5 Ways To Elevate Your Romantic Comedy

Romantic comedies are back! Not that they’ve really gone far. Love is all around us too. Writers have been telling love stories since before the advent of cinema and audiences have been enjoying the various permutations of two people overcoming a mountain of obstacles and finally getting together. Love stories follow a similar template. They are frequently set around the festive season such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day when people are at their most vulnerable and their emotions are heightened.

1) For And Against Characters

Let’s start with the two main character types – those that want romance to blossom and those who don’t. These depictions can be the same character at various points in the story.

A common scenario is the star-crossed lovers are attracted to each other, but won’t, or can’t allow their romance to proceed. They may even hate each other at the start of the film until they eventually discover they’re meant to be together after everything that’s happened. They are in both character camps, sometimes at the same time! This changes when their self-inflicted obstruction falls into alignment.

Typically, romcoms feature a couple, but recently they’re moving into throuples and quadruples territory as the dating landscape becomes increasingly complicated. Imagine what Valentine’s Day looks like for them!

The rival is always the against character throughout the story – thwarting the destined couple at every turn because they believe they are the better partner or know what’s best for them.

Finally, there are the couples’ family, friends, and close circles who explicitly support or oppose the relationship for various ideological reasons such as a lack of career prospects. Some of these characters are static, while others are more dynamic and change their minds in order not to lose them, or they value the couple’s happiness above all else. These are the love conquers all stories that underpin the romantic comedy.

These supporters and opposers both have good reasons for their positions, even Genevieve Gerner (Nia Vardalos) in I Hate Valentine’s Day. Imposing a five date limit is a sure fire way to control everything in your life and ensure you don’t get hurt gain. That is, until a new restaurant owner comes to town.

This character dichotomy is important because the audience is a bonafide jury and must pick a side to align with. It compels the audience to engage with the characters and get their act together.

Since romantic comedies are not tragedies, love generally prevails, so it’s important that audience wants the couple to fall in love properly even if they temporarily support the opposition. Their love must be earned and have a solid foundation to make it last.

2) What Do They Need?

In classical storytelling, the characters have both an inner and outer need. Let’s start with the outer need that forms the narrative backbone of your movie. Consider the beloved favorite Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen where Jane and her sisters must get married in order to inherit their father’s estate. His wealth will default to their cousin if they aren’t married upon his death. This is their outer need, but also elevates the story with a ticking clock.

Other needs to be married include a more favorable tax treatment, to stay in the country, to not attend a major event alone and be harassed by family and friends about why you’re still single, to rise on the career or social ladder, or to adopt a baby. These outer needs form the basis for the plot-based conflict.

What do they need internally? Love, companionship, status, security, and fear of loneliness, to name a few. These are fairly typical needs in most romantic comedies, not all of them noble. Getting married is hardly a lofty goal when the endgame is wealth. That is, until the couple realize they are actually in love. Consider Holidate, when two perpetual singletons agree to be each other’s plus one at a family gathering, until they stop to appreciate the warm feelings they have for each other.

Internal needs are where the main character shifts and real growth happens. They may have self-doubts or a crisis of confidence along the way, but ultimately, it’s all character building because the ensuing happiness is worth the conflict.

3) Secrets

Secrets are useful to create interest, entertainment, and tension in the story. In romcoms, there is usually a confidante who in entrusted with a secret such as… one part of the couple is still married or has a criminal record. The said confidante will be tested throughout the story to keep the secret, and may even let it (or part of it) slip out by accident. Ooops! Secrets test the strength of loyalties and friendships. A rival may inadvertently overhear a secret or deliberately access it via nefarious means such as checking their friends’ phones or emails at an opportune moment. Then the rival may blackmail the confidante or reveals the secret and claim the confidante told them leading to the dissolution of the friendship.

While the keeping and leaking of secrets reinforce the dramatic components of love stories, they can also add to the comedy. Cue the scenes where the suitor is hiding in a closet or under the bed because they shouldn’t be there in the first place and they can’t escape. They overhear a phone conversation they weren’t meant to. Now they have a secret and have to keep it to themselves, because the friend must never know they know.

In The Happiest Season, Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (MacKenzie Davis) must keep their relationship hidden until Harper finds the right time to tell her family they are more than just roommates during the Christmas Holidays.

4) Sharables

These are the tender moments that the couple shares exclusively, such as going on the rollercoaster five times in a row or trying every flavor in an ice-cream store. These are the events that form memories and hurt so much when the lovers break up somewhere around the end of the second act. These moments exacerbate the sense of grief, sadness, and loss the couple feels. The audience vicariously experiences these emotions which make them want the couple to reconnect even more. Not only is this a hallmark of good storytelling, it’s a way to hook the audience and invest their emotional time into the characters.

These “tender moments” don’t need to be cute. They just need to be intimate. Something that you can’t do, say, or be with somebody else, like clipping each other’s toenails.

5) Morality

Romcoms nearly always end with the couple getting together. After all, it’s destiny. If they don’t galvanize their status, they typically acknowledge that it wasn’t mean to be and they’re better off as friends.

The Kissing Booth is a prime example. Elle (Joey King) is best friends with Lee (Joel Courtney), but she develops a crush on his older brother Noah (Jacob Elordi). By the end of the trilogy, she put herself first and goes to college. She’s done been a people pleaser at the expense of her own needs her whole life. Lee and Noah quit being rivals and learn to focus on themselves rather than others for happiness and fulfillment.

As with most films, characters still need to shift internally and their behaviors change.