Comments on: How To Be Romantic and Male Too

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:06:56 +0000

It does this in a lot worse way than the Apatow films. What might be seen as galling to pore ole Kirsten Dunst is that here she is cast as the ugly but nice proper girlfirends as opposed to Megan Fox’s starlet. She is still considerably more attractive than Pegg, but then Pegg is also considerably more attractive than Toby Young – which where the problem really lies. he is a genial presence, fun to watch but cannot stretch to being Youngishly twatish, much as he was woefully miscast as the titual Fatboy in Run, Fatboy, Run.

By: Mark M

Mark M — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:10:46 +0000

I haven’t seen How To Alienate, but it seems to intersect with the Apatow flicks in that the woman is both beautiful and generous, whereas the guy… isn’t. While often in the traditional romcom the man is often prettier than his co-star (Gable, Rock, Ryan, Hugh Grant, bongo-playing Matt)*, the pairing of the Apatow shlubs and their girls is closer to fat bloke, hot wife sitcom territory (According to Jim, Ground for Life, parodied in Family Guy).

*Rule suspended if the man is Jewish: ie Billy Crystal/Ben Stiller/Zach Braff… or dough-faced Tom Hanks.

By: pete

pete — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:52:50 +0000

I don’t think of edTV (as a rom-com). And despite the rom-zom-com tag Pegg and Wright gave Sean Of The Dead, ditto.

Having now remembered there is a place for Hitch in this schema above, I am probably willing to admit that the thesis above is massively flawed and admits to at least one counter example a year that I haven’t worked out yet. Whilst I wouldn’t want to stuff Apatow movies directly into the romcom genre, the non-absurdist ones do often rely on romcom tropes for plotting.

By: justfanoe

justfanoe — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:36:30 +0000

In EdTV, McConaughey is the POV character and his star outshines Jenna Elfman (though maybe not so much at the time).

ps I totally agree with your assessment of the merits on Definitely Maybe and Made of Honor.

By: James

James — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:35:50 +0000

Actually I think “Shaun of the Dead” is one of the best romantic comedies of the past 50 years. I’m tempted to see “Run Fatboy” (which I heard was mediocre) and “How to Lose” (which is getting terrible reviews) solely b/c of the sublimely great Simon Pegg. But they’re probably both “renters” as intl said.

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:05:43 +0000

I think you’re right Mark, I think the current female star power rom-com is a recent 90’s development (and previous to that women could headline Musicals, melodrama and more stand romances). Musicals often had what might be teased out as rom-com plots so there is potentially history there as well (if we are talking Audrey then Funny Face has a nicely creepy rom-com plot).

The Radio Times debate is an interesting if eventually futile one. Screwball is almost dead these days, but wacky rom-com isn’t. (I can’tthink of a successful screwball comedy since Overboard).

The pairing of similar level stars I think is another good point (which the twofer of Hudson and McConaughy does neither side any favours). I’m surprised to find I can’t think of a McConaughy rom-com where he is actually the POV character, or out stars his compatriots.

Anyway How To Lose Friends has bombed in the States so I think this trend may be going away quiet soon!

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:45:22 +0000

When a male POV character’s in love with a beautiful woman, it’s hard for sure.

By: justfanoe

justfanoe — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:54:55 +0000

I dunno about this, Notting Hill had a male POV character and it’s still one of the more popular romantic comedies. When Harry Met Sally has the male character at least on equal footing with the female character and that’s way up there as well.

By: Mark M

Mark M — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:31:24 +0000

My Favourite Wife? That’s treading into the “can screwball comedies also be classed as rom coms” debate that causes feuds at the Radio Times film desk that cascade down the generations…
One movie that was intended as a vehicle for its male star is Roman Holiday – Gregory Peck was a substantial star, Audrey Hepburn was a complete unknown – but she became big news pretty much as soon anyone saw the film. My feeling is that traditionally romantic comedies were meant to match equal-weight stars (Rock Hudson/Doris Day, Ryan O’Neil/Babs Streisand, even Matt McConaughey/Kate Hudson I suppose), and might be only in recent times we’ve had the Sweet Home Albama-type total imbalance.

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:32:07 +0000

Yes, and High Fidelity too. Infact it may all be Nick Hornby’s fault. John Cusack’s career has been very much building up to this too (he certainly headlines Serendipity) and there is a potential that the softening of the raunch sex comedy into saucy romcom’s leads to this too (by the time American Pie go to American Wedding it was straight romcom stuff). The Jason Biggs starrer Wedding Daze could have also fit in this trend if his star had not fallen and Isla Fisher’s star risen so much.

I am sure there are examples in history with romantic leads as well (Cary Grant in My Favourite Wife perhaps?)

By: Mark M

Mark M — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:38:33 +0000

Fever Pitch (the UK film, not the US one aka The Perfect Catch) is something of a prototype here, no?

By: The Intl

The Intl — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:33:20 +0000

they’re all “rentals”.