Can No One Save the Romantic Comedy?

There have been endless column inches devoted to the slow critical and popular death of romantic-comedies. This recent New York Times article is a good encapsulation of the common sentiment that the once dependable genre has fallen on bleak times. Titles like "The Backup Plan," "Valentine's Day," and "Bride Wars," starring Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Jennifer Lopez, or the critically lauded debutante of the moment, are shunned and derided for their hokey formulas and questionable social messages. However, a loyal contingent of female moviegoers ensure that many of these films make money, so the demand for them has never gone away.

I have to take issue with the broad generalizations applied by some detractors, who will often neglect to mention the small number of subversive indies like "Juno" and "500 Days of Summer" that find success every year, or the Judd Apatow films aimed at male moviegoers, or the Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron films that keep our parents happy. But on the whole I agree. The films we commonly think of as romantic comedies - the ones driven primarily by leading actresses and that are made for female audiences - are in a terrible rut. When you break it down, your standard rom-com is really a romantic wish-fulfillment fantasy with elements of farce. I enjoy some of them on occasion, like "The Proposition" and "Music and Lyrics," but all too often they come out like "When in Rome," a silly, dull little movie packed to the gills with tired cliches, that felt like a "Saturday Night Live" sketch gone horribly wrong.

Some take issue with the formula itself, which is an easy target, but romantic comedies on the whole are not any more unrealistic or socially irresponsible than explosion-laden action films or morbid slasher flicks. The excesses of those genres have attracted their share of scorn, but no one has ever written them off entirely. There is no single culprit for the sad decline of a genre that once gave us "Annie Hall," "The Goodbye Girl," and "What's Up Doc?" but I think Bette Midler and Cinematical's Monika Bartyzel hit one nail on the head when they pointed out a serious lack of leading comediennes on the big screen these days. Romantic comedies stopped being funny and fun to watch when their leading ladies were no longer also expected to be the best comedic actresses of the day. And as a corollary, modern romantic comedies don't generate much media buzz unless a major male comedian like Steve Carrell, Ben Stiller, or Ricky Gervais is involved to pick up the slack.

Think of the most prominent women in the current comedic landscape, and the names that are likely to pop up - Tina Fey, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Ellen Degeneres, Sarah Silverman - are creatures of television. Tina Fey makes a few comedies with romance in them, like "Date Night" and "Baby Mama," but not the sort of films that are readily identified as romantic comedies. Also, several of our former superstars of the genre like Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bullock have been edging away from association with romantic comedy stardom. Diaz has found a foothold in action comedies, like "Day and Knight" and the upcoming "Green Hornet." Bullock hasn't abandoned ship, but will almost certainly parlay her Oscar win into more serious projects. Others have simply disappeared. Has anyone seen Renee Zellwegger or Reese Witherspoon lately? I'm sure there was supposed to be a third "Bridget Jones" movie. And checking in with the male auxiliary, whatever happened to Hugh Grant?

The result is that audiences are now stuck treading water with the likes of Katherine Heigl and Sarah Jessica Parker, who are decent actresses, but hardly names that inspire much confidence at the box office. My current favorite among the genre regulars is Drew Barrymore, whose next rom-com "Going the Distance" is due out at the end of the month. But frankly, I'd rather see her direct a follow-up to "Whip It," one of my favorite films from last year. Bigger names who want to do romance go for straight romantic films of the Nicholas Sparks variety, or prestige projects with romantic elements. Former queen bee Julia Roberts will be returning to the big screen with "Eat, Pray, Love" this week, the latest of a string of recent feel-good female empowerment films that tend to feature solid, middle-aged actresses like Diane Lane, Queen Latifah, and Meryl Streep. They can be funny people, but not they're not "Funny People."

I miss the glory days of Diane Keaton, Madeline Kahn, Goldie Hawn, Julie Andrews, Shirley MacLaine, Ellen Burstyn, Marsha Mason, and the greatest of the great unconventional beauties, Barbara Streisand. They got the guys and could deliver zingers with the best of them, something you don't see modern romantic comedy leading ladies doing much anymore. Most of the comedy has gone out of romantic comedies, and what little remains has been reduced to contrived misunderstandings, abrasive bickering, bad slapstick, and juvenile raunch. And the worse it gets, the more talent flees the scene, reducing any hope of resuscitation. Still, hope springs eternal. There are plenty of up-and-coming actresses around who could shake up rom-coms and make them fun again. Leslie Mann, Anna Faris, Anne Hathaway, and many others have the potential to set the screen on fire if decent material ever comes along to save the day.

But I'm worried the Hollywood creative types will forget that the genre is worth saving. We've had so many bad ones, it's sometimes hard to remember that romantic comedies used to be a staple that everyone loved. Right now we're at or near rock bottom, and there's nowhere to go but up.