Thoughts on the Oughts

Romantic Comedy in the 2000s

Most of us are happy to be done with the Oughts, or Aughts (that no one's been able to come up with a better name for this discomfiting decade is telling), but I'm compelled to look backward for a moment longer.   Last week I received an e-mail from reader Scott Michael: "At the end of Writing the Romantic Comedy, you call the 2000s 'An Open Question.'  Have you since come up with a replacement heading?"

Scott's referring to the book's appendix list, where under the heading of "100 Noteworthy Films," I put appropriate labels on every decade to define the general rom-com gestalt of each.  WRC was published in 2000, when it was too soon to guess the identity of the decade to come.  But now I'm ready to assess.

There was one major romantic comedy trend in the 2000s: the rise of the Male POV Rom-Com - the Macho Chick Flick (as I called it), Slacker Striver movie (David Denby) or Raunch-Com (Entertainment Weekly).  A secondary trend, which could be seen as a necessary reaction to the first, was the codification of the traditional female-driven romantic comedy and its sub-genre, the Wedding Rom-Com: really-for-the-girls movies that were tacitly retro in sensibility, in that they made getting hitched the be-all and end-all for their female protagonists.

One could say - and I will - that in the Romantic Comedy Oughts, men invaded and took over the genre, and women largely retreated to the traditional (often formulaic) arena.  

The emerging/defining talent of the Male POV Rom-Com was of course Judd Apatow, whose influence was so pervasive (as writer, director and producer) that an adjacent trend - the establishment of the Bromantic Comedy (heterosexual boy meets, loses and gets boy) - was perhaps best exemplified by 2009's I Love You, Man: a bromance that was pure Apatow in its casting, script and sensibility... even though the Slacker-Striver auteur had nothing to do with actually making it.

The Male POV Rom-Com of the 2000s were game-changers in one subtle but important way.  They shifted the genre's very perception of what might constitute a romantic male lead (Hello, Seth Rogen?!) and made their heroes the ones who had to learn a lesson (as opposed to say, Katherine Hepburn or any of the other post-screwball heroines who had to straighten up and fly right in decades past).  The operative wish- fulfillment fantasy here was: any (and we do mean any) kind of poor shlub could land an alpha dream girl.

Meanwhile, the Female-Driven Rom-Com continued to chug along on its own wish-fulfillment track (i.e. that any good woman could land that ever-elusive One Good Man), and the Wedding Rom-Com (from My Big Fat Greek Wedding to 27 Dresses) became ubiquitous.  Yes, there were the occasional ensemble estrogen fests (Sex and the City), but by and large, what we've always thought of as predictable, formulaic "how to land a man" movies continued to attract solid female audiences, even if by default (see Sweet Home Alabama, Failure to Launch, The Holiday, et al).

Missing in action - much to my personal disappointment and to the dismay of at least one prominent critic - was the memorable romantic comedy piloted by a strong, powerful woman who was not first and foremost trying to hook up.  Two notable anomalies were cross-genre hybrids: 2005's Mr. and Mrs. Smith (featuring assassin Angelina Jolie) and 2006's My Super Ex-Girlfriend (with super-heroine Uma Thurman).  The implication here is that only a woman who's nearly non-human can make sustaining a committed relationship her secondary priority.

When it came to adding on a new decade's Notable Ten to my original 100 Notables, I found it was often the memorable movies that transcended such male or female classifications that made the cut (though 6 of my Top 10 are told from the male POV).  The following list, it must be stressed, doesn't represent my favorite rom-coms of the Oughts, or even the "best," but hopes to define what were the most significant romantic comedies of the decade: significant in the sense that these films were most indicative of (or had the most impact on) their cultural moment, and/or are most likely to endure for the years to come.  Here (in chronological order) are the ten romantic comedies that seem to me most representative of...

The 2000s: Attack of the Boy-Men

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

Lost in Translation (2003)

Something's Gotta Give (2003)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Hitch (2005)

The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)

Wedding Crashers (2005)

Enchanted (2007)

Wall-E (2008)

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Caveats: Despite its status as one of the top rom-com moneymakers of all time, I don't really consider Greek Wedding to be a romantic comedy (its central question is not "Will these two people become a couple?" but "Will this woman become independent of her family?").  Nonetheless, most people think of it as a rom-com - whereas most don't consider Wall-E to be one, and I do (it's an animated sci-fi rom-com, but it absolutely follows and excitingly fulfills the rom-com paradigm).

Hitch had the biggest opening of any rom-com in history and is one of the only successful rom-coms to star a black protagonist; while some may prefer Knocked Up to Virgin, Virgin is the mold-making Apatow entry; the hugely successful Wedding Crashers is an aptly titled symbol of how the male POV infiltrated even that most hallowed of female milieus.

The other entries are, I believe, self-explanatory in terms of their genre contributions.  But to forestall (or kindle) further argument, here's an additional baker's dozen.

Runners-Up: Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, 50 First Dates, Knocked Up, Juno, 27 Dresses

Sleepers: Punch-Drunk Love, About a Boy, Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist, Vicki Cristina Barcelona 

Top 3 Bromantic Comedies: Superbad, Pineapple Express, I Love You Man

Disagreements?  Fulsome praise?  Living the RomCom awaits your response.

Comments

[E.C. Henry]

Minor tweek suggestion on the romatic comedy heading for 2000s, because I THINK you'll use this one day in an updated rom-com how-to book:

"The 2000s: The Boy-Men Make Their Presence Felt"

My rom-com faves from the 2000s:

1. "13 Going on 30"
2. "How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days"
3. "The 40 Year Old Virgin"
4. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"
5. "(500) Days of Summer"
6. "Enchanted"
7. "Love Actually"
8. "Hitch"
9. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
10. "Definately Maybe"

The two that really stuck me personally on an emotional level were: "(500) Days of Summer" and "13 Going on 30." All else were easy to enjoy at arms length.

JUST saw "(500) Days of Summer" as my last movie of 2009. WOW, what a MASTERFUL take of what it's like from a guy's perspective of what it's like to be in love. LOVED the "Hall and Oats" song and dance scene in the park. HATED Summer Finn; I've known takeoffs of girls like her. Of all the romantic comedies I've every seen this one felt like the romantic pairing had a constant undertow of a protagoniist going up against an antogonist. YET the story tellers did a masterfull job jumping around Tom and Summer's ill-fated affair to bring out a character arc that prepared them for a greater love to come in Act III. Loved it. Very creative. Good way to end the decade.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

[Christina]

Once? That movie seemed to be extra-special. It belongs on some list.

[Patrick]

Fulsome praise goes without saying. Just some random thoughts -

The characters in Vicky Christina Barcelona finally began to get on my nerves, by the end I was starting to think - Get over yourselves, stop being so dramatic.

I don't think About a Boy is really a romantic comedy, but it was also one of my favorite movies of the aughts, so much so that I keep wondering why no one else seemed to see in it what I did. (but I'm often out of step on these things)

I found Greek Wedding to be more or less a zero, didn't register at all with me.

Nick and Norah I liked, slight similarity to Adventureland in the sense of also being coming of age movies. Not sure Adventureland quite qualifies as a romantic comedy though, if it does I would rate that one fairly high.

I thought Ghost Town was a pretty decent rom-comedy.

I agree with the commenter above on Definitely Maybe, which I believe you recused yourself from last year. Great character played by Isla Fisher, and the device of looking back on the 3 women after the fact, so it isn't as formulaic or predictable as some in the genre (The Proposal, say, which was fine, but just too easy to see where it was going after about 2 minutes or so).

Pineapple Express I also liked, could have used a bit of pruning here and there, but pretty funny.

I'd put Pride & Prejudice in there just for the visual lushness of the thing, what a great movie to look at. (and Keira isn't bad either) I think it makes most movie makers seem almost lazy in their staging in comparison.

That's all, look forward to another year of Living the Romantic Comedy.

[Rob]

In the UK the decade was called the noughties.

[Rob]

I know it has no place in the bromance subgenre but it's a shame to talk about the stand-out rom coms of the decade and leave out Kissing Jessica Stein.

While it may not have been decade defining in hindsight it was pretty groundbreaking at the time. It may even have been ahead of its time - I suspect if it were released today it would be huge.

[Ben]

That's really interesting. I hadn't ever thought about the 2000's seeing a major proliferation of male driven romantic comedies. One that I always enjoyed was "Serendipity," (2001) which seems to definitely fall in with the rest.

[mernitman]

EC: Good way to end the decade, indeed.

Christina: I love ONCE, but it seems to straddle that line and end up in romantic dramedy-land; it's funny (deeply) but it isn't perceived first and foremost as comedy... is it?

Patrick: You nailed it with GHOST TOWN (I'd call it "The Under-Appreciated Rom-Com Sleeper of the Oughts") and PRIDE, which definitely should have been on my "runner-ups" list and will add in all future 'carnations. Thank you!

Rob: That's just so UK!

And yes - I loved JESSICA, which deserved mention. Hmm: possible "best gay rom-com" top ten sidebar TK?

Ben: SERENDIPITY has some great stuff in it, for sure.

[Daniel Smith]

You can call this decade the "Singles".

[Coin Magic Tricks]

Hi there. I can't help laughing at what I've read. your blog post made my day thanks a lot.