In My Tisch Opinion: Breaking Down Terrible Rom-Com Endings
I first started thinking about bad endings while watching Leap Year about a month ago. Now to be fair, Leap Year isn’t exactly on the great rom-coms list anyway. It’s middling at best, filled with Irish stereotypes, and is really only watchable due to Amy Adams. Even Matthew Goode, who I personally think is a dreamboat, is given little to do and comes off like an un-charming asshole for most of the movie (to really get his appeal watch the Mandy Moore-led Chasing Liberty instead).
That all being said, I was still on-board with the trope-filled plot until I got to the end. For a quick plot summary, after a cancelled flight and bad weather, Amy Adams hires Matthew Goode to drive her from his sleepy Irish coastal town to Dublin. What should take four hours takes three days and bonding ensues. The two fall in love somehow in three days, but Amy Adams was going to Dublin to meet her boyfriend (Adam Scott, of course) and propose/get him to propose to her so the two part ways forever. But then, wait! Amy Adams leaves Adam Scott back in their fancy Boston apartment and flies back to Ireland to be with Matthew Goode. She asks him if they can just get to know each other and “make plans to not make plans and just go with it” or something to that effect. Yes! Perfect! You’ve only spent three days together and only kissed once (while pretending to be married, cause duh).
Of course, the movie has to go and ruin that by having Matthew Goode propose to her right there. The two get married, despite having only spent THREE DAYS TOTAL TOGETHER! What??? It completely ruined the movie for me, but I figured a bad, unrealistic ending was more of the exception to the rule and forgot about it.
That is, until a couple of weeks later, when I watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days for the first time. This movie is much better and funnier than Leap Year but still has its flaws. Kate Hudson agrees to write a “what not to do” article about being an overly clingy girlfriend and has to, you know, “lose a guy in 10 days” on purpose, in hopes that doing this for her boss will lead to her being allowed to write more serious stuff. Matthew McConaughey makes a bet that he can get a girl to fall in love with him in 10 days, in order to win an ad campaign for diamonds (it makes more sense in the movie than on paper).
Due to some shady manupalition by McConaughey’s co-worker (she knows about Hudson’s assignment) the two end up picking each other and end up in a battle of sorts, with Hudson doing everything she can think of to drive him away (redecorating his apartment, planning their future after two days, and the cruelest: making him miss the NBA finals game by making him go get her drinks during the last 20 seconds), while McConaughey puts up with her extreme (fake) clinginess in order to get her to fall for him.
Hudson eventually realizes that her boss will never let her write serious pieces, quits, and gains a job interview at the equivalent of the Washington Post. McConaughey realizes he really does love her and shows up to her job, only to find out she is gone and might be gone for good…but also like it was just a job interview…she wasn’t moving, he could’ve waited til she inevitably came back?? But he doesn’t and he chases her to the airport through Greenwich Village into midtown and then back downtown over the Manhattan Bridge somehow??? (@ the filmmakers: did you really think New Yorkers wouldn’t notice that?) He catches her cab on the bridge, they pull over for some dumb reason right there instead of waiting until Brooklyn, and they profess their shared love. And then she goes home with him and forgets her job interview which, what the fuck?? It was the Washington Post!! What are you doing?? I get that it’s not New York but you could’ve bought an Amtrak pass to fuck him or something. Jesus.
As a big rom-com lover, these movies put me into a bit of an existential crisis and I had to go back through my favorites and re-evaluate their endings. And here’s what I realized:
You’ve Got Mail — Bad ending, he was emotionally manipulating you!!
When Harry Met Sally — Good ending
Sleepless in Seattle — Flawless ending, movies should strive to reach its level
Bridget Jones’s Diary — Good ending
While You Were Sleeping — Good ending, incredibly creepy story though
13 Going on 30 — Okay ending, but it was wrapped up too easily
My Big Fat Greek Wedding — Good ending
50 First Dates — Okay ending, again wrapped up too easily
The Holiday — Great movie but okay ending
The Big Sick — Good ending
Definitely, Maybe — Good ending
Sweet Home Alabama — Bad ending. How could you dump Patrick Dempsey for Josh Lucas???
Crazy, Stupid Love — Doesn’t really have an ending; it just kinda ends?
I can honestly go on forever but the takeaway here is that bad endings haven’t contaminated all rom-coms. Still, they could be better. For an even deeper look into rom-coms, check out The AV Club’s series “When Romance Met Comedy.” Or read this Twitter thread about how the male love interest really makes or breaks the movie with how he looks at the woman (very heteronormative — sorry).
