Bad Rom-Coms vs Good Rom-Coms (Writing Advice)

"Thank his father for being a plot device." Brilliant.

LOLOL! "Adam visits the hospital to thank his father for being a plot device."

I love early in Groundhog Day where Rita says: “I know you’re egocentric, it’s your defining characteristic.” For a movie with a LOT to do in two hours, it establishes what he needs to change and moves on.

The best rom-com is The Princess Bride by far. :) It's unconventional and genuinely hilarious. Nothing has come close to comparable to it.

For 50 First Dates I think the character arc was missed is this video. The whole point in setting up that Adam Sandler‘s character is afraid of commitment perfectly fits in with the rest of the story as he meets a local girl who he can literally walk away from at any time. That’s her appeal to him. Is that he doesn’t have to commit to her. And I think in the beginning, he’s drawn by the chase. Getting her to fall in love with him every day. Which is something he is already good at doing since he does it with the tourist girls all the time. But unlike with the tourist girls who he eventually stops dating before they can get close enough for them to fall for him, he keeps dating Drew Barrymore‘s character because he knows he can walk away from her at any point. But because he knows that, he actually ends up letting her into his heart and falling in love with her for real. And now this guy who is afraid of commitment, wants to commit to a person who literally cannot commit to him. Like, she can’t even commit him to memory lol. It’s actually a really great movie. I think, maybe you saw that he was afraid of commitment in the beginning and then he’s immediately going after Drew Barrymore. I think the part that was missed was the fact that he was only going after Drew Barrymore because of his fear of commitment. Because he could walk away from dating her at any time and wouldn’t face any consequences.

the bad vs good videos are my favorites

One of my favorite rom-coms is My Best Friend's Wedding. It's funny and original and even subversive in how the protagonist is actually the villain, and she gets to go after what she wants and in turn creating all this chaos, only to learn things are as they should be. It has such a bitter sweet ending but it was perfect.

I remember the initial argument from The Breakup and was wondering "how did these 2 even move in together in the first place?"

You're right about the flaw being irrelevant to the story in 50 First Dates, but I can't seem to make myself care. I love that movie, warts and all.

I'm gonna say this, Brandon, you're like a dad to us writers

Favourite romcom: About Time. The way that they show that time travel won't magically help you get a girlfriend is so well done, and how there are more elements to the movie than just the romance was great to see after the trailer portrayed the love interest as the most important part of the movie.

Groundhog Day is my all-time favorite film. I know it led to Bill Murray and Harold Ramis having a falling out, but it came out just perfectly.

Another topic could be bad red herrings vs good red herrings

"To thank his father for being a plot device" 😂😂😂😂 that killed me! Okay, I'm buying your books, you win. ❤

I like While You Were Sleeping. Yeah, the premise is wonky, girl falls for guy who doesn't notice/know her and winds up with his family thinking she's about to be family, but it gets me in the feels every time. I love Lucy's relationship with the Callihan family on the whole, and how her fantasies about romance with Peter change into the chance for a real relationship as she gets to know the brother, Jack.

Good advice but I loved 50 First Dates. I saw Adam's character's flaw as enjoying the chase. So he never overcame it. He didn't have to. Every day his love had forgotten him and he had to win her all over again. Still it was a fun movie.

When Harry Met Sally is the gold standard, of course, but I also love While You Were Sleeping and You've Got Mail. I could watch any of those films over and over again.

Romcoms isn’t really my genre, so I usually keep romance as a beta plot line. My favorite movie couple has gotta be Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. Flynn isn’t just some handsome dream boy (even though he’s definitely the Disney dream boy to many😂), but he’s the one who made Rapunzel’s dream come true. He will always mean something to Rapunzel and likewise Rapunzel will always have been the one to change him back to Eugene. That’s the kind of romance I love, where the events of a movie are the catalyst for a couple getting together rather than love itself being what the characters were looking for. That’s what makes the love feel like destiny rather than right place right time, thus making the romance feel larger than life. But that’s just my preference

Harry and Sally is a perfect movie. Brilliant writing and acting. Some of the screwball comedies are also very good rom-com's. Anime also has a wide variety of rom-coms 🙂.

Imagine getting pissed because someone purchasing the wrong amount of lemons... The break up was ahead of its time!