Wherefore art thou, romantic comedies?
The other day my gal pal posted an interesting status update on Facebook.
She had just finished watching “Letters to Juliet,” a romantic comedy about an American girl on vacation in Italy who finds an unanswered letter to a woman named Juliet and goes on a quest to find the lovers referenced in that letter. (Read the review in Time.)
She enthusiastically endorsed the movie, saying in her post, “To my gal pals that believe in destiny, do yourselves a favor and watch this chick flick. Makes me want to go to Italy … like tomorrow.”
I haven’t seen the movie. And I’ll be honest, I’ve been a little disappointed by the romantic comedy offerings lately.
Right now the only movie resembling a romantic comedy in theaters is “You Again,” a mediocre comedy that’s more about high school rivalry than true love.
So where have all the good romantic comedies gone? I’m talking about such timeless classics as “Say Anything,” “While You Were Sleeping” and — the masterpiece — “When Harry Met Sally.”
I scoured the blogosphere last night to come up with a list of top romantic comedies and found that they’re a lot more varied than I had anticipated.
Some blogs listed strange-but-considered-romantic flicks like “So I Married an Axe Murderer” and “Chasing Amy”; others featured the embarrassingly bad “Splash” and “Mannequin.”
BoxOfficeCritic had a pretty decent list of its Top 10 Romantic Comedies:
1. “It Happened One Night” (1934)
2. “Bringing Up Baby” (1938)
3. “Some Like it Hot” (1959)
4. “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993)
5. “The Philadelphia Story” (1940)
6. “While You Were Sleeping” (1995)
7. “Moonstruck” (1987)
8. “The Goodbye Girl” (1977)
9. “When Harry Met Sally” (1989)
10. “The Wedding Singer” (1998)
I started thinking about this last night after watching “The Time Traveler’s Wife” — and was disappointed. Not so much in the movie as in the fact that I wasted about two hours of my night. It was horribly structured, filled with questions and loopholes, and confusing. It left me feeling unmoved and unchanged — or, at the very least, interested in reading the book (which I heard was better).
You got any picks on your favorite romantic comedies? And what’s the formula for a romantic comedy, anyway? Seems like you have to laugh and cry at the same time…
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To read all of Cat’s blogs, visit www.nonstophonolulu.com/thedailydish. Follow Cat on Twitter @thedailydish or send her an e-mail at cat@nonstophonolulu.com.
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