Romantic-Comedies are, by far, my favorite genre. Two people who are perfect for each other, but don’t realize it or fight against it. Kisses in the rain. Awkward and totally relatable moments. Sighs, dumb smiles and warm hearts. What’s not to love? But, are all Rom-Coms actually romantic? Or the urge to make everything meaningful while being funny turns the romance into something else? Here are 5 Rom-Coms that scream hell yeah to this last question.
- Shallow Hal (2001)
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Hal (Jack Black) is a man who only dates women who reach his unrealistic idea of “beauty”. One day, he meets Tony Robbins (himself), a guru who hypnotizes him to only see people’s inner beauty. That’s when he meets Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), an overweight woman. She is funny, caring, smart and everything anyone should look for in a partner. Besides, in Hal’s eyes, she checks the “perfect supermodel” box. Inevitably, he falls in love with her. It seems like a romantic and cute story that was supposed to have “don’t judge a book by its cover” as its moral. However, that’s not the message the main characters send to the audience, since all they do is judge every single person only by their appearance. Even when Hal is under the “spell”, he keeps criticizing people by the way he sees them. Nonetheless, the insulting idea that the only way for an overweight woman to find love is when the other person is hypnotized takes the Rom right out of the Com.
- The Ugly Truth (2009)
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Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) is a successful, strong and independent woman. That is, until she crushes on her neighbor Colin (Eric Winter), when she starts being clumsy and, to be honest, stupid at times. Along with that, Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), a womanizer who thinks men only want one thing: get into a girl’s pants, starts advising her on how women should behave and look so a guy would find them attractive. That’s when the movie really goes into the garbage can. Because of Mike, Abby becomes a stupid, overly sexualized and totally different person. She ends up humiliating herself and changing her entire personality and values. Basically, it’s an hour and a half of a sexist guy mansplaining Abby on how to get a boyfriend.
- Bride Wars (2009)
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Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudson) are best friends since they were little girls. However, when their weddings get mistakenly booked-up on the same day and at the same venue, they freak out and turn against each other. Then, it begins a whole storyline of best friends who keep sabotaging one another in the most childish ways. In the end, they actually get into a physical fight at Liv’s wedding. Fortunately, that’s when they get into their senses and realize their friendship means more than any stupid thing they were arguing about. And, honestly, I don’t even know what was the big deal was, why didn’t they just get a double wedding or something? Anyway, it’s a Rom-Com about two independent and sophisticated women who have known each other their whole lives and just forget about all that the minute things get a little complicated.
- Just Go With It (2011)
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Danny (Adam Sandler) is a ladies’ man who pretends to be in a terrible marriage to get laid. One day, he meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) and falls in love with her instantly. Unfortunately for Danny, she finds his fake wedding ring and ends things with him. Trying to get her back and succeed in this final conquest, he convinces Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), his loyal assistant, to pretend to be his soon-to-be-former wife. Such a sweet story, right? Believe me, it gets worse. Danny not only lies to Palmer about having a wife and being separated, but also uses Katherine’s children to create a fake family. It’s a movie based on an extremely complex web of lies that generates a love triangle between two incredible, smart and charming women and a man-child who deserves neither of them.
- Something Borrowed (2011)
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Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Darcy (Kate Hudson) are best friends since childhood. In Law School, Rachel met Dex (Colin Egglesfield) and they fell in love. However, neither of them did anything about their feelings for each other, so Darcy and Dex start dating and get engaged. I know, right? No way that could go wrong…Anyway, on her 30th birthday, Rachel, drunk and dejected, ends up sleeping with her best friend’s fiancé. Then, an affair starts, because, apparently, a lifetime of friendship between two women is worth less than a man, who, to be honest, isn’t really that great of a guy. Dex is an immature and indecisive man, who doesn’t fight for Rachel at any moment throughout the whole movie and keeps on cheating even though he knows hurting Darcy hurts Rachel as well. The entire situation just adds insult to injury. That’s not romantic, it’s just a bunch of terrible people harming each other when all they needed to do was develop the fine art of “communication”.
These insights are not supposed to make you hate Rom-Coms; I still love them! They are cozy and light, but they can also get lost in the storyline and end up being toxic or disrespectful. But, please, keep enjoying the good ones, I know I will!
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The article above was edited by Amanda Moraes.
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