Must Love Dogs

I begin by saying that I don’t really like romantic comedies much. Of all the movie genres out there, it is the most formulaic and least enjoyable to me. The only genre that tends to be as formulaic on the whole is horror movies, particularly slasher films, but I enjoy those far more.

So this, like almost every other romantic comedy I have ever seen (far too many), has a guy and a girl who meet and fall in love, but one is keeping a secret from the other, the other finds out, the fallout occurs, but they inevitably get back together in the end. Bleh. The only romantic comedy I really like is also one that kind of breaks the above formula, and that is When Harry Met Sally.

In this movie’s case, the girl is a middle aged woman who has just gotten a divorce, the guy is a (younger) middle aged man who has gone through the same thing. They meet through an online dating service that the woman’s sister secretly registered her for, and the secret ends up being that the woman is also sort of seeing another man, the father of one of her first grade students. The first guy finds out, is hurt, and gets out of her life, but of course, she decides that he was the right one for her. If you’ve seen more than two romantic comedies in your life, you know that they end up together in the end, so my writing that here should not be ruining anything for you.

Don’t get me wrong – the movie was entertaining enough. The acting was pretty good; John Cusack was the main bright spot, but there were other decent actors, too. Stockard Channing’s was one of the more memorable of the supporting cast performances. The movie had its funny moments, too. But there’s no real reason to watch this over any other romantic comedy that’s been made in the last twenty years. You know the whole plot going in, you know how it’s going to end, and the genre does not lend itself to astounding filmmaking creativity and ingenuity.

And that’s why I don’t go out of my way to watch romantic comedies. Generally speaking, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. If I’m going to watch a predictable movie, I get a lot more entertainment in exchange for my time with the a horror film, guessing when the scares are going to be, figuring out who will be the one to survive to the end, seeing what kind of creativity the filmmakers can bring to the scares and death scenes, and, if I’m lucky, a few good scares and jumps.

If you like romantic comedies, despite the Groundhog Day sensation, then this is probably a decent one to watch. If you’re like me and think that someone needs to rethink the genre and come up with something original and new, then you should not spend your time on this movie.