# The Romantic Comedy Hall of Shame! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192 "2004-08-17T03:37:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/21 "2004-08-17T19:40:42Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > I haven’t seen it (and won’t see it) either, but I have read spoiler-filled reviews that suggest it may not be all bad: > > She gets her pay-back at the end, when she realizes that the “friend” who’d been encouraging her to do this in the first place (Holly Hunter) was actually manipulating her the whole time in order to get material for a Ricki Lake-type talk show. In the end, the protagonist loses everything – her boyfriend, her “dignity,” and the friendship of the ex-girlfriends she started to realize were actually not bad people at all. I don’t know (and probably never will) if there’s a sudden last-minute happy ending in there, but it didn’t sound like it. That doesn’t sound so bad then. Actually, it sounds halfway decent. I might now give it a shot if I ever happen upon it on HBO in a couple years. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/22 "2004-08-17T19:45:04Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > To begin with, it’s kind of embarrassing to see Hugh Jackman in such a bland romantic comedy role. He’s Wolverine, for fuck’s sake, he’s too cool for this! Men deserve to have a few icons who are not poisoned by these kinds of crap movies. Considering Jackman has also done the musicals(!) _Oklahoma!, Carousel,_ and _The Boys From Oz,_ I think he was a lost icon even before he showed up in **Someone Like You.** 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/23 "2004-08-17T19:53:02Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **City of Angels** was turgid, but became absolutely ridiculous when they went to an ending so ridiculous that it was the basis of a National Lampoon article _twenty years earlier_: Plus it was a bad remake of the far better _Wings of Desire_. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/24 "2004-08-17T20:09:17Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > 😕 I fail to see how _SLIH_ relates to the theme/gripe of the OP in any way. Well Tony wasn’t mean to her but he wasn’t as nice to her as Jack. He didn’t seem to be getting along with her as well as Jack. It just seemed like she chose the wrong guy to me. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/25 "2004-08-17T20:14:57Z")
> [@Fern Forest](#): > > Well Tony wasn’t mean to her but he wasn’t as nice to her as Jack. He didn’t seem to be getting along with her as well as Jack. It just seemed like she chose the wrong guy to me. Except, of course, that she never knew Jerry (Jack) as a man–only as Daphne. How could she pick “him” when she didn’t know she was really a he? Joe (Tony) wasn’t who he said he was, but at least he didn’t expect her to fall in love with him while he was still in a dress. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/26 "2004-08-17T20:19:04Z")
> [@Slithy Tove](#): > > Ralph Belamy made a career playing this part, starting in “His Girl Friday” and even in a out-ant-out “guy” flick “The Professionals,” when Claudia Cardinale dumps him for Jack Palance. Yeah, but Bellamy was usually portrayed as slow or boring or provincial or a mama’s boy, so at least you could argue that, nice though he was, he was still a poor match. Now, though, the also-rans don’t even have those (meager) flaws. They’re too good to be true but wrong only because they’re “nice.” ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/27 "2004-08-17T20:24:51Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Much of this is the same thing that bothered me about _Titanic_ (yes, yes, I know, everybody’s going to say “that’s the _only_ thing that bothered you about Titanic?”) - so this woman at the ripe old age of, what, nineteen? meets a guy, falls in love with him, he dies. She spends the _vast majority_ of her life married to some other man who we presume is a nice guy that she loved, but screw him, it’s all about Jack? About her childish three day romance? “Heaven” or whatever is Mr. Crush from high school? What about her husband, the father of her children, who married her presumably _without_ her discarded family name and theoretical (absent) assets? Argh! I gotta say that I disagree with your view. It’s entirely possible that she truly and deeply loved the man she later married and had children with. In fact, there’s at least one strong hint in that direction… “it was the most erotic experience of my life… well, until then”. Just because she remembers and holds onto her love for Jack doesn’t mean that she was lying to, or not-fully-loving, her husband. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/28 "2004-08-17T20:31:44Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Except, of course, that she never knew Jerry (Jack) as a man–only as Daphne. How could she pick “him” when she didn’t know she was really a he? Joe (Tony) wasn’t who he said he was, but at least he didn’t expect her to fall in love with him while he was still in a dress. Well I guess I never did spend to much time analyzing the way things went. All that I have left is a sense of dissatisfaction with her choice at the end of the movie of my own making. And so it doesn’t quite fit. Oh well, 50-50. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/29 "2004-08-17T21:28:27Z")
Adding my agreement for **The Wedding Planner** and **My Best Friend’s Wedding** , though with the second one it’s for a different reason. The Wedding Planner had the female lead (J. Lopez) turning down a very nice (if a bit goofy), very handsome Italian man. He was stable and caring and loyal to a fault. And she turned him down for a man who wasn’t opposed to cheating on his fiance, a very nice woman. Of course, the fiance had to be the one to make the decision to back out of their wedding, or it would’ve made McConaughey’s character look even worse. In My Best Friend’s Wedding, while I don’t think Julia Roberts’ character should have “won” the man, he shouldn’t have married Cameron Diaz’s character either. They had serious issues about career goals that they weren’t really discussing. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/30 "2004-08-17T21:41:15Z")
I liked **My Best Friend’s Wedding** , mostly because of the ending, which I thought was truer to life than most of the plots we’re complaining about here. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/31 "2004-08-17T21:42:51Z")
> [@](#): > > I gotta say that I disagree with your view. It’s entirely possible that she truly and deeply loved the man she later married and had children with. In fact, there’s at least one strong hint in that direction… “it was the most erotic experience of my life… well, until then”. > > Just because she remembers and holds onto her love for Jack doesn’t mean that she was lying to, or not-fully-loving, her husband. That’s as may be, but that’s not really the interpretation the movie is pushing, you have to admit. Especially the ending, it’s all “Eternal Luuuurve”. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/32 "2004-08-17T21:46:03Z")
To go onto the other side of the fence and applaud a movie that stuck with the original romance I’d like to recognize **Forces of Nature** with Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock. He’s trying to get to his own wedding and has to drive cross-country with stranger Sandra Bullock. They become friends and talk a lot and even get flirtacious and enjoy their road trip. However, at the end he ends up arriving at the wedding and weds the girl he fell in love with while Sandra leaves quietly. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/33 "2004-08-17T22:39:11Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > That’s as may be, but that’s not really the interpretation the movie is pushing, you have to admit. Especially the ending, it’s all “Eternal Luuuurve”. I’m no big admirer of the film, but No, that’s not what the movie is pushing. The ending has less to do with “Eternal Love” then it simply represents a spiritual reunion with all the people who died on the boat. Her life was changed/transformed by the events depicted in the movie; nowhere does that represent a slight of her life/accomplishments afterwards, but it does mean it has some value to her. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/34 "2004-08-22T15:14:58Z")
Bill Pullman often seems to get cast in these “nice guys never win” roles. I guess he just has the face for it or something. I always remember his small role in **Singles** as a very nice plastic surgeon who falls for Bridget Fonda and tries to talk her _out_ the boob job she wants to impress her no-good grunge rocker boyfriend Matt Damon. Poor Pullman never has a chance. She rejects him and never gives him a second thought, not even after she breaks up with Damon. > [@twickster](#): > > I liked **My Best Friend’s Wedding** , mostly because of the ending, which I thought was truer to life than most of the plots we’re complaining about here. I wasn’t crazy about the movie, but I was quite pleased that they didn’t go with the predictable ending that I’d been dreading throughout the film. What a refreshing change! A different problem I have with many romantic comedies is sort of the opposite of the OP – the convention of making the to-be-jilted lover unfaithful first so we won’t feel sorry for them when they’re tossed aside in favor of the other romantic lead. In a movie like **The Wedding Singer** I think it would be enough to show that Drew Barrymore’s fiance was stupid and jerkish without adding that he was running around on her and planning to continue to do so even after their marriage. Or in **Titanic** , was it really necessary to make Billy Zane a cartoonish villain rather than simply an arrogant Mr. Wrong? It’s also pretty stupid with the jilted lovers of both romantic leads wind up falling for each other. I mean, I know a romantic comedy has to have a happy ending, but if they’re going to make not one but _two_ broken relationships an essential part of the story then I think it’s both pandering and lazy to tie things up that neatly. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/35 "2004-08-22T15:25:35Z")
**Pretty in Pink** is an offender. Really, she should have gone with Ducky. Andrew McCarthy was a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/36 "2004-08-29T13:33:55Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#): > > **Pretty in Pink** is an offender. Really, she should have gone with Ducky. Andrew McCarthy was a jerk. Yeah, but as you may or may not know, that **was** the original ending. There are two different accounts of why it was changed. One version says the test audiences didn’t like it. :rolleyes: The other says that Hughes had second thoughts and decided that was the “wrong message”: if Andie and Blane didn’t end up together, that meant class barriers can’t or shouldn’t be crossed. GMAFB. So we were given a “better” message than if we’d seen Andie choose the person **who had never let her down**? :smack: (Psst: **Lamia** , that was Matt **Dillon**. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/37 "2004-08-30T00:02:32Z")
> [@Jenny Haniver](#): > > **The Wedding Planner** – Ugh. UGH. Leaving aside the issue of JLo and Matthew McConaughey (Fug, the both of them.) Why is it that the lovers in so many crappy romantic comedies are already in relationships and wind up leaving their SOs at the last possible second? It’s like Hollywood thinks we couldn’t possibly respect a character who was single for more than 45 seconds. (And that’s with the taxi getting stuck in traffic, forcing our intrepid lover to run the last five blocks.) This one has _both_ of them leaving their weddings to _other people_ so they can “romantically” hook up at the end. I hate that too. It drives me crazy. I also despise movies where the lover has been won on the basis of a lie ( **Maid in Manhattan** , if I remember correctly)and after some suitable penitence of the part of the liar, everything’s happy lovey-dovey again and they get together. Barf. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/38 "2004-08-30T03:31:30Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > There are two different accounts of why it was changed. One version says the test audiences didn’t like it. The other says that Hughes had second thoughts and decided that was the “wrong message”: if Andie and Blane didn’t end up together, that meant class barriers can’t or shouldn’t be crossed. GMAFB. So we were given a “better” message than if we’d seen Andie choose the person who had never let her down? I think the especially creepy thing about **Pretty in Pink** is that, throughout the film, we see what a sad and broken man Andie’s dad is…all because he was rejected by the only woman he ever loved! What a sad fate for poor Duckie. > [@](#): > > (Psst: **Lamia** , that was Matt **Dillon**. :o It always ticks me off when people mix up similar-sounding celebrity names like that, and here I’ve gone and done it myself! :smack: I can’t even claim that it was past my bedtime when I wrote that. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/39 "2004-08-30T03:52:47Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Poor Pullman never has a chance. He had a chance in Mr.Wrong! Ellen was all into him til he proved to be nutty. Wasn’t he in a Sandra Bullock movie where she prefered the guy in the coma? ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192/40 "2004-08-30T03:53:06Z")
**How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days** - Ugh!! They both consistantly lie to one another, and yet we’re supposed to believe that within a week they’ve fallen in love, even after they learn about the mutual lies? I also hated **Sweet Home Alabama** - By the end of the movie I hoped the two guys would end up with each other. That would’ve been better than Reese Witherspoon getting either one. I absolutely despised the way she treated everyone in the movie. StG [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-romantic-comedy-hall-of-shame/260192.md?page=3)