I’m All Out of Love
Romantic comedies are in a sad state. You don’t even need to see the trailer for My Best Friend’s Girl to make that statement—though it certainly helps, because everything about that trailer is another shovelful of dirt on the romantic comedy’s coffin. Kate Hudson plays, for what seems like the umpteenth time, a cute girl next door, Dane Cook plays a jerk that guys hire to date their exes and treat them so badly that the ex looks like great guy. Of course there are pratfalls; of course Kate and Dane (does anyone actually think this guy is funny or hot?) will fall in love, despite themselves. Of course you’ll instantly feel like you’ve seen this movie 20 times this year.
That’s because you have: 27 Dresses, Made of Honor, What Happens in Vegas all have a building block of classic romantic comedies–polar opposite lead characters who hate each other and realize they’re perfect couple when thrown together in a highly contrived situation. Nothing wrong with that. That could be the synopsis for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as It Happened One Night, which is the classic, perfect old-Hollywood romantic screwball comedy. The problem nowadays, with the notable exception of Knocked Up, is the execution: in short, underwritten, unappealing characters with no edge that could be played by any flavor-of-the-month starlet (where are the Katherine Hepburns, Doris Days, the or even the early Camerons?) and bad, bad dialogue. With My Best Friend’s Girl in September, it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon, so if you’re a fan of the genre like me, I recommend an antidote. Start with AFI’s list of the 10 Best Romantic Comedies of all time, which was revealed in a TV special on Tuesday, and add these to your Netflix list:
The 39 Steps–The movie that made Hitchcock a Hollywood star director may start out as a thriller, but turns into a screwball romantic comedy halfway through. Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll have some of the sharpest dialogue in movie history and body language that makes it clear they’re meant to be together.
Princess Bride— Razor sharp dialogue and wit, and a farcical plot with a soft, chewy center: Love conquers all, even death.
There’s Something About Mary—The only gross-out movie (with a star-making turn by Cameron Diaz, of course, and Ben Stiller) that manages to be sweet, too. And right on point about the endearingly misguided neanderthals men can be.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin—If There’s Something About Mary gave us a glimpse into the minds of men, Virgin gave us the grand tour—the good, the bad and the ugly. I still think this is the best movie Judd Apatow has made—deliciously crass with surprising emotion and depth.
My Best Friend’s Wedding—Possibly the only movie in which Julia Roberts showed an edge, as a girl trying to break up her best friend and his impossibly nice fiancee (a great Cameron Diaz). Bittersweet ending is perfect.
Something’s Gotta Give—I know, I know. Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson are old. But they have crazy chemistry, plus, she gets to play cougar with Keanu Reeves (who plays a hot young doctor), which is totally my back-up plan if I don’t get married.
Some Like it Hot—The best comedy of all time, hands down (with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Ms. Marylin Monroe) also features a hilarious gay plotline way ahead of its time: That unlikely romance between Jerry/Daphne and Osgood is pure comedic gold but also so on-point about just how delusional love can make you.
What are some of your favorites?
Enjoy!
The Princess Bride is The. Best. Movie. EVER. What ever happened to Cary Elwes and how do you pronounce his freaking last name? Always wondered about that…
One of my favorite de J-Lo monster suegra?
Sad, and so freakin’ true, docana. I saw the trailer for a new rom-com starring Uma Thurman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan that was so ridiculous, trite, unfunny, and chemistry-free that I think my computer monitor is still holding its nose. I’ve seen and loved all of the ones on your list, especially the last two.
I’d add Out of Sight (mmowr!)…His Girl Friday…French Kiss…The Awful Truth…Notting Hill…Born Yesterday…Annie Hall…Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version, I’m sorry to say. I often find her very nails on a chalkboard, but not in this Austen adaptation)…and the underrated Return to Me (which is so old-fashioned I can barely believe some pimply-faced Hollywood exec greenlit it).
OH MY GOD I LOVE “RETURN TO ME!” You are so right, Yvonne; I can’t believe it was even made in this day and age. But I adore every old-fashioned second of it!
“Philadelphia Story” with Kate Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart is one of my favorite romantic comedies. The dialog is is fast and witty. The physical comedy (Stewart and Hepburn drunk and sentimental) is marvelous, and the characters are well-developed.
My guilty pleasure is “Overboard” with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn (much funnier than her daughter, Kate). Russell is a brawny, lower-class father of a pack of feral boys, and Hawn is a rich bitch snob who has no concern for anyone else. One bout of amnesia later (and I love amnesia stories) and he’s duped her into thinking she’s his wife so she’ll care for his kids. My favorite line: “My life is hell, and my children are the spawn of Satan.”
Doesn’t anyone think that “Bridgette Jones’ Diary” was funny? Or the recently released “Sex and the City” movie? Or “Pretty Woman”, “Along Came Polly”, “Groundhog Day”, or another of my favorites, “Down With Love”? These are also really funny movies too!