By John C.

 

It hasn’t been a good year for romantic-comedies.  I don’t say this because I dislike the genre, but simply because many of the titles released under this label have failed at being either romantic or comedic.  Sure there have been some genuinely good ones, but these have unfortunately become the exception to the rule.

 

In this day and age, the majority of what the genre has to offer are insincere, predictable and shallow films that don’t go deeper than the physical celluloid.  I’ll get to the good ones in due time, but first a look back at what hasn’t worked.  For time constraints, I am focusing mainly on those from 2010.

 

Despite an all-star cast, Valentines Day was an overlong and bloated film that left me cold as February, and the chemistry between Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler in The Bounty Hunter was like watching a blind date set up for cardboard cutouts.  The Back-up Plan – a vehicle simply set to showcase Jennifer Lopez, was an unfunny mess, and the recent Going the Distance was actually quite dreadful.

 

Although all of these titles have failed to impress me, I must admit that the worst offender of 2010 was Sex and the City 2.  Filled with unfortunate and embarrassing stereotypes, lame one-liners and needless raunchiness, the generally despicable film comfortably sits atop my year-end list of unpleasant memories.

 

Aside from the bad ones, there have also been a few titles that simply fall into the tolerable mid-level, including serviceable vehicles for Kristen Bell like When in Rome and You Again, as well as the very mediocre Life As We Know It, which starred rom-com regular Katherine Heigl.

 

But as with everything else, we can not only focus on the negatives – I did also mention that there were some good ones.  Although admittedly predictable, I found Leap Year and Letters to Juliet to both be suitably charming and quite entertaining, and was also won over by Queen Latifah in Just Wright.  Starring Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, the romantic-action-comedy Date Night was a blast of fresh air.

 

Opening on November 24th is Love and Other Drugs, which is anchored by strong leading work from Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.  Although there are moments when it does rely a tad too heavily on typical rom-com set-ups, the film really succeeds when it becomes a touching drama about accepting life’s challenges.  I liked this one – look for our reviews on the 24th.

 

A week before Christmas, we’ll be getting How Do You Know.  Starring Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson, the trailer looks very promising, indicating that director James L. Brooks will likely deliver a hit.  Here’s hoping it will play in a similar vein to last year’s holiday charmer It’s Complicated.

 

For every complaint about what hasn’t worked, we should pay tribute to the ones that succeed.  Seriously great romantic-comedies like last year’s outstanding (500) Days of Summer may be hard to come by, but we can all be thankful for these visions of light at the end of the tunnel.