Boy meets girl. The two are faced with an obstacle. Then, just when it seems all hope is lost for the couple, love prevails. For centuries, the romantic comedy has been a center of our entertainment. Despite facing all sorts of obstacles of its own, this genre has survived, and with most of its key attributes kept alive. Romantic comedies, from Plautus’ famous “Miles Gloriosus,” to director Gil Junger’s “10 Things I Hate About You,” are a vital part of our culture, and, though they are centuries apart, actually have a lot in common, from their events to their characters. Most stories can be broken down into simple formulas, and for the rom-com, this formula is simple. All a rom-com needs is a love interest, an obstacle, and the attempt to
…show more content…
A teenager named Cameron James transfers to a new high school, where he meets Bianca Stratford, the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. Unfortunately, she and her sister, Kat, aren’t allowed to date. Their father, a paranoid OB-GYN, refuses to allow his daughters near a situation where they might get pregnant. This all changes when their father decides that a much stricter rule is to forbid Bianca from dating until Kat does. She doesn’t care much for dating, to put it mildly, so Bianca sees the new rule as a death sentence. With the help of Cameron, as well as the popular guy in school, Joey Donner, a plan is formulated to get Kat to date. They find someone they think would be willing to date her, an outcast named Patrick Verona, and pay him to take her out a few times. Though Bianca has begun to face her obstacle, Kat and Patrick’s is yet to come. At the prom, after all kinds of ups and downs, Kat discovers the truth: that Joey and Cameron have been paying Patrick to go out with her. This is their true obstacle. Of course, in true rom-com fashion, Patrick ends up telling Kat that, in the process of carrying out the plan, he actually fell for her, and all is right in the
A teenager named Cameron James transfers to a new high school, where he meets Bianca Stratford, the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. Unfortunately, she and her sister, Kat, aren’t allowed to date. Their father, a paranoid OB-GYN, refuses to allow his daughters near a situation where they might get pregnant. This all changes when their father decides that a much stricter rule is to forbid Bianca from dating until Kat does. She doesn’t care much for dating, to put it mildly, so Bianca sees the new rule as a death sentence. With the help of Cameron, as well as the popular guy in school, Joey Donner, a plan is formulated to get Kat to date. They find someone they think would be willing to date her, an outcast named Patrick Verona, and pay him to take her out a few times. Though Bianca has begun to face her obstacle, Kat and Patrick’s is yet to come. At the prom, after all kinds of ups and downs, Kat discovers the truth: that Joey and Cameron have been paying Patrick to go out with her. This is their true obstacle. Of course, in true rom-com fashion, Patrick ends up telling Kat that, in the process of carrying out the plan, he actually fell for her, and all is right in the