The Romantic Comedy is Not Dead

Today's Wall Street Journal has a sad little piece by JoAnn Anderson about the supposed death of the romantic comedy, which is basically Miss Edith's favorite film genre. Miss Edith will sit through fairly abysmal romantic comedies because, in her experience, even terrible ones will have some single scene that strikes a chord, or has some particular sweetness to it, or has some other redeeming quality. So Miss Edith read this article with considerable interest, and found herself disagreeing with it more strongly than even you would expect.

The article posits that the genre has basically died because of the sexual revolution and because folks just aren't as witty as they used to be. I don't agree with this at all. I think the genre has been altered by the sexual revolution, and that it's certainly harder to find a genuinely well-written romantic comedy, but that the genre is far from dead.

The article cites "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail" as being among the best examples of the genre in recent decades. This made me want to tear my hair out. I like "You've Got Mail" in spite of myself -- this is a subject for another day, I'm afraid -- but I have always thought "Sleepless in Seattle" was beyond overrated. The idea that these Nora Ephron projects, which are both essentially remakes of earlier movies, are truly the best of the genre in recent years, could only be put forth by people who really haven't been looking. They've been looking for romantic comedies in all the wrong places, my friends, and overlooking movies that, okay, maybe didn't do well at the box office, but which I really believe have legs, or gams if you will.

Please, people, have a gander at these movies. They're all of relatively recent vintage and maybe you can't stand Hugh Grant or whatever, that's fine... but don't forget that these movies are little gems that I really believe can stand on their own two feet. Four feet. (It takes at least two people to make a good romantic comedy.) Whatever.

I present this list in no particular order, and will probably add to it as I remember worthy contenders...

Intolerable Cruelty (George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, a Coen Bros. production)

Music & Lyrics (Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore -- thought this would suck but you know, it's really grown on me)

Four Weddings and a Funeral (how this didn't get mentioned by JoAnn Anderson is beyond me)

Bridget Jones' Diary (Renee Zellweger, who I generally loathe, and Hugh Grant, and Colin Firth -- and yes, I even enjoy the sequel very, very much)

Moonstruck (for Christ's sake: neither Cher or Nicolas Cage have ever done anything else in their film careers to hold a candle to this perfect movie)

Flirting with Disaster (an early Ben Stiller movie, with Patricia Arquette, Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda, George Segal, Tea Leoni, and Mary Tyler Moore)

While You Were Sleeping (an early Sandra Bullock vehicle, completely charming, with Peter Gallagher and Bill Pullman and some great character acting)

I've got a madcap life to lead, right now. If anyone else would like to contribute to the list, feel free.

Incidentally: it's not that I think the list of movies they showed at the Ethics and Public Policy Center -- which was the inspiration for Anderson's article -- is a bad list of movies; not at all. I just think people aren't giving credit where credit is due.