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How to Write a Rom-Com That’s True to Life (and Love): Tips from the Screenwriter of ‘What If’

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A first-person column in Indiewire from screenwriter Elan Mastai who wrote the recently released romantic comedy What If.

I wrote “What If” because I love romantic comedies. When done well, they’re basically my favorite genre. “His Girl Friday,” “The Apartment,” “Annie Hall,” When Harry Met Sally,” “Before Sunrise” and its sequels. But of course they’re so often done badly. And a bad rom-com is excruciating.

I think the main reason crappy romantic comedies make us angrier than other types of crappy movies is because it’s the one genre we’re all experts in.

Most of us will never be a cop on the edge caught in an intricate game of cat-and-mouse with a relentless criminal mastermind. We haven’t been haunted by ghouls. We haven’t been to outer space. We haven’t been in a car chase.

But every one of us is an expert in love, in heartbreak and flirtation, mixed signals and bittersweet longing, first kisses and last kisses and everything in between.

So we all know, right away, when a romantic comedy is faking it. When the banter is lame. When the chemistry is flat. When the obstacles are phony. When we don’t care if they get together in the end. Because who can care about glossy marionettes contorting their way through absurd plot machinations and unearned sentiment?

Writing “What If,” every step of the way I’d ask myself — what would a real person do in this situation?

For the rest of the column, go here.


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