Thursday, February 11, 2016

Challenge: Find Two Rom-Coms Where Characters Learn Significantly Different "Lessons"

It's hard for me to come up with a comedy in which we truly learn something about the world. In the romantic comedy 27 Dresses, Jane, a frequent bridesmaid, is in love with a man who decides to marry her younger, "prettier" sister. Eventually another guy notices Jane and after many sticky situations they end up getting married. 

Jane would be considered the comic hero since she was able to get past the loss of one guy and find another one who viewers probably like better. Although she is happier than before and maybe learned a lesson or two alone the way, I don't this movie, or any other romantic comedy, "enhances our understanding of human nature" because they're all virtually the same. They're all simply about finding "the one" and that teaches me nothing about the world besides the idea that if one relationship doesn't work out for me, I'll soon find another one with a friend or co-worker that I hadn't really noticed before. 

I'm not saying I don't enjoy watching these movies, because they're definitely some of my favorites, but I won't defend them as a meaningful form of art. 

4 comments:

  1. Great post! I definately agree that they have become pretty sterotypical and all follow a very similar formula. Nice post again!

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  2. I completely agree that Romantic Comedies have an uncanny habit of using the same ideas to recreate the different movies.

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  3. I agree! Most romantic comedies are predictable and have simple plots. I think that romantic comedies often don't teach us lessons about human nature because the characters are too shallow to reveal anything. While I'll laugh at romantic comedies, I do not usually become invested in the characters or their relationships because they are too formulaic to seem real. However, I think romantic comedies have the potential to be meaningful if they have relatable characters with depth and complexity.

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  4. Romantic comedies definitely have similar plots and ideas. Similar to you, I love them and find them heart warming and full of laughter. I agree with Peyton; if you make the character a little more complex it can be called a meaningful form of art. Good post!

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