can someone write good romantic comedy

Can Someone Write a Good Romantic Comedy?

Romantic comedies are one of the hardest genres of scripts to sell,

because generally unless you have A-list stars attached, it isn't

going to get made (and don't bring up "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

That's not a romantic comedy -- it's a wacky ethnic family comedy. Big

difference).

But even then, the sad thing is how few good ones there have been in

the last decade or so. And the sadder thing? The romantic comedies

that have been coming out, even the by-the-numbers ones like "The

Wedding Planner" (which I felt I sat through after watching the coming

attraction for it) are pretty much based on the best romcom scripts

out there.

Do you know why executives hate reading romantic comedy scripts?

Because they are all the same, generic paint-by-numbers tales that

take two people who you know are going to wind up together, and have

them wind up together by overcoming the same clunky, cliched obstacles

and making the same this-really-isn't-a-choice choices.

You want to write a good romantic comedy, that is going to stick out

from the pack? Consider some of the following. Please.

GIVE YOUR MAIN CHARACTER HONEST ROMANTIC CHOICES. It is dumbfounding

how many scripts I have read, in which the main character is a single

workaholic woman who goes through the typical page-10 montage of

Dates-From-Hell (just to establish that she is trying) before meeting

the Yuppie-Who-Is-Wrong-For-Her and getting involved with him (though,

sometimes she just starts out engaged to the Yuppie) and then meets

the funny/cute guy without a high-paying job who we know she is going

to wind up with. The woman spends the script wondering who she should

be with (while the funny/cute guy, who is inevitably a bit immature,

realizes it is time to settle down), and then the Yuppie does

something that reveals him to be an asshole, while the cute guy gets

involved in a misunderstanding, that puts him on the outs until the

ending, when someone runs to an airport/bus terminal/church, the

misunderstanding gets sorted out, and they kiss.

I have just described 85% of the romantic comedy scripts circulating

through Hollywood. The other 15% tell the same story with the main

character a guy.

A slight exaggeration, but not by much. And what makes me crazy is

that we're supposed to think that the (often-flawed) funny/cute guy is

the right one for her, only because every other potential male love

interest in the script is an asshole Yuppie, or a Date-From-Hell. In

other words, though the Female Lead is adorable, her dating pool

inexplicably consists of complete losers and the main character. How

is that a choice?

(This type of movie has also traumatized a generation of people,

because movies don't show the actual reasons that people wind up not

going out, which is more subtle -- sometimes you are both great

people, and you just don't hit it off in that way. Instead, we've been

taught that the only reason that relationships don't work is because

someone is an asshole or a Date from Hell. And if the person you went

out with seems cool, and then she/he isn't calling, then it must be

you).

So avoid this trap. Be brave enough to give your main character

choices about who to be with, and have them pick the one they really

love. Isn't that more romantic than taking the last man standing?

(Good past examples of this -- The Philadelphia Story. Pretty In Pink.

Some Kind of Wonderful.)

AVOID IMITATING THE CLICHES OF ALL THE OTHER MOVIES. The number one

bad scene, that turns up in at least 50% of scripts (no joke) is the

choice for third act misunderstanding that drives the couple apart --

the main character seeing her love interest kissing someone else,

which leads her to run off, not realizing that the love interest was

just kissed by his former girlfriend and that he pushed her away the

moment she turned around.

Ugh.

Does this ever happen in real life? And if someone actually claimed

that this is what happened, would you even believe them? (Two-thirds

of the scripts helpfully later have the kisser tell the main character

that the love interest didn't kiss them back -- as if).

Separating your characters before they come together at the end is

fine; it's dramatic, and it makes the ending mean something. But have

it come out of their characters, and don't just rip off tired moments

because you are too lazy to come up with a good one.

DON'T MAKE THE LOVE STORY CARRY ALL THE WEIGHT. A lot of good love

stories worked well because they were in scripts in which something

else was going on. The scenes between Matt Damon and Minnie Driver in

"Good Will Hunting" are funny and adorable, and they are only a small

part of what the movie is about. The romance between Tom Cruise and

Renee Zellweger in "Jerry Maguire" is cute, but again the movie is

about a lot more than this.

Which leads into --

MAKE THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR STORIES INTERESTING. Even romantic

comedies need interesting plotlines. Give the characters something to

go through together (a la "Romancing the Stone", or "The Sure Thing")

that makes their bickering and moving apart and together flow out of a

story, that provides honest conflicts. Bend expectations ("My Best

Friend's Wedding") and come up with good reasons why the characters

can't just get together on page 5. A good example of this is "When

Harry Met Sally", in which the characters aren't ready to be with each

other until the end, when they have gone through everything they go

through. "When Harry Met Sally" also offers a primer on

romantic-comedy dialogue, as well as on

making-scenes-interesting-by-having-something-going-on-besides-the-dia

logue.