We’ve seen the typical romantic films where guy meets girl, they fall for each other, and they end up happily ever after. Well, what happens when guy and girl become a couple for the sake of a bet, to keep a job or to stay in the country? Feelings get hurt, tears are shed, and watching is too hard to resist. Here’s a look at romantic comedies that might be predictable and cheesy, but we can’t help but watch the sappy and foolish drama unravel anyway.
“10 Things I Hate About You” (1999)
Based on “The Taming of the Shrew,” this film follows sisters Kat and Bianca Stratford, who, although they attend the same high school, couldn’t be more different from one another. Kat, played by Julia Stiles, is a senior who doesn’t care about fitting in, while her sister Bianca, played by Larisa Oleynik, is a gullible freshman, who longs for popularity. Their strict father will only allow Bianca to date if Kat does too. When Joey Donner, the most popular guy in school, played by Andrew Keegan, wants to date Bianca, he must find someone to agree to date Kat. The late Heath Ledger plays bad boy Patrick Verona, who reluctantly agrees to date Kat but eventually falls for her. A young Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the nerdy Cameron James, who befriends Verona, and attempts to win over Bianca.
“Can’t Buy Me Love” (1987)
Before he was McDreamy, Patrick Dempsey was Ronald Miller, a nerdy high schooler with an enormous crush on cheerleading captain Cindi Mancini, played by Amanda Peterson. Miller spends his summer mowing lawns, including Cindi’s, to save up for a telescope. When he sees Mancini at the mall looking distraught, he finds out she is trying to return an expensive jacket of her mother’s that she borrowed and destroyed with red wine. She doesn’t have the money to replace it, so Miller offers her the money he saved up for a telescope, in exchange for Mancini pretending to be his girlfriend so he’ll become popular. Eventually, Mancini falls for him, but popularity gets to his head.
“The Proposal” (2009)
Sandra Bullock stars as Margaret Tate, the editor at a publishing firm who has no sympathy for her employees. Her assistant Andrew Paxton, played by Ryan Reynolds, has to deal with her lack of compassion, including her refusal to give him time off to go home for his grandmother’s 90th birthday. When she learns that her Visa is about to expire and she’ll be sent back to Canada, she lies and announces that she and Paxton have had a secret relationship and are engaged. Paxton agrees to play along, as long as he’ll get his manuscript published and receive a promotion.
The duo travel to Alaska to meet his family and to fool everyone into believing that he plans to marry the boss he hates. They realize that though they work together, they know nothing about one another — until they’re forced to spend time pretending to be madly in love, before actually falling in love.
“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” (2003)
Andie Anderson, played by Kate Hudson, is a “how-to” columnist for Composure Magazine, tasked with making a guy fall in love with her in just 10 days, in exchange for writing stories on more important matters. Advertiser Benjamin Barry, played by Matthew McConaughey, has a similar assignment: to make a woman fall in love with him in order to land a deal for an expensive diamond company. After meeting each other at a party, these workaholics fool one another into a romantic relationship, only to discover that this game has messed with their judgment and they have formed true feelings for one another.
“She’s All That” (1999)
Art student Laney Boggs, played by Rachael Leigh Cook, has gone through high school unnoticed. When Zack Siler, played by Freddie Prinze Jr. forms a bet with his friends that he can make any girl in school prom queen, his best friend, Dean Sampson, played by the late Paul Walker, chooses Boggs. When Zack asks her to hang out, she questions his motives for wanting to be with her. After getting a makeover and spending more time together, he realizes that she is more than meets the eye, and she sees he is more than a jock; but the social hierarchy compromises their fake relationship.
