[quote=@Utrax]


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[h3]Can anyone explain the appeal of Romantic Movies and Romantic Comedies?[/h3]
I personally absolutely do not like the genre as a whole. There are certain exceptions, of course. I don't discredit an entire bunch of movies because a few aren't my cup of tea. I want to know why some people swear by them-- Why some people have seen basically everything in the genre! Why?! 
Thank you for your attention.


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I can take this one. Or at least attempt to. [i]Aggressively flexes useless film degree[/i]. 


Okay so you know how people have comfort foods or the like? Romantic comedies are sort of comfort food for a certain group of people because the typical romantic comedy presents romance as the idealized dream. Case in point, most leads in a romantic comedy is a woman in a somewhat successful career but doesn't have fulfillment in her work - and boy is there a conversation to be had there but let's not - and often this lead is one of a handful of archetypes. She could be frigid, she could be neurotic, she could be a workaholic, or a combination. Obviously I'm generalizing but the shoe clearly fits in this case. Then along comes the opposite and blah blah you know how it goes. 

There are, of course, exceptions (like, I dunno....Pretty Woman) but when you watch a romantic comedy you know what you're getting. You're gonna get 90 minutes of awkward interactions and gags with some pretty people. It's a different form of escapism that exists within other film genres. Romantic films have their cliches and revel in them but they're movie comfort food. Even something like Trainwreck which was like "Hah hah it's the anti-romantic comedy look at how much dick I sling" turned into the exact thing it was mocking anyway. 

The appeal comes from the same sort of place of, say, a bad action movie. It's escapism and wish fulfillment. No one goes into a movie starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler expecting high art or the like; they go in wanting to be comforted and experience a cute little love affair. Romantic comedies are the movie version of a Janet Evaonvich novel.