Romantic Films: Why do we Pay to be told how Inadequate Our Love Lives are?

I would like to think of myself as a realist. Only fools fall hard in love and become obsessively attached to the ideals that romantic Hollywood movies try to sell us. Yet as much as I can predict the foreseeable twists and turns that the plot will inevitably follow and as much as I loathe the way these films try to depict seemingly realistic characters, I still find myself sobbing and sniffling my way throughout the entire duration of the film. So why are we such suckers for these generic, ridiculous love stories that the film industry spoon feeds us?

We all know what we are getting ourselves into when we take a trip to the cinema and purchase a ticket for the most recent Nicholas Sparks film adaptation. It will unsurprisingly follow the strict romdram convention: the two hottest, semi-talented, semi-mundane actors of the moment will be cast as the pair of star-crossed lovers who fight against unbelievable hardship and woe. 

While the underlying message will be overly sentimental and sugar coated to the point that you are not entirely sure whether the queasiness is the natural side effect of eating an entire bag of sweet popcorn to yourself or as a result of being exposed to an unhealthy dose of a syrupy amalgamation of clichés and suffocating slushiness. And then upon leaving the cinema I find myself feeling a sort of unfounded emptiness as I begin to question my own love life and realise that my relationships have not been anywhere near as dramatic and emotionally traumatising. But wait a minute, this isn’t what I had bargained for, did I really pay £10 just to be told that my love life really is that inadequate?

So why then, despite the predictability of it all and the sudden urge to call your estranged ex, do we invest so heavily into these conventional films? Is it possible that we are all just hopeless romantics at heart who enjoy the feeling that setting ourselves up for romantic failure brings? In the end, the men in our own lives are left with a mere shred of credibility as we try to compare them to the highly stylised, romantic ideals portrayed by these archetypal romantic dramas. Your boyfriend may have his flaws but when it comes down to it reality ensues and besides, thinks of all the impracticalities that a boyfriend that feeds off of blood and glistens in sunlight would bring. Arranging a date would prove to be a nightmare.

Perhaps we buy into this convention so heavily because we enjoy the expectedness and stability that it brings because, for a brief and fleeting moment, we are in control of some sort of romantic microcosm of reality and in this short space of time it is acceptable to fall whole-heartedly in love with these unabashedly sentimental caricatures of real people in real relationships.

Just always remember to place your feet firmly on the ground immediately after viewing and don’t be so hard on the poor schmuck you convinced to sit there and endure the entire treacly tale with you.