The Romantic Comedy

As a guy, I can say that romantic comedies are not my best genre to be knowledgeable in. Or so I thought. Tamar McDonald says "a romantic comedy is a film which has as its central narrative motor a quest for love, which portrays this quest in a light-hearted way and almost always to a successful conclusion." Now, I can disavow any knowledge of ever having seen any romantic comedy such as "Pretty Woman," "27 Dresses," "Maid in Manhattan," and so on. In truth, critics call romantic comedies a lowbrow, none thinking 90 minutes of an excuse to get men laid for taking their girlfriends to watch it (okay critics may not say that, but they sure as hell think it). Romantic comedies are thought of as "cliché" films. They are films that you know what will happen before when you watch the trailer for it. Hell, sometimes just the poster gives it away.

Sherlocke Holmes spent YEARS figuring out who the groom would choose!

The tagline says it all: Julianne fell in love with her best friend the day he decided to get married. Wow, there's a picture of Julia Roberts; she's removing the bride piece from the cake; and the title is "My Best Friend's Wedding." This movie cost $46 million to make and grossed nearly $300 million. Every person who entered that theatre knew the exact thing that was going to happen and yet it made more money then most cerebral films make.
There are many reasons people who continue watching this sort of movie. Mainly it helps us fantasize about an ideal that is technically unreachable, but who the hell would want to feel that. Who benefits from watching a film that you know the ending to? I'll cover that later. But trust me, somebody benefits and it isn't you miss dream wedding or mister I'm gonna get laid tonight (okay maybe him but for one night only).
Now, I'm being very tough on this genre. After all, this is a genre and a genre is only a word and as Saussure taught us, words are pretty arbitrary. At least connecting them to a specific something. As Derrida would further that, categorizing something is just plain futile. Are romantic comedies just brainless kinema? Is a romantic comedy always spewing celluloid of fantasy? Yes, but it doesn't ALWAYS have to suck. Enter the greatest romantic comedy every.

Best. Movie. EVER!

Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is so great that it is the only animated film ever to be nominated for "Best Picture" for an Academy Award. As a Disney fan, I can guess that if it has a princess in it, it is a romantic comedy.
Aside from the aforementioned definition, McDonald gives us other criteria for it to fit in the rom-com genre: visuals (a.k.a. iconography), narrative patterns, and ideology. I will try to show how the greatest animated film ever fits smoothly in adherence to those criteria and how, despite fitting comfortably into the rom-com genre, it still makes the genre a little more respectable.
First things first: what do we see. The visuals and iconography. In "Beauty and the Beast," Belle- the plain, intelligent, independent and most sought after woman in her town- is too busy being independent and intelligent to realize she is being sought after. Things happen and she winds up meeting a beast (the "meet cute" narrative pattern which will be spoken about shortly). But this beast is no ordinary beast, he's a prince.

Not quite.

 So they meet and there's everything that a modern day fairy tale romance needs: a castle, a screwy cast that is pushing the couple to be together (that happen to be animated inanimate objects), a man who wants to be with the girl, but everyone (including the girl) knows that hes not good enough for her, and most iconic of all from this film: the big first date with that special dress.

This lost to "Silence of the Lambs"

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have our visuals and icons we are all use to, now the cookie cutter narrative pattern. This is called the "meet cute" pattern. It is "boy meets, loses, regains, girl." Now here's a curve ball since in this film you switch the roles of boy to girl. Belle meets the beast, loses him (when he "dies") and regains him (when she cries, him, another trope of the rom-com genre, and that somehow resurrects him). So far so good. The movie never veers of course from this, only adding the occasional Academy Award winning musical into the mix (suck on that Clarice).
Finally, the ideology. What is the purpose of this film? Remember when I posed that question earlier? Well, what can a 1991 children's animation film in the category of romantic comedy offer to us Americans? Well, aside from the fantasy of happily ever after, what else? The books says "at the heart of every romantic comedy is the implication of sex, and settled, secure, within-a-relationship sex at that." So mister I'm getting laid tonight, are you willing to commit? Miss independent, I don't need no man, wouldn't you rather feel safe and secure?
Well that's what most romantic comedies want to assure: one is capable of achieving a trusting, and aove all else, everlasting relationship. How does society benefit from watching a strong woman succumb to a gruff and tough monster of a man (literally) who abuses her, isolates her from her family and imprisons her in his dungeon and tells her to starve if she isn't willing to have dinner with him? Better yet, how does capitalism benefit from it? Well seeing as the woman tames her man and then gets a beauty golden gown, little girls and even grown women begin to think "I'd look damn beautiful in that gown." Yes, walking around Disneyland you will see that for the very low low price of $72.99 you too can look like Belle. And then that everlasting love for adults? Well, you're going to need a big diamond ring to prove love will last forever. about $2 grand? Then the wedding? Roughly $25 thousand. Your new apartment? $1,200 a month for rent. Realizing it isn't going to work out:

Capitalism seems to have it's own circle of life... different film tough.

So how can lowbrow, simplistic, cookie cutter storytelling cost you more than the cost of two tickets and some popcorn?  Well, it's suppose to, and it does it quite well. Next time you think a romantic comedy is harmless and mindless celluloid, remember, is it worth it? Yes. Yes, it is.