I’ll be honest – I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy. They make you laugh, cry, and think about things that you’ve been through in your own real-life relationships. Nearly every romantic comedy follows the same plot – boy meets girl, they fall in love, someone screws up, and the other spends the second half of the movie trying (and succeeding) to win them back. Unfortunately, reality isn’t as easy as rom-coms make it seem.
- Kissing in the rain is romantic
Whether it’s getting caught in a storm or showing up on her doorstep in the pouring rain, one too many rom-coms feature a scene that depicts kissing in the rain as this amazing, romantic, passionate event (here’s looking at The Notebook). But let’s get real; kissing in the rain isn’t cute. You end up looking like a drowned cat or raccoon with makeup running down your face and you’re freezing. Just get her inside before you kiss her.
2. Having one thing in common with someone means you’re meant to be
No one says it better than Chloë Grace Moretz’s character in (500) Days ofSummer: “Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate.” If a girl or a guy enjoys the same music, movie genre, or obscure books as you, that’s great. But it doesn’t make that person your soul mate. Maybe they are, or maybe they’re just a cool person you should be friends with. Don’t be like Tom Hansen.
3. You can win someone back with one big, grand gesture
Not everyone is going to have a Say Anything moment with John Cusack standing on their front lawn, holding up a radio blasting the song that played the first time they had sex. And not everyone wants to. Sure, it’s romantic, but waking someone up in the middle of the night isn’t, and it definitely doesn’t guarantee that they’ll want to be with you. It may work, but it may also end with you getting arrested for trespassing or harassment.
4. All a girl needs to make a boy want to be with her is a makeover
At the end of Grease, Sandra Dee trades in her pink skirts and ponytails for leather pants and red lipstick so that she’ll fit in more with Danny and the Pink Ladies. You can argue that Danny liked her before the makeover, and that he tried (and failed) to change for her, but Sandy is the one that makes the biggest change in the end. Any healthy relationship involves accepting the other person as they are, not needing them to change for you.
5. It’s okay to cheat if you’re actually meant to be with someone else
In rom-coms, it’s okay to sleep with your best friend’s fiancé and ultimately end their marriage if you knew him first and had been in love with him the whole time. And yeah, maybe she’ll hate you a little, but she’ll get over it and you’ll get to end up with the guy who, after all, was really yours in the first place anyway. In Something Borrowed, that’s just what happens, and it’s ridiculous. Cheating isn’t something that should ever be romanticized – you shouldn’t sleep with your best friend’s fiancé, and if they really loved you, they would leave the other person.
Despite their flaws, romantic comedies can still be great movies. After all, like any other film genre, they aren’t meant to be "real" – they show us what could happen in a perfect world, present the ideal relationships for us to admire, and the happy ending that we all need to believe in. Just like any other movies, they’re an escape and they’re fun to watch – just make sure you aren’t trying too hard to recreate them in real life. You might get slapped in the face, or arrested.
