When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do and Don't Watch Shitty Romantic Comedies

I was watching the movie When In Rome, a movie about a girl who favors her career over everything until she finds loooooooove. It was sorta cute and kinda sappy and JUST LIKE ALMOST ALL ROMANTIC COMEDIES.

The dreamweavers in Hollywood, they can't come up with anything better than chocolate but they hope putting it in a colorful candy shell will be enough to land our butts in their theaters and our bucks in their wallets. This is true of all genres, but it tends to be very glaringly obvious with the romantic comedies. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy and girl live happily ever after once they overcome a series of wacky events.

Here are a couple of rom coms that don't fall in line.

Chasing Amy: First things first, there is no one named Amy in this entire picture.

Comic book artist Holden (played by Ben Affleck) falls for fellow comic book artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) but, as it turns out, Alyssa is a lesbian. When Alyssa starts to develop feelings for Holden the movie takes an unexpected turn that forces us to ask what love really is: can it be defined by gender? Sexuality? Our past?

Even with the unique perspective, excellent directing, and witty writing of Kevin Smith, the movie still holds a bit to the Hollywood standard until the end when (SPOILERS) Holden and Alyssa break up. The ending is sad and touching, but mostly it shows that people can grow apart and still be okay.

Swingers: Mike (played by the director, Jon Favreau) has just been dumped and dumped hard. With the help of his womanizing friend Trent (the supreme Vince Vaughn) and his other warped and weird friends, Mike slowly gets over his hurt.

It's like watching a really good prequel to most crappy romantic comedies. We see Mike go through the pain of his break up, we see him pull himself up by hist boot straps and we see him meet someone new.

Swingers also talks about some of the more rarely discussed aspects of dating, like how long to wait before calling for the first time, how to deal with pain, and the benefits of NHL games on Sega Genesis.

When Harry Met Sally: When Harry (Billy Crystal) meets Sally (Meg Ryan), they hate each other. It takes about 12 years for them to finally get together, but during that time they become friends and grow closer and closer.

Out of the three, this movie is the most formulaic, but what is interesting about it is the sheer amount of time it takes for Harry and Sally to become lovers. It's one of the only movies where a romantic relationship grows out of a friendship that doesn't involve a high school girl dating a jock only to realize she loves her nerdy best friend.

It's kinda heart warming.