In the 1990s and early 2000s, a certain breed of romantic comedy became popular. They all followed a few very similar structures, making them extremely predictable, but a guilty pleasure for men, women, and teenagers alike. There was something so enjoyable about seeing two people overcome ridiculous conflict and obstacles in order to always achieve a warm and fuzzy happy ending.
Marry Me, released in early 2022, is the first rom-com of that style that audiences have received in quite a while. It follows many of the classic structures and brought to mind those classic rom-coms that are best enjoyed in pajamas with a tub of ice cream. It even stars Jennifer Lopez, a favorite in the genre. So needless to say, romance fans were satisfied. However, there is a lot that Marry Me brought to the table that was completely original, subverting a great many rom-com tropes that possibly could be done away with for good.
The Major Deception
One of the most surprising things for the audience to get used to in Marry Me was the idea that the protagonists were not attempting to fool anyone into thinking they were married. Kat, Jennifer Lopez's character, even clarifies that there would be no deception involved. They were going to show the world that they were getting to know each other and that was it.
A common staple of rom-com is a deception on at least one of the main characters' part. Based on the trailer for Marry Me, audiences expected it to follow this trope, with Kat and Charlie forced to pretend to be in a happy relationship in order to appease fans. There was something refreshing about this trope getting left behind, however, making the movie a less anxious experience for viewers.
The Runaway Bride
In romantic comedies, if Marry Me, there is very likely going to be a runaway bride. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on if the bride was marrying the hero or the villain, but a shot of the bride running down a beach, road, or field is all but guaranteed.
Marry Me mixed things up, however. When Kat discovers that the man she is about to marry has been cheating on her, she stands her ground on stage, makes a speech about the disappointments of love, and marries a stranger from the crowd instead (a new move that viewers weren't used to seeing on-screen).
The Career Driven Woman Who Forgets About Love
Kat is famous and successful, and it was her own work and talent that got her there. The success she has achieved takes constant work to maintain, and, as a celebrity, she is always teetering on the edge between fan approval and ridicule.
When a rom-com has a female character with a successful career, they typically learn a lesson about working too hard and not making time for love. This implies that the decision between work and romance is binary and that it is better for a woman to choose love. However, Marry Me never made this an issue. Kat is successful and powerful from beginning to end, whether she was in love or not.
Love At First Sight
Typically in romantic comedies, the two main protagonists see each other and time stops. There may be a slow-motion moment as one character notices the other. Their eyes meet, they smile, and then quickly look away in embarrassment. The ion and chemistry are instantaneous. Some of the best romantic comedies follow this format, but there may be other ways for a story to go.
In Marry Me, Kat is too full of emotion to really process who she is looking at. She selects a random man from the crowd, brings him on stage, and kisses him. Their actual attraction to one another does not start to develop until much later, making a clearly outlandish rom-com style situation just a little bit more believable.
The Enemies To Lovers Dynamic
In Marry Me, Kat and Charlie get along from beginning to end. They are never left pulling their hair out in frustration with one another and never give a dramatic declaration of hatred toward the other. Instead, they handle any issues they have with maturity; an almost completely unheard-of reaction in the rom-com genre.
This "enemies-to-lovers" storyline has been used so many times, that it is almost difficult to imagine a satisfying conflict without it. This made Marry Me considerably more interesting for audiences, wondering where the central conflict was going to come from.
The Selfish Protagonists
People who frequent rom-coms might have struggled with the reactions that the characters had to uncomfortable situations. Another source of the central conflict in this genre is a selfish act from a character. In Marry Me, audiences would expect Charlie to lash out at Kat when she is too busy to spend time with him, or Kat to have a secret relationship with Bastion behind Charlie's back, similar to some of the most toxic moments in other rom-coms.
The writers for Marry Me seemed to know that viewers would be expecting this and set up multiple situations, where audiences assumed they knew how things would play out. But each and every time the characters surprised the audience by making mature and completely non-toxic decisions.
The Big Make-Over Or Make-Under
The make-over scene is a guilty please for many fans that happen in almost every romantic comedy movie. The message that someone must change their appearance in some way in order to seem appealing to someone else isn't the healthiest, and Marry Me does well to avoid it entirely.
In a movie with a celebrity or high fashion woman, there will typically be a scene where her love interest sees her in sweatpants and messy hair for the first time, only then noticing that he is attracted to her. However, this doesn't happen in the movie as the film implies that Kat's appearance shouldn't determine whether Charlie should respect her or not.
The Fame Obsessed Manager
Whenever one of the protagonists of a rom-com is some kind of celebrity, there always seems to be a manager who follows them around and manipulates them in order to make themselves more money. This typically goes along with the person realizing that they need to stop taking their career so seriously and focus on love so that they don't become as money-obsessed as this ing character.
This made audiences immediately put their defenses up when Collin, Kat's manager, was introduced. He starts the show seeming to Kat, but fans have too much experience to trust a character based on that. However, as the film continued, it became clearer and cleared that Collin truly only wanted what was best for Kat, surprising audiences once again.
