Rom-coms, short for “romantic comedies,” include a love story interjected with awkward moments and hilarious punchlines that make the audience laugh.
Their climax often consists of a tear-jerking moment that catalyzes a change in character attitude, which prompts an act of resolution that turns their fate around. Although most rom-coms receive negative ratings from critics, some deserve credit for their hopeful sentiment and unique (though admittedly) sappy truths about love and life.
“Love, Rosie,” a 2014 film based on Cecelia Ahern’s novel “Where Rainbows End,” and the classic 1989 drama “When Harry Met Sally,” both explore the possibility of best friends becoming romantic partners. They encourage viewers to follow their hearts, take chances and live out their dreams (Rosie finally opens her own hotel while Sally becomes a journalist after relocating from Chicago to New York City).
Fate draws Harry and Sally together on three separate occasions, whereas love takes a more long-winded route with Rosie and Alex, who stand beside each other at the altar twice before realizing what they are looking for was right under their nose.
While “When Harry Met Sally” adheres to the traditional, slightly misogynistic components of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back with a (grand) gesture, “Love, Rosie” embraces the chaos and uncertainties of life, taking viewers on a rollercoaster that leaves them anticipating the hopeful end.
Rom-coms have come a long way from their predictable elements and perfect endings. As viewer expectations have shifted, the genre has since reconstructed its formulas to more accurately reflect the muddled truths of real love.
When we were younger, love was embodied in a true love’s kiss from Prince Phillip, a silvery light blue ball gown that changed Cinderella’s life, a joking response “why don’t you marry it?” that left Greg Heffley appalled. Over the years, love evolved from its simple early constituents to a multifaceted, complicated jumble of emotions and experiences — a dozen of roses doesn’t necessarily elicit an “I love you,” a confession isn’t always met with empathy and the meaning of “forever and always” is closer to “one year” than to its literal interpretation.
The lines more blurred, our feelings more suppressed, yet our dreams for a happily-ever-after soared higher than ever. So we turned to entertainment in hopes of proof that every messy, convoluted moment is all worth it in the end.
Richard Curtis’s 2013 motion picture “About Time,” starring Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson (known for his “Harry Potter” role as Bill Weasley), taught us more about life than love. Even though the film is filled with inconsistencies in the nature of time travel, it inspires us to instead focus on its heartwarming message: as protagonist Tim Lake says in the movie, “I just try to live every day as if I've deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.”
Illustrating the story of an average man with an exceptional a superpower who still faces mundane everyday struggles, this rom-com provokes a visceral conviction to enjoy the present and seek light and beauty even in the most unpleasant of situations.
To quote Alex Steward from “Love, Rosie,” “There are two kinds of people in this world. Hopeless romantics and realists.” Yet rom-coms, when dedicated to bringing hope and a passion for love and life to their audience, can potentially serve as the intersection of both.