Wedding Bell Blues

I was watching Cedar Rapids yesterday, and I kind of realized that this may be the kind of movie that saves the romantic comedy. Okay, before I lose you on this, let me say that even though it’s got a male lead character and is essentially a gross-out comedy, this movie is about a guy looking for love. That’s pretty much the basic formula. And rom-coms, in my opinion, have gotten too concerned with a generic pretty girl scrambling for the happily-ever-after wedding bells ending. Romance is matters of the heart. And sometimes in romance, your heart gets broken and you don’t end up with the ring and a church booked for June. And that’s not necessarily a tragedy. My life goes to show, it can sometimes be pretty damn funny.

In Cedar Rapids, the main character (**Spoiler Alert**), Tim Lippe does not actually end up with a ring on the all important finger, which he very much wanted, or even the love of his life, unless you count his bromance with the John C. Reilly character. And I guess you could. So if he doesn’t end up with that happily-every-after wedding, what does he get that you’d want out of a new kind of rom-com? He’s happier, stronger, wiser and there’s more love in his life, even if it comes from friends. I think that’s a great ending for any main character in a romantic comedy. Remember, Holly Hunter doesn’t end up with James Brooks or William Hurt in Broadcast News, and that was a high-water mark in the romantic-comedy genre.

So what do we get if writers give up the idea that it doesn’t necessarily have to end up in the Vera Want and the Chapel of Love? And we give up the old “comedies end in marriage, tragedies end in death” trope. Certainly more skin in the game. You won’t necessarily know that it’s going to end the same way every time. How’s that for a concept? Sure, we want our hero/ine to end up happier that before. But if there are many definitions about what could make a man or woman happy, there’s a world of possibilities of where a romantic comedy could go. And in a genre that has become all too stale, that would be a breath of fresh air.