Growing up in a house of women, I've watched a lot of romantic comedies at time. Call it an acquired taste or Stockholm Syndrome, I've grown quite an affection for them. For a genre so heavily associated with the female demographic, its surprising (or depressingly unsurprising) to see that most of the creative forces behind these films are guys. Admittedly most of these movies tend to formulaic and pandering often attributed to simple creative laziness or not showing the genre's main demographic much respect. This is all standard extrapolation, yet it seems that the films in the romance genre that do get some form of critical acclaim are mostly ones from the male perspective. 500 Days, Eternal Sunshine, even Casablanca are all stories about the romantic struggles of men. Why is this?
Joseph Gordon Levitt's "Don Jon" I would also classify as a romantic comedy from the male perspective. – Cagney9 years ago
I think you nailed it on the head when you said mentioned 'creative laziness'. It is very unfortunate and true that a majority of chick flicks are lackadaisically made and it appears that the main focus of these movies are to pull in money. The films are created with elements that the 'typical female' would appeal to: a physically fit male lead with an established life and a lovable girl-next-door female lead that the female audience can relate to. They blunder through an entertaining ordeal of first dates where something said or done is always lost in translation. This leads to a fight that is only reconciled when the man or woman, usually humiliating themselves in public, does something outrageous to win their significant other back. Then of course, the other is flattered and moved by the oh so lovable other that put themselves through 'all that just to win me back?' It is a stale script that has been overused. – JordanHalkoski9 years ago
Have you done a comparison to romantic comedies that are directed by women vs ones that are directed by men? That could help with your theory. – bcoundif9 years ago
This would be a good topic if the person started with the first chick flick "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and look into how the genre developed in the 80s and 90s. Chick flick queens such as Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts started off and in the 90s Cameron Diaz started off with more male-friendly rom coms like "There's Something About Mary." These are pretty formulaic but maybe the writer could look at the really successful rom coms and how they drove the genre. – Munjeera9 years ago