I don’t go out to the movies much anymore because the theater is quite a distance from where I live, and the prices have become too ridiculously expensive. So, needless to say, I’m probably 6 months to 12 months behind everybody else in movie viewing.

This weekend, a friend  brought over her collection of DVDs. Someone in our little group decided we should watch “The Break-up” with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.

I will say this: I did laugh quite a bit. But the movie as a whole was seriously disappointing. Then, I realized why…it was written by three MEN.

Now, I haven’t done my research to know, but I would guess that the best romantic comedies have at least had ONE woman on the writing team. We all know “When Harry Met Sally” was written by the brilliant Nora Ephron. One of my faves, “Bridget Jones’s Diary” was based off of a book written by a woman. I suppose I should go to imdb.com to do some kind of study, but I won’t.

The banter between Jennifer Aniston’s character (Brooke) and Vince Vaughn’s character (Gary) was very real. I believed in their break-up. What I didn’t believe is that Brooke would ever want to get back together with an idiot like Gary. A beer-swilling, video-game-playing, I-don’t-clean-ever leech.

And the ending was even more of a ‘huh?’ There *was* no ending. No satisfying ending. Nobody got back together with anyone, and there wasn’t even a HINT of other romances to come. It was just so abrupt and odd.

That was a movie I wanted to rewrite. Because it *was* humorous. The story just didn’t play out like I wanted it to.  I wanted either one of two things:

1) the ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend continue to live together, but each pursues new people and drive each other crazy in the meantime…sabotaging each other. At the end, both really want the other to be happy and they both find someone perfect.

2) the BOYFRIEND pursues the girlfriend by changing his ways and showing that he really does care about her even while she is dating other men. In the end, he appreciates her and treats her differently and they live happily ever after.

Either of these could have worked for me. But they made Gary so unredeemable and unlikeable from the get-go, I really was PISSED that Brooke was sad they had broken up and schemed how to get him back.

If you’re writing romantic comedy, there MUST be some kind of happy ending. I can watch tragic love stories that end sadly. That doesn’t bother me. In fact, every now and then I like a good cry. But a romantic comedy that ends with NOTHING happening for either party is a real kick in the pants for the audience.

Kris

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