If you are like me and you enjoy a great, even a good, movie, then you've realized that many plot lines are quite similar. (I personally believe that we're running out of creative ideas and are making new twists on old ideas and remaking old movies but hey, whoever said that was wrong?) Anyway, to me, romantic comedies basically all go a little something like this: girl meets boy-girl falls for boy-girl or boy screws up-girl and boy split-girl or boy learns a lesson-and wait for it, wait for it, the big finale: GIRL AND BOY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER! Maybe there are a few variations but I wouldn't bet money on the fact that one romantic comedy differs from that basic story line.
Most romantic comedies are sexy, hilarious (obviously), and there is always some form of deception. If the main characters do not have chemistry then the audience will not root for the couple, fall in love with the romantic couples, and the movie is not a hit.
There is an obstacle in every film that either one or both of the characters must overcome. It can be a lie that one or the other has told, it could be a history that is complicated, or a "secret" about who they are or what they do.
One of my favorite romantic comedies is Just Like Heaven because it puts a new twist on the romantic comedy. The female romantic character is a doctor at the local hospital and has been in a coma for the last three months. There have been no changes in her bodies condition in that time period. So her sister decides to let a man rent her apartment on a month-to-month lease. The man lost his wife a few years earlier to a cerebral anurism and does nothing but sit on the couch, watch tv and drink beer. He can see her spirit and communicate with her but no one else can. They spend a week getting to know each other and trying to help her spirit remember who she is and what she did. They discover what she does and where she works when she gives her romantic "partner" save a mans life in a restaurant. After they see her body they start trying to figure out ways to save her from having the breathing tube removed and discontinuing the life support and also how to reconnect her spirit with her body. They finally do it when the romantic interest is stealing her body to prevent her from being taken off of life support and he kisses her body because the tube is accidentaly removed in the scuffle to aprehend him. She wakes up miraculously but does not remember him. In the end, he returns her key and when their hands meet and she remembers. They end up together.
That just met all of the points I pointed out in the beginning, however, it's a slight twist in how it is presented.
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"Just Like Heaven" was a pretty good movie in my opinion. You hit the nail on the head with your outline of the possible situations, but the fun part is the story as to how the characters end up in the movie. Even though, most of us know how the movie is going to end, they are still fun to watch. Most of the time in one way or another we can relate to some of these movies and I think that’s what we enjoy most about them…watching someone else having to resolve the problems that life has to offer. Nice synopsis of the movie Elise.
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