3 Romantic Comedies that have Issues

 It's spring! Spring means wedding season, and for me, a reflection on 3 romantic comedies that have issues.

*The following section has spoilers for Never Been Kissed, 13 Going on 30, and Something Borrowed.

Never Been Kissed (1999)

This movie loses a lot of romantic innocence because it has a lot of adult-teen romantic moments. The main character Josie pretends to be a teen for most of the movie even though she is an adult, and her brother does as well.

Josie crushes on a teen for part of the movie. Her brother does stop the charade at one point as a teen girl is about to kiss him, but I don’t think it redeems the premise.

Drew Barrymore plays Josie very well. If you took the student-teacher romance away, Josie and Sam could have a cute relationship.

13 Going on 30 (2004)

Jennifer’s character Jenna is emotionally a teenager for most of the movie. She is friends with teens for part of the movie, and they don’t seem to notice. Her innocent reactions to the adult jokes help move the story along. She’s very sweet after her first kiss with Matt when she tells the teen friends about their moment. 

Unfortunately, there are complications as Matt is already engaged to someone else at the beginning of the movie. Though this film does have a happy ending for Jenna and Matt, some of the moments in which Jenna is clearly acting out of a 13-year-old brain in an adult environment could cause the audience to be uncomfortable.

Something Borrowed (2011)

Unlike other movies with a similar love triangle premise (My Best Friend’s Wedding and 27 Dresses), the acting is not strong enough to redeem the terrible actions that the characters do to each other. Particularly the main character Rachel who the audience should have sympathy for and root for ends up justifying her actions of cheating with her best friend's fiancée in a selfish manner. Kate Hudson plays the particularly unlikeable best friend Darcy. 

Although the audience should feel that Darcy “gets what she deserves” by the end of the film, I only felt sad because the relationship between Darcy and Rachel had deteriorated due to their lies. It seems that the writers thought all of the lies and cheating would cancel themselves out, but in the end none of the primary characters (Rachel, Darcy, and Dex) deserve to achieve their goals, even though they supposedly are happy. 

Thanks for reading!

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