I Don't Care, I Love Rom-Coms
I find it's often assumed that, because I so cheerfully critique my favorite things into mangled corpses, I therefore look down on romantic comedies. Friends might engage me in a conversation about how silly and formulaic they are, naturally thinking Mrs. Must-Have-A-Clever-Plot-And-World over here will agree. But I'm actually all, "...I liked that movie".
I think this gets into why the romance genre, with a capital R, is so distinct and separate from other genre fiction. You read it (or in my case, watch it) for separate reasons. Regular sci-fi/fantasy--yes, I want to be wowed by how clever and unpredictable and unique everything is. Romance? I just want to be happy and not think about life :( It fills a similar niche to eating cookies. When my husband is off in China for work, and I'm all alone and my brain is exhausted from the day, sometimes all I want out of my fiction is to cheer the main characters on and know they'll get together in the end.
(As an aside, this is why I totally understand why categorical romance must have a happily-ever-after. I've accidentally watched a few movies intended to be pick-me-ups, only to find they had a tragic ending, and boy is that a bummer.)
For someone who viciously tears into every little thing that irks me about most fiction's plot and characterization, I'm strangely accepting of all the rom-com flaws. I want them to be formulaic--mostly the same but different--and I want to have fun with not-totally-believable situations and conflicts. As long as I can love both our heroes, I'm all set. Tropey? Fine. Overdone? Don't care. While You Were Sleeping is contrived, 13 Going On 30 requires magic, Love Actually found every trope in the entire genre, and Clueless... okay, there's nothing bad to say about Clueless.
There are, of course, a few things that don't pass muster. The plot can't be totally stupid, and even in an otherwise enjoyable romance I'll always grind my teeth at sexism and assumed gender roles. But unless it's quite egregious, I'll ignore most flaws with the excuse that they're simply part of the genre. I love plenty of movies that are embarrassingly childish to my rational critic. Sure it's easy to admit to loving Pretty Woman, but I've seen Kate and Leopold more than once and I still chuckle at scenes from How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.
There's quite a range to these things, too. Gender swaps like It's A Boy Girl Thing or She's The Man never get old for me. You've got your high school dramas, and your 30-somethings. The multiple-stories-in-one-movie, the time travel or otherwise magical plot device, the identity shenanigans (You've Got Mail, anyone?), and the classic novel adaptations. Let's also not forget the LGBT rom-coms, which are frustratingly difficult to find--most of them are mopey and tragic, so the rare gem of pure rom-com silliness with LGBT leads are endless fun for me (such as the completely ridiculous But I'm A Cheerleader, or the fabulously campy but utterly adorable Make The Yuletide Gay).
As you can see, I have fun with these. I may watch one some evening while I'm home alone, decide it was pretty dumb, and never think about it again. But I'll still enjoy myself while doing so. Some of these romances are so forgettable that I'll be 20 minutes into them before realizing I've seen it before years ago. That's okay! I still get the little endorphin rush when they finally get together in the end.
Then when I feel more cerebral, I'll go back to something more clever. You won't catch me talking smack about feel-good romances. I might be all snobbish about how the writing in The Flash is worse even than Star Trek: Enterprise, but I'll watch Valentine's Day with my chocolates and never once complain that it's a less-interesting imitation of Love Actually. Throw the handsome heroes my way, please.
I think this gets into why the romance genre, with a capital R, is so distinct and separate from other genre fiction. You read it (or in my case, watch it) for separate reasons. Regular sci-fi/fantasy--yes, I want to be wowed by how clever and unpredictable and unique everything is. Romance? I just want to be happy and not think about life :( It fills a similar niche to eating cookies. When my husband is off in China for work, and I'm all alone and my brain is exhausted from the day, sometimes all I want out of my fiction is to cheer the main characters on and know they'll get together in the end.
(As an aside, this is why I totally understand why categorical romance must have a happily-ever-after. I've accidentally watched a few movies intended to be pick-me-ups, only to find they had a tragic ending, and boy is that a bummer.)
For someone who viciously tears into every little thing that irks me about most fiction's plot and characterization, I'm strangely accepting of all the rom-com flaws. I want them to be formulaic--mostly the same but different--and I want to have fun with not-totally-believable situations and conflicts. As long as I can love both our heroes, I'm all set. Tropey? Fine. Overdone? Don't care. While You Were Sleeping is contrived, 13 Going On 30 requires magic, Love Actually found every trope in the entire genre, and Clueless... okay, there's nothing bad to say about Clueless.
There are, of course, a few things that don't pass muster. The plot can't be totally stupid, and even in an otherwise enjoyable romance I'll always grind my teeth at sexism and assumed gender roles. But unless it's quite egregious, I'll ignore most flaws with the excuse that they're simply part of the genre. I love plenty of movies that are embarrassingly childish to my rational critic. Sure it's easy to admit to loving Pretty Woman, but I've seen Kate and Leopold more than once and I still chuckle at scenes from How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.
There's quite a range to these things, too. Gender swaps like It's A Boy Girl Thing or She's The Man never get old for me. You've got your high school dramas, and your 30-somethings. The multiple-stories-in-one-movie, the time travel or otherwise magical plot device, the identity shenanigans (You've Got Mail, anyone?), and the classic novel adaptations. Let's also not forget the LGBT rom-coms, which are frustratingly difficult to find--most of them are mopey and tragic, so the rare gem of pure rom-com silliness with LGBT leads are endless fun for me (such as the completely ridiculous But I'm A Cheerleader, or the fabulously campy but utterly adorable Make The Yuletide Gay).
As you can see, I have fun with these. I may watch one some evening while I'm home alone, decide it was pretty dumb, and never think about it again. But I'll still enjoy myself while doing so. Some of these romances are so forgettable that I'll be 20 minutes into them before realizing I've seen it before years ago. That's okay! I still get the little endorphin rush when they finally get together in the end.
Then when I feel more cerebral, I'll go back to something more clever. You won't catch me talking smack about feel-good romances. I might be all snobbish about how the writing in The Flash is worse even than Star Trek: Enterprise, but I'll watch Valentine's Day with my chocolates and never once complain that it's a less-interesting imitation of Love Actually. Throw the handsome heroes my way, please.
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