It happens too often– a person is happily watching a too-much-in-love couple in a romantic film, only to realize halfway through that it seems like they’ve seen this exact movie before. They don’t have deja vu and there is no need to question their sanity, though, as countless romantic flicks out there continuously employ the same done-to-death clichés. The result? A love story that is meant to make viewers get the feels and go misty-eyed instead comes across as tiring, predictable, and contrived.
The ideal scenario would be for the viewers to root for the main couple, who overcome their fair share of hurdles to come together at the end of the day. But whether one goes as far back as The Merry Widow in 1925, or dives into more recent cliche-fests like Holidate, the romantic genre has disappointingly stuck to its set list of repetitive tropes and unoriginal plot lines. While they are all worthy of being retired ASAP, we have highlighted the five most excessively used and annoying staples in romantic films that Hollywood truly needs to ditch.
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The stalker mode
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.
The protagonist sees their beloved for the first time and instantly falls in love. While love-at-first-sight storylines can become masterpieces, it is what follows next that can be troubling. The protagonist then either breaks into the person’s house (or hospital room, in the case of While You Were Sleeping) to watch them sleep because they’re oh-so-in-love and fighting their growing feelings (Twilight) or decides to pursue her persistently despite multiple obvious rejections from the girl (There’s Something About Mary). What makes this rusty cliché unbearable is that more often than not, the girl ends up finding this stalker-like behavior endearing and eventually falls in love with the guy. The trope sometimes gets reversed, as in Single White Female, Basic Instinct, and so on, and the audience has to deal with watching a woman obsessively stalk a (usually married and smarmy) man for the hundredth time, sometimes resulting in a psychosexual thriller.
The delayed epiphany at the altar
For some mysterious reason, the protagonist always keeps a lid on his or her feelings throughout the film, even when the person they love announces that they are getting married to someone else. Nothing shakes their unnecessary resolve until…they see the about-to-be-married couple at the altar. After this particularly “enlightening” realization that they “can’t live” without them, they then proceed to give the same old I-am-so-in-love speech in front of all their family and friends, because what is love unless you turn it into a monologue of grand declaration, right? Following this, the other person gets all emotional, suddenly realizing their own feelings, and ready to bid farewell to their bride or groom; this was made iconic in The Graduate but has happened endlessly since in films like Runaway Bride and Made of Honor.
The mad dash to the airport
Universal Pictures
If it’s not their wedding, then the protagonist in love picks the one day that their beloved is leaving the city or even the country forever (Love Actually, The Wedding Singer, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days). They will then zoom through traffic (or run a ridiculous length) in order to make it to the airport in time, madly dash through the crowd, and just catch their soulmate seconds before they are ready to board their flight. After all, how can a trivial thing like airport security get in the way when the protagonist has just woken up and decided to profess their not-so-hidden feelings? These tropes having characters realizing their feelings at the last possible second has become so redundant that whenever a story confirms that the other person will leave or get married by the end of the film, it’s a no-brainer to predict what will happen next.
The strong assumption game
Just like airport security, two people properly communicating is an often lost concept in romantic films. Yes, it is understandable that both will have to trump many obstacles to finally be together, but writers of such films often introduce pointless hurdles in their life like an unnecessary misunderstanding based on zero solid evidence. Case in point– in Bridget Jones’ Diary: The Edge of Reason, Bridget makes the baseless assumption that Mark is cheating on her with his assistant Rebecca, though there is literally nothing happening to make her even remotely suspicious. Or in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, when Jacob mentions a funeral on a phone call with Edward, who misinterprets it into thinking that Bella has died, so he flies to Italy in order to die by suicide. This miscommunication trope dates back to Romeo and Juliet, where a simple conversation could’ve prevented a double suicide, and even earlier. Now, such situations can be resolved if people just decide to put their directionless doubts into words, Apparently, though, this would disrupt the writers’ mission to portray their star-crossed characters’ unrequited love.
The ‘ugly duckling’ transformation
More often than not, when the lead character in a romantic flick is seen wearing glasses and/or baggy clothes (or an additional ponytail in the case of women), they are headed for one epic makeover, after which they become instantly irresistible to people (Clueless, She’s All That). For some utterly nonsensical reason, their prior appearance automatically makes them unattractive and all they have to do is remove their glasses for everyone to suddenly and ignorantly exclaim, “Oh my, what a beauty!” This can be seen to most chauvinistic effect in The Breakfast Club. Hopefully, with its future slate of movies, Hollywood is planning to restore sanity to the world of romance by presenting some unique love stories sans these usual, monotonous clichés.
