Ah the romcom. We all love watching 2 crazy kids fall in love. It warms the heart. Early on, Hollywood realized that simply telling a normal story about two people meeting, and slowly falling in love with one another wasn’t good enough entertainment. Instead, let’s set up a wacky premise, and over the course of an insane short period of time, really make those kids crazy, so they can fall in love instantly. And for some reason, this works!
Below are 6 classics in the genre, ranked in reverse order of lunacy:
Frumpy klutzy slightly overweight British working woman struggles to figure out the game of love, so she keeps a diary to tell us about it.
Wackiest Moment
The obvious answer is the fist fight between Bridget’s suitors, who have a previous history of romantic entanglements together. But my vote? Richard Curtis trying to convince us Renee Zellwegger would be too oafish to be desired by all men everywhere.
Does it make you swoon?
Depends on how you feel about Richard Curtis, the 4 Weddings and a Funeral/Love Actually creator. I really don’t like his stuff; I find it too stupid (the “twist” is obvious from the get go) and maudlin, but if that’s your cup of tea, you’ll love this film, particularly if you’re an Anglophile.
Older liberalish San Fran couple find out their daughter got engaged to a black man, and he’s cashing in on what the title suggests.
Wackiest Moment
Daughter tries to explain to her mother that she fell in love with this man twice her age over the course of a picturesque vacation.
Does it make you swoon?
I would also argue that this movie is a romcom at all is kind of a wacky miracle. This movie sounds ripe for melodrama and some cringe worthy racism, but Sydney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Houghton make the movie way more fun and fizzy, catching you totally offguard. It gets bogged down a couple times and doesn’t always work, but it’s still hella entertaining because of the talents of the leads.
Airheady rich girl takes a bum to a dinner party of other vapid rich people, and when he scolds her, she feels compelled to make him her butler.
Wackiest Moment
The Hook.
Does it make you swoon?
Kinda, for different reasons. Rich eccentric heiresses have been a romcom staple early on, as you can see. Carole Lombard plays a great one here, completely becoming infatuated with William Powell’s Godfrey, the butler, to the point that she dramatizes every interaction, like when she’s sad she dresses for a funeral. The swoon part comes in the form of Powell, our earliest most gifted screen talker. The early parts of him horrified at the vanity of the rich and acid tonguing them is potent, great social satire stuff. The ending goes full romcom, but the social satire stuff had me lingering on this movie long after I saw it.
Princess on a diplomatic tour escapes her situation, only to fall into the hands of a reporter looking for a great story, so he shows her around Rome.
Wackiest Moment
Princess rides a moped and causes all sorts of traffic accidents and gets ARRESTED, but the police 1) don’t recognize her and 2) let them go with a small fine.
Does it make you swoon?
Of all the romcoms on this list, this is by far the swooniest. Setting any movie in Rome is a wonderful idea, especially one about romance: the city is magical to travel through. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck are wonderful together, both trying to hide their true selves from each other in multiple ways, but showing their true selves in other ways. There’s lots of really funny moments, like a fight at a nightclub, or a runner involving a “clumsy” friend. But the movie’s best moments are the affection it generates for the two leads, culminating in an ending so great for a romcom that Notting Hill simply ripped it off.
A backup quarterback gets accidentally taken to heaven by angels, but convinces them to put him back into another man’s body.
Wackiest Moment
Where do I begin? That hook is pretty insane. But the Super Bowl is also involved, as well as a wacky murder mystery. This movie’s a kitchen sink of nonsense.
Does it make you swoon?
Sometimes. Parts of this movie are lovely, as Beatty plays the backup QB like a guileless doofus, who becomes aware of life outside of the NFL. The football scenes are pretty exciting. And the romance is simple, but sweet. But the murder mystery stuff can be fast forwarded through: that’s a waste of time.
Eccentric heiress enlists help of paleobotanist to deliver a leopard to her mother’s Connecticut home.
Wackiest Moment
In a movie built around lunacy, the greatest wacky moment in cinematic history might be when a paleobotanist, heiress, 2 circus movers, a big game hunter, and an elderly rich woman are searching for 2!!! leopards, and a dinosaur fossil buried by a dog in suburban Connecticut. WHAT. THE. HELL?!?!?!??
Does it make you swoon?
Oh yes! Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are two of Hollywood’s greatest talents of all times. Here they put on their comedic chops. This movie comes alive when Hepburn’s whirlwind bursts onto the screen, sweeping up Grant into her hijinks. Grant can be suave when he wants, but her he smartly plays it uptight and deadpan, playing brilliantly off of Hepburn’s frantic nature. The movie’s at its best when Hepburn is spewing out word soup and Grant gets more and more exasperated that he can’t get a word in, but is clearly enamored of this mistress of mayhem.
