By Tobin BarnesSo let’s get back to romantic comedies.
We’re not talking high-brow entertainment here—nothing particularly intellectual. People don’t make a living studying this stuff.
Matter of fact, the story lines are quite predictable: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back. That’s it.
Of course, the better romantic comedies supply nice little twists and turns to the here-it-comes plot paths. But nothing ever gets too complex. You don’t have to take notes. Just let your sappy side take over, and you’ll be fine.
Other than the predictable plotting, the other common story staple is “fighting lovers.” Almost every romantic comedy has them. This is the element that causes the “boy loses girl” part of the plot. Something about the boy or something about the girl or something about both of them causes a temporary interruption in the moon, June and spoon.
And that’s what makes the whole thing interesting. It’s a disappointment to see a couple breaking up, and it makes you all gooey to see them get back together again in the end. Yeah, the whole thing’s just one big insidious contrivance. Nothing profound whatsoever—it’s “only rock-n-roll, but I like it.”
Sue me.
Two of my favorite recent romantic comedies are “Juno” and “Definitely, Maybe.”
The big complication that breaks up the ultra laid-back couple in “Juno” is teenage pregnancy. Uh huh, not your usual light-hearted-romp material. But the witty dialogue and particularly the deft presentation by the female lead, Ellen Page, elevates the usual what-have-we-done-to-deserve-this angst from drama to romantic comedy.
Added to that, you know from the get-go that things are going to work out for the best—all the characters are just so darned nice and lovable.
That’s the way you want it, and that’s the way you get it in this genre.
At the end, “Juno” leaves the couple strumming their guitars and singing “Anyone Else But You.” All their problems are in the past or at least taken care of for the time being.
That’s right, pretty trite, but in this case, wholly satisfying.
(By the way, the movie’s opening credits are a real treat, creatively setting the slacker tone for what’s to come.)
On the other hand, “Definitely, Maybe” uses mystery to keep the boy meets girl framework interesting. At the outset, the soon-to-be-single guy and his daughter get into a discussion about how he got together with her mother. The father turns this oft-done-before scenario into a scavenger hunt via flashbacks to his relationships with not just the girl’s mother, but with two other women as well.
The whole thing keeps you hopping. In a good sort of way.
The daughter is played by child actress du jour, Abigail Breslin, whom you may have seen in “Little Miss Sunshine.”
Turns out that the identity of the daughter’s mother makes sense and the real flame of the guy’s life, which develops by the movie’s end, makes sense, too. Of course, “Definitely, Maybe” has fighting lovers times three, but that just makes it more fun.
(Another by the way: The red-headed Isla Fisher’s on-screen charisma is worth the price of admission alone.)
So there you go. My spiel on romantic comedies.
I guess I like them mostly because they continue to give me the comfy notion that the whole love thing sometimes works, at least for some couples somewhere.
