romcoms: romantic pursuit - who?

[Randall_Oelerich]

So I am getting a little peeved again at the 'rules'. Yeah they work, but are they rigid? Writing my romcom and I come across this rule from a guru website blog:

"The main character must be in pursuit of 2 desires-- the Romance character that he/she will do anything to win the love of that desire, and a second object of desire will always conflict with the first desire which will result in humorous situations."
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Oh really?

In the romcom Picture Perfect that I just watched the other day, Jennifer Aniston (protag) seems to be only in pursuit of one desire-- career advancement, at least until the climax race to the airport scene when she realizes what a great guy the Romance is and she is going to miss out on love. The Romantic pursuit seems to come not from the main character but from the Bellamy (Kevin Bacon) and the Romance (Jay Mohr).

In The Big Blue, again the romantic pursuit comes not from the main character (Jacques / Jean-Marc Barr) but from the Romance character (Johanna / Rosanna Arquette), at least initially.

However, I would have to say that the rule works great in many romcoms, including the hugely successful Maid in Manhattan, where Marissa (Jennifer Lopez) desires the love of Chris, and desires career advancement from maid to management-- and the two desires conflict perfectly. And the film made a bucket of money.

 

[Batutta]

So I am getting a little peeved again at the 'rules'. Yeah they work, but are they rigid? Writing my romcom and I come across this rule from a guru website blog:

"The main character must be in pursuit of 2 desires-- the Romance character that he/she will do anything to win the love of that desire, and a second object of desire will always conflict with the first desire which will result in humorous situations."​

Well isn't this the basis of all dramatic works? 2 desires that conflict? If your story and characters don't have this then it will be 2 dimensional. Someone said drama is having to choose between two equally bad choices. The same holds for comedy.​

 

[vcassel]

"The main character must be in pursuit of 2 desires-- the Romance character that he/she will do anything to win the love of that desire, and a second object of desire will always conflict with the first desire which will result in humorous situations."
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I'm sorry to snide you a bit here, but let's stop calling these 'rules', because as you've pointed out, it just doesn't hold up. It's not a rule. There are no rules. Sorry, but it's just a personal thorn in my side.

But I would say that I consider this one to be pretty good advice. As Batutta said, it creates drama. It's something an audience will react emotionally to. Is it an oft-used device? Sure! There's nothing wrong with convention when it works; just don't be afraid to challenge convention when it doesn't.

 

[David W. Richardson]

Well isn't this the basis of all dramatic works? 2 desires that conflict? If your story and characters don't have this then it will be 2 dimensional. Someone said drama is having to choose between two equally bad choices. The same holds for comedy.

I think typically it involves two different people with conflicting goals -- not one character with two conflicting goals.

 

[Batutta]

I think typically it involves two different people with conflicting goals -- not one character with two conflicting goals.

Yes, but to elevate it to a third dimension your character should also be in conflict with his decisions.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

So I am getting a little peeved again at the 'rules'. Yeah they work, but are they rigid? Writing my romcom and I come across this rule from a guru website blog:

"The main character must be in pursuit of 2 desires-- the Romance character that he/she will do anything to win the love of that desire, and a second object of desire will always conflict with the first desire which will result in humorous situations."
​

Oh really?

In the romcom Picture Perfect that I just watched the other day, Jennifer Aniston (protag) seems to be only in pursuit of one desire-- career advancement, at least until the climax race to the airport scene when she realizes what a great guy the Romance is and she is going to miss out on love. The Romantic pursuit seems to come not from the main character but from the Bellamy (Kevin Bacon) and the Romance (Jay Mohr).

In The Big Blue, again the romantic pursuit comes not from the main character (Jacques / Jean-Marc Barr) but from the Romance character (Johanna / Rosanna Arquette), at least initially.

However, I would have to say that the rule works great in many romcoms, including the hugely successful Maid in Manhattan, where Marissa (Jennifer Lopez) desires the love of Chris, and desires career advancement from maid to management-- and the two desires conflict perfectly. And the film made a bucket of money.

I personally find most romcoms boring, because they 'follow the rules', both in some sort of 'dramatic' sense, as well as 'conventions of a given society about what is 'romance''... They usually center around heterosexual relationships, everyone is 'satisfied' when the choice for a 'partner' is made over 'career/otherpartnerwhoisabadgirlorbadboy', etc. Occasionally there are some open ended endings where one does not know for sure how things will turn out... but of the 'money makers', such ambiguity is not all that often well rewarded.

Furthermore there's not enough actual sex to appeal to my prurient interest, and not enough action, like car chases, or things blowing up...

About the only 'romcom' I've liked, and I probably would have had a different ending was "Chasing Amy"(1998)... or if one classes it as a 'romcom'... "Kissed"(1996)... since that one probably is not that well known... here's the Wiki description...

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Kissed is a 1996 Canadian film, directed and co-written by Lynne Stopkewich, based on Barbara Gowdy's short story "We So Seldom Look On Love". It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7th, 1996.

The film stars Molly Parker as Sandra Larson, a young woman whose fixation on death leads her to study embalming at a mortuary school, where in turn she finds herself drawn toward feelings of necrophilia. Peter Outerbridge also stars as Matt, a fellow student who develops romantic feelings for Sandra, and so must learn to accept her sexual proclivities.

Despite being allowed a substantial grant, Stopkewich went almost $30,000 into debt and cost her company $400,000 so she could complete shooting the film.
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