The Cliché's of Rom Coms

It’s a Saturday night and you’re ready to curl up on the couch by yourself or with someone and watch a good movie. You scroll through the list of potential films, deciding whether to watch your favourite for the billionth time or a new one. But, you’re really just in the mood to watch a feel good Rom Com (even if it’s a guilty pleasure), to get lost in the love life of a character and escape reality for a little while.

A Rom Com (A.K.A Romantic Comedy) can be a teenage or adolescent girl’s dream life (or a guy’s dream life). ‘The damsel in distress’ has her perfect dream job in a gorgeous city and meets this incredibly handsome guy or realises the guy she has been friends with for years is the love of her life and everything seems to fall into place quite perfectly. If only life could be this simple.

However, with every story there has to be a point of climax where something goes wrong. Whether she realises too late she is in love with the guy but he’s already moved onto another girl and so poses the question: does she tell him or not? Or maybe he realises too late. Or perhaps they don’t get along at first but throughout the storyline they keep bumping into each other, leading them to reveal their true feelings for each other. Or – one I personally don’t like that much – the competition of another guy or girl.

Whatever the story line or climax, the movie almost always ends with someone running through an airport to stop the flight or speeding down a highway to stop the wedding. Sometimes – just to make this interesting - the director and producers will pull a fast one leaving the audience thinking the protagonist is too late. But it turns out the person they are trying to get to didn’t even get on the plane or didn’t turn up to their wedding. Don’t worry – spoiler alert – they usually get there on time.

There are the cliché romantic moments in the movie. The moment when they meet each other for the first time – known as ‘The Meet Cute’ - and time itself seems to slow down, before being thrown back into reality. The moment when they realise they are in love with each other and no words need to be spoken and we – the audience – just know. And finally the moment (usually in the middle of the movie) when they are just about to kiss but are usually stopped by something or someone. Those kisses doesn’t usually happen until the end anyway.

And it wouldn’t be a Rom Com without the comedic parts. The quick-witted lines, banter and sarcasm between the couple. Or the quick jokes from their friends. Or perhaps a certain character who is the comedic relief.

But, we know the layout of a Rom Com and yet we continue to watch them because… well… usually it’s a feel-good ending (and it can be a guilty pleasure). They show the funny, cute – and tough - parts of a relationship that we want to be a reality – minus the tough parts (but I guess they have to put in a bit of reality). It’s like the adults version of a Disney fairy-tale.

And we are left thinking ‘where are these guys and girls?’ and ‘When will I meet a gentlemen or a lady like the ones in the movies?’. But, they are out there.

And some of you might be lucky enough to already have a guy or girl like this.

But it’s Rom Coms that make you believe that chivalry is not dead and gentlemen and ladies still exist.

And as the credits roll up the screen we are thrown back into reality that it is just a movie, created through someone's imagination of what if...

Cover Image: Joshua Earle