gender. Jerry, on the other hand,
has a rich, elderly suitor, Osgood, who is infatuated with him. The most famous moment from
the film is the closing scene, in which Joe, Sugar, Jerry (still in drag) and Osgood have safely
escaped from the mob in a motorboat. Jerry tries to convince Osgood that they can never be
married, and finally rips off his wig and cries out, ³I¶m a man!´ Osgood doesn¶t blink an eye
when he replies, ³Nobody¶s perfect.´ This famously open ending, written by Billy Wilder, may
be seen as subversion to the typical happy ending of the romantic comedy genre. Some Like It
Hot , as with many of the Wilder¶s films, had the positioning of sex at the center, which was a
logical consequence of the cultural saliency of sex and sexuality in the 1950s. This interest in sex
increased at the beginning of the 1960s and would eventually lead to the so-called sexual
revolution (Deleyto, 35).
At the start of the 1960s, films of every genre changed significantly, as a result of the
Counterculture revolution and the abolishment of the Hays Code, the censorship guidelines that
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governed the production of most U.S. films until 1968. Films of the time were heavily affected
by societal changes and became more experimental (Dirks, 5). Perhaps because of this, typical
and popular romantic comedies declined heavily in the mid- to late 1960s. Westerns, musicals
and youth-cult films dominated the market with films like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The
Sound o f Music, Bonnie and C lyde, and The Graduate. Walt Disney also released profitable
films in the 1960s, including 101 Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, and the last film Disney himself
oversaw before his death, The Jungle Book . This is not to say that romantic comedies
disappeared completely in this time. Some films, such as C harade starring Audrey Hepburn and
Cary Grant, had aspects of romance and comedy, intertwined with the thriller characteristics. In
addition, the film Harold and Maude was a romantic comedy with a darker side to it, that gained
a massive cult following. Still, very few, if any, of the fluffy romcoms that were made managed
to make it out of the decade with lingering success.
In his 1978 article, Brian Henderson wrote that because of the changes in modes and
methods of censorship in the late 1960s, the romantic comedy might be an art that cannot
flourish (Henderson, 22). Ironically, just as Henderson wrote this, a new wave of romantic
comedies hit the shore of the movie industry. Woody Allen began to emerge with his ³nervous
romances´: Annie Hall , The Goodbye Girl , and Manhattan (Krutnik and Neale, 171-2) Thanks to
the sexual and cultural revolution that was spawned in the previous decade, romantic comedies
in late 1970s and the years following, no longer shrouded the topic of sex. Many of these
nervous romances contained instances of sexually explicit representation and points at which µthe
sexual questions¶ were openly stated. These films demonstrate that the question at hand in the
romantic comedy is not just sexual, though. It is rather one of coupledom, compatibility and
romance ( Neale, 286). Most of Allen¶s nervous romances were male-centered films in which
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romance is presented as complex, frustrating and elusive. In the majority of Allen¶s films, he
rarely ends up neatly partnered with the object of his desire, which changes the genre¶s definition
significantly, from one of consistent end-game coupledom to a more realistic viewpoint. The
1977 film, Annie Hall tells the story of neurotic comedian Alvy Singer, played indistinguishably
by Woody Allen, and his on-again, off-again relationship with the insecure, flighty, titular
character, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton).
Annie Hall was groundbreaking in quite a few ways; for starters, the film opened with
Alvy stating that he and Annie broke up. With a large amount of romantic comedies, the
audience can assume that the couple will end up together, from the very beginning, but what is
interesting is the journey of how they get there. Allen takes that same approach in this film, but
reverses it, so that the audience knows the doomed fate of the couple, but wants to see the ride
anyway. This film also uses a variety of innovative strategies and narrative techniques that
support the idea that Woody Allen is functioning as a self-conscious artist who evaluates his
entire life and uses film to achieve greater control over reality. The major theme of the film is
that there are severe limitations in life, but that art forms have the power to reshape reality and
provide some measure of control, thereby compensating for life's limitations (Dirks). These
cinematic techniques include Alvy directly addressing the camera, memory flashbacks,
animation in the form of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and sudden transformations, like
when Alvy suddenly becomes a bearded Hasidic Jew when visiting Annie¶s parents. In one
scene, Alvy fantasizes about conveniently bringing author Marshall McLuhan into the scene to
settle an argument, and Alvy comments, ³Boy, if like were really like this.´ The entire film
didn¶t simply revolve around a romance, but instead follows Alvy and Annie as they try to find
themselves, along with love. In contrast to many romantic comedies in the past, the couple the
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audience was following was not the ideal couple at all. Marriage, or even the prospect of a
wedding, seems to start becoming less central elements to the genre and, certainly, less
associated to a happy ending (Evans and Deleyto, 6).
With the rise of the baby boomers in the 60s and 70s, more and more movies about
teenagers were produced. It wasn¶t until the 1980s that movies geared towards teenagers and
romantic comedies connected, much in thanks to director John Hughes. With films like Sixteen
C andles, The Break f ast C lub and Pretty in Pink , John Hughes, along with several of the ³Brat
Pack´ actors ± including Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Andrew McCarthy ± shed
a new light on teenagers in film. Previously, most films about this age group were either about
rebellious teenagers or were sex comedies, focused on watching teenagers get humiliated. What
the John Hughes era of films did was show that it was okay to laugh with the teenagers in the
film and feel what they are going through. It also showed teenagers as people looking for
something other than just sex, and being interested in something that only adults were concerned
about in films: love.
Sixteen C andles, a 1984 film directed by Hughes and starring Ringwald and Hall,
acknowledges teenagers sexuality, but doesn¶t make it the main focus. The plot centers on Sam
(Ringwald), her crush on her older classmate, Jake Ryan, and the nameless freshmen geek (Hall)
that has a crush on her. Undoubtedly, the plot is very simple, and could almost be seen as
formulaic. What makes this film original is the way the characters are portrayed. There are
various times throughout the movie where these teenage characters have mature, in-depth heart
to hearts. One specific scene finds Sam and the geek alone in their school¶s auto shop, where
they talk and bond. He comes to see her as more than a sex object, and she sees bits of herself
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reflected in him (Medic). Hollywood had seemed to think that this age group was incapable of
having these types of discussions, and Hughes proved that wrong.
There are some films that, simple they may be, pave the way for other films to follow that
same path. Then there are films, like 1987¶s The Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, which
set the bar for originality. The Princess Bride, based off of the book of the same name, combines
the romcom genre with fantasy, drama and action, which happens quite often in films of the next
couple decades. This film demonstrates how you can take the simple formula of ³boy meets,
loses, and then gets girl´ and make it something new and different. The movie opens with a boy,
sick in bed with the flu, being read a fairy tale by his grandfather. As the grandfather reads, the
audience sees the story play out on screen. The story is a tale of the love between Buttercup
(Robin Wright) and her childhood beau Westley (Cary Elwes), a love interrupted by his
apparent death at sea when seeking his fortune for them to marry. Heartbroken, Buttercup
has sworn never to love again, but accepts the marriage proposal of Prince Humperdinck.
She soon learns that death is no barrier to true love, when Westley returns as a seemingly
masked pirate. The story is filled remarkable characters, from swordsmen to giants to
disgruntled miracle workers. As an adventure or a fantasy, Westley stands at the center of
The Princess Bride; as a romance, Buttercup is the central role. In the romance genre,
women are more and more becoming the key protagonists. The reason for this is
thematically the romance genre is about the conquest of reason by emotion. In order for
love to prevail, the woman must convince the rational man to abandon reason (Bartfield,
94). In a glaring departure from that usual form, this occurs easily and early in the film,
making The Princess Bride an unusual romance from a thematic perspective, but also an
original one.
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Even with all of the new ways romantic comedy was being portrayed on screen,
there was one thing the genre hadnǯt seen for a number of years, and that was the
quintessential romantic comedy heroine. Not since the Hepburn women had an actress
come along with that special something to make them the DzIt Girldz of the genre. Then, in the
late 1980s, the big screen got the pleasure of being introduced to Meg Ryan, a fresh-faced,
cute-as-a-button woman who could hold her own comedically alongside Tom Hanks,
Matthew Broderick and Billy Crystal. Ryan¶s romantic comedies cover much the same territory
as those of 1940s, exploring the meanings of romantic love, the arts of courtship, the social
implications, fulfillments and limitations of marriage, as well as finding yourself on the way to
finding love. The appeal of these romantic comedies is at least as much attributable to their
relation with the changing needs and desires of their 1980s and 1990s' female audiences as the
Hepburn films were for 1930s' and 1940s' women and issues relevant to their day (Evans, 190-1).
One of the main needs of audiences was to see more sex in film. It is not to say that the 1980s
and 1990s invented the topic of sex in films; on the contrary, many films prior to the decade had
touched on the subject, but it was hardly fully and openly discussed in romantic comedies.
However, the subject of sex is much more an integral part of open debate in Meg Ryan romcoms
than a Katharine Hepburn film from the 1940s (Evans, 191).
While many elements remain constant in the genre from the Hepburn era to the Meg
Ryan era, the pressures under which romantic comedies are made have naturally varied from one
generation to another, offering a temporal framework to the theme of love. These are all given a
woman's perspective in Meg Ryan films where even in that time period despite the greater trend
towards male-centered comedy, like American Pie and There¶s Something About Mary, the
genre's traditional female-dominated loyalties continue to flourish. The Meg Ryan films
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overwhelmingly hold fast to many of the genre's traditions, especially its idealization of the
couple (Deleyto, 150).
In 1989, Meg Ryan had her first starring role in a feature length film, When Harry Met
Sally, co-starring with Billy Crystal. The movie poster asks the question, ³Can two friends sleep
together and still love each other in the morning?´ which is an underlying theme throughout the
entire film. After their college graduation, Sally (Ryan) offers to drive her friends¶ boyfriend
Harry (Crystal) from Chicago to New York, an 18-hour drive. The two have very contrasting
personalities, and don¶t get on from the start. Sally is blonde, smiley and uptight, while Harry is
darker, a slob, and extremely pessimistic. While on the trip that is very reminiscent of the bus
scenes in It Happened One Night , Harry comments that men and women can never truly be
friends. Sally disagrees with him, saying she has many male friends. Harry continues on, to
explain that the sex always gets in the way, and no man can just be friends with a woman he
finds attractive. When they get to New York, they go their separate ways, planning on never
speaking to each other again. They meet briefly five years later, the again five years after that,
when they finally do become friends. The rest of the film follows their relationship as friends,
then lovers, than eventually, a couple.
This film was very near groundbreaking in the genre ± one of the reasons it is on AFI¶s
Top 10 romantic comedies ± largely because of the open way it talks about sex and relationships.
In the most infamous scene of the movie, Harry and Sally are in diner, and Harry offhandedly
says that after sleeping with a woman, he tells a lie in order to sneak away from the bed in the
morning. He states that the sexual pleasure he provides makes everything fair, but Sally points
out that he has no way to tell whether or not he knows for sure that the women really have a
good time. 'You don't think I could tell the difference?¶ he asks incredulously just before Sally
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demonstrates the art of faking orgasms, loudly and convincingly (Krutnik, 32), making Harry¶s
point invalid.
When Harry Met Sally is often compared and contrasted to Annie Hall , due to the
startling resemblances between the two. The obsessive talk about sex, the setting of Manhattan
and the characters of Alvy to Harry and Annie to Sally bearing similarities. The two films also
differ in ways. The romantic song, µIt Had To Be You¶, for example acts as a distancing strategy
in Annie Hall , being sung by the title character in a crowded room full of background noise. In
When Harry Met Sally, the same song is used almost as part of the narrative, played both at the
start and in key sequences leading up to the eventual union of Harry and Sally (King, 59). The
main difference, though, is that Annie Hall showed that lovers may end up better as friends,
where When Harry Met Sally illustrated how friends can ultimately realize they are better as
lovers (Dirks).
The other exceedingly popular film starring Meg Ryan was Sleepless in Seattle, which
was vastly different from When Harry Met Sally in character and plot. Tom Hanks plays Sam, a
widower with a son, Jonah; Ryan plays Annie, an engaged reporter who is listening in when
Jonah calls into a talk radio advice show, hoping to find a new wife for his dad. Annie, unhappy
with her current engagement, impulsively writes to Sam and Jonah, along with hundreds of other
women, saying they should meet on Valentine¶s Day on top of the Empire State Building.
Sleepless in Seattle itself pays homage to film Suzy cries about, An Aff air To Remember , which
also has the suggestion of meeting on top of the famed New York landmark.
There is one scene where Sam catches his first glimpse of Annie, just as he is giving his
son a practical version of what single people do when they get together. µThey try other people
on and see how they fit,¶ he explains. µBut everybody¶s an adjustment. Nobody¶s perfect. There¶s
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no such thing as perfectǦ His word trail off, as he is struck dumb and silent, as Annie walks
past, a vision accompanied by a magically tinkling piano (King, 60). Sam, at this point in the
film, does not know that this is the woman that wrote to him, but is nevertheless drawn to her,
simply under the idea of ³love at first sight.´ His words to Jonah, which draw upon Osgood¶s
final words in Some Like It Hot , say one thing, but they are clearly a shallow gesture contradicted
by the style of romantic comedy convention. Sam and Annie don¶t actually meet until the final
scene in the film, which is a major variation from other romantic comedies. The two actors only
share about two minutes of on-screen time together, but when they do meet on top of the Empire
State Building, it is clear that the two are compatible just by looking at each other. There is
nothing substantial to back up this attraction, and the audience is merely supposed to trust in the
principle expectations of romantic comedies.
The expectations of romantic comedies changed rapidly as the decade moved forward. A
new term was coined, ³new romances´ to define the crop of genre-mixing films released in that
time. One of the most popular and successful new romances premiered at the start of the decade
in 1990. Pretty Woman, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, is an against-all-odds romance
between Vivian, a prostitute with a heart-of-gold (Roberts) and a businessman (Gere), which
follows the story arc of a Cinderella fantasy. Gere¶s character is seen as the charming prince,
who rescues Vivian from her life of prostitution (Scala, 36), by taking her to operas, giving her
new clothes and a new life. The ending of the film presents the fulfillment of the fantasy of their
union, while underscoring that it is only wish fulfillment. It invited the audience to recognize that
while what was narrated might not have been true, the cultural and filmic devices made it
possible, not in reality, but on film. This is the perfect solution for an audience disenfranchised
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from old-fashioned romance, but wary of the disordered emotions that are presented in Woody
Allen¶s nervous romances (Evans, 30).
Another film that was a member of the popular new romances was Groundhog Day. The
plot, that starred Bill Murray as Phil, a weatherman who wakes up to the same day over and over
again, could have gotten old quickly, but found a way to stay fresh each day Phil wakes up. By
reliving every day, Phil begins to redeem himself from the conceited man he was at the
beginning of the film to a very likeable character. By the end, Murray¶s character focuses all of
his energy into getting his producer, played by Andie MacDowell, to fall in love with him. This
film was the first to use the plot of waking up to the same day, every day, and has been imitated
by many other films since. The end of the film suggests that romantic happiness can only be
achieved with a transformation of character; something it does through equal parts romance and
comedy. Groundhog Day is an example of how the definition of the genre is expanding more and
more. In terms of redefining romantic comedies, an additional film that did just that was another
with Julia Roberts, My Best Friend¶s Wedding . In an unexpected turn for a mainstream romantic
comedy, Julianne (Julia Roberts), ends up losing the man she is in love with to her rival, because
she waited too long to notice him. Julianne has to make due with a relationship with her gay best
friend which ³will involve no marriage, certainly no sex, but a great deal of dancing´, which
introduces the concept of friendship as an opponent to romantic love in the genre (Evans, 9).
This trend continues with films like The Truth About C ats and Dogs, in which two
neighbors meet and become friends; Abby (Janeane Garofalo) is an insecure radio talk show
host, and the other, Noelle (Uma Thurman), is a beautiful, dim supermodel. Their friendship is
soon threatened when they start to compete for the love of the same man, Brian (Ben Chaplin).
Towards the end of the film, Noelle decides to give up on the man she desires for the sake of her
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friend and their relationship. In a conversation with Abby, she admits that, if she had to choose,
she prefers their friendship to a relationship with the man. Although there is a stereotypical
³happy ending´ with Abby and Brian, the real relationship is that of Abby and Noelle (Deleyto,
175-6).
Along with themes of friendship in romantic comedies, another change to the genre came
into play: the introduction of homosexuals. The majority of the time, homosexual couples in
films were more in dramatic films. In the romantic comedy genre, the bulk of homosexuals in
films were either friends, such as in My Best Friend¶s Wedding , or not the main couple, there
were a couple of films in the late 1990s that touched on it.C
hasing Amy, for example, is the
story of a male protagonist, Holden (Ben Affleck) falling in love with Alyssa (Joey Lauren
Adams) who is a lesbian. The problem with the film is that even though the couple doesn¶t end
up together, the friendship between Holden and Alyssa becomes love, after she admits to having
heterosexual feelings for him too, thus subscribing to rather traditional heterosexual male
discourses about lesbianism (Deleyto, 179). Regardless, most films about homosexual couples
don¶t fall into this genre very often, but instead tend to add a gay character or two, which keeps
up with societal standards in the new millennium.
The 2000s saw the launch of numerous new technologies for film, including CGI, 3D,
and IMAX. Many genres changed to fit the mold of the new special effect; the romantic comedy
was not one of them. This is not to say, however, that the genre didn¶t have radical changes in
this time. On the contrary, there is one major change that took place at the start of the new
millennium, and that is the rise of women in what some called, professional romantic comedies.
Most female-centered romantic comedies prior to the 2000s tend to focus solely on a
woman¶s attempt to find love. Even in films where friendship is shown as a replacement, the
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majority of the film is usually spent with her solely trying to find a relationship. The romantic
comedies in the early twenty-first century, mainly Bridget Jones¶s Diary, Miss C ongeniality and
The Princess Diaries suggest that romantic desirability comes with self-discovery and
professional success.
In the film version of Bridget Jones¶s Diary, based on a book of the same name, Mark
Darcy (Colin Firth) tells Bridget (Renêe Zellweger) that she is ³an appallingly bad public
speaker.´ He refers to an earlier scene in which Bridget speaks at a book launch party given by
her publishing firm. She can¶t turn on the microphone, gets people¶s attention by shouting
³Oy!´, insults Salmon Rushdie, and forgets the name of the man she is introducing. Although
Mark says he likes Bridget ³just as she is,´ he begins to fall in love with her after a much more
successful public speaking encounter, when she performs in a brilliant television interview. Plot
development points like these indicate a cultural dissatisfaction with romance as the primary
form of happiness for the heroine (Hersey, 149).
Miss C ongeniality and The Princess Diaries are similar to each other in many respects.
Both of the main female characters are insecure and tomboyish, but are forced to channel their
inner ³girly´ at some point in the film. In Miss C ongeniality, Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is an
FBI agent who poses as a Miss United States beauty contestant to save the pageant from a
terrorist threat. She undergoes a very in-depth makeover from a stereotypical gay male stylist
(Michael Caine) who she develops a friendship with, which helps her break out of her shell. The
end of the film does find her sharing a kiss with the hero, but the more pivotal part of the finale is
the speech she gives that cements how far she has come; not just in terms of romance but in
discovering herself.
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The makeover plot is parallel to that in The Princess Diaries, also based off of a book.
Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is an insecure high school student when her grandmother
announces that Mia is the crowned princess of the (fictional) country, Genovia. Mia begins
taking ³princess lessons´, and undergoes a makeover from a similar gay male stylist, Paolo
(Larry Miller). She tries to hide her new beauty from her friends and classmates, for when her
best friend, Lily, discovers her new hair, make-up and clothes, she responds with typical feminist
outrage. Mia begins to discover that beauty can be more uncomfortable than the ugly duckling
phase, and much of the plot revolves around her struggle to accept her beauty and to suffer the
consequences of women¶s rejection and men¶s lust (Hersey, 154). She is given two choices in
romantic interests: Michael, the boy who noticed her before her makeover, and Josh, the boy
who only noticed her after. Once again, she gets her happy ending with Michael, the obvious
choice, but that is downplayed by the confidence she gains in herself. At the beginning of the
film, we see Mia attempt to give a speech, but due to fright, runs out of the room, nauseous. At
the end of the film, she gives another speech at the Genovia ball, in which she says, ³I¶m really
no good at speechmaking. Normally, I get so nervous that I faint, or run away«but I¶m not so
afraid anymore.´ These analogous scenes show perfectly how much Mia has grown, enough so
that she can rule a country.
As the decade moves along, it becomes more and more apparent how often current films
draw from those of the past, even if they are molding to the standards of today¶s society. The
2004 British film Love, Actually, for example, shows ten separate stories of love involving
various individuals that are revealed to be interconnected throughout the course of the film. The
stories themselves aren¶t very new: a man being in love with his best friends wife, a man with
power falling in love with a common girl, a woman loving a man from afar, but not making her
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move due to certain circumstances. These same general themes were in previously discussed
films, like My Best Friend¶s Wedding , Pretty Woman, and even C ity Lights. What we see in
Love, Actually, is all of these storylines together in one film, which could easily be attributed to
the short attention span of this generation. Romantic comedies such as The Holiday, He¶s Just
Not That Into You, and Valentine¶s Day follow that same trend of multiple storylines as well.
There are other popular romantic comedies towards the tail-end of the decade that take
the plots of past films and rejuvenate them. The formulas of commitment and reaffirmation
comedy are still being used in romantic comedies like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010),
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2007), and Juno (2007). (500) Days o f Summer follows a very
similar storyline to that of Annie Hall . The story opens, telling us that the couple will not end up
together, and then takes us on a non-chronological journey of the couple¶s relationship. The 2007
film Stardust follows the same pattern of a multi-genre romantic comedy that The Princess Bride
does, with action, adventure, romance, comedy and fantasy blending together. A Lot Like Love
(2005) and Serendipity (2001) are the stories of a man and woman who fate continues to bring
together every few years, corresponding with When Harry Met Sally.
The romantic comedy is a frequently overlooked genre, for many think that it is an
overtly formulaic type of film. In some cases, this is true, but nowadays, films of most genres fall
into that rut. If one takes into account the elements that go into the romantic comedy and the
effects it has on the industry and audiences alike, they might reevaluate its importance. People
watch romantic comedies for many reasons. It could be to laugh, or cry. It could be women
or men just wanting to watch the life and love of characters separate from the real world,
protected from typical social conventions and psychological inhibitions imposed by reality.
Whatever the reason, romantic comedies are not only effected society, but also portray
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society and the way it has changes over the years. From Charlie Chaplin to Woody Allen to
Meg Ryan, the definition of the romantic comedy has changed with almost every film that is
released under the genre. Even so, the romantic comedy remains timeless and provides
feel-good entertainment in a world that habitually needs it.