Romantic Comedy: A 'Frankfurt School' critique

I have chosen to give a Frankfurt School critique of the film genre romantic comedy. This is due to the fact that, as much as I hate to admit it, I am a fan of this genre of film making, despite being aware of its mass production and unoriginal plotlines.

The nature of the romantic comedy is to provide a light hearted and humorous plot promoting the ideology that love conquers all. As shown by the selected film posters, the plot revolves exclusively around the male and female protagonists. 'Friends' of the characters often appear, but only to provide guidance to the main characters. They have no significance in the plot as a whole. 

The actors’ names are prominent on the posters suggesting that their star quality is more important than the film title. The usual offenders crop up time and time again: Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz etc. If any of these names appear on a film poster, the audience are subconsciously aware that the film will be light hearted and end on with a romantic kiss between the couple who appear on the poster.

The couple in romantic comedy are usually from different backgrounds or classes. This provides the conflict in the plot. For example in ‘Pretty Woman’ Richard Gere plays a business man, whereas Julia Roberts portrays a prostitute. And in ‘The Ugly Truth’ Katherine Heigl’s character is a hopeless romantic with high morals whereas Gerard Butler is laddish who can only commit to one night stands. The romantic comedy suggests that, regardless of different character or background, a fairy-tale style ending will eventually happen. A large concern with romantic comedies is that it ends on the big romantic kiss, refusing the reveal what happens afterwards in the relationship.

Pseudo-individualisation relates to this industry as characters and backgrounds are replaced, however the general plot remains the same. Despite this, the difference in characters and situation gives the illusion of each film being different. Sometimes hybrid-genres will also emerge to promote pseudo-individualism. For example Knocked Up: the stoner-comedy-rom-co.

These types of films are risk-free to make. They will always be popular and consumed by audiences, and will usually be more popular with women. They act as a distraction from our own personal love lives. This might suggest why the romantic comedy is and will continue to be such a successful film genre.