Boy meets girl.
Girl becomes friends with boy.
Complications occur (often in the form of a love triangle/a misunderstanding/an extremely frustrating inability by the main characters to just bloody admit their feelings already!).
Problems are solved. Fireworks explode. Kissing ensues.
Happily. Ever. After.
It’s cut-and-paste, textbook rom-com content, but it just makes me feel so happy. And I’m not ashamed to admit it.
Romantic comedies are the film industry equivalent of the kid who’s last picked for a sports team in high school. There seems to be an unshakable perception that the genre brings together the very worst of features of storytelling. Clichés, substandard plot lines, unrealistic endings that are just too soppy to translate to real life – rom-coms have it all.
In 2009, seven of the 50 highest grossing films in Northern America were romantic comedy types. Now, our choices are limited, and the genre is almost a joke itself. In this year’s ‘Isn’t It Romantic’, Rebel Wilson’s protagonist spent the film imagining she was living in a rom-com when she was really in a coma.
Yes, it’s definitely time to return to the golden age of romantic comedy.
No matter how cringe-worthy it may be, I unashamedly appreciate the moment when childhood best friends confess their feelings towards each other. I unapologetically cry during airport reunion scenes and laugh at the funny BFF character’s matchmaking attempts.
At their core, romantic comedies aim to teach us how to reach out to each other in a time where reality can sometimes seem bleak, by telling stories of how magical things can happen when ordinary people connect. They make it easier to believe in love, even if it’s just for a while.
And with everything that’s going on in our world today, I think we all deserve a bit wishful thinking and a shot at happily ever after.