The Rom-Com Scam — How Hollywood can push you into Despair

I was once an ardent fan of Rom-Coms or simply any romance movie. Although every single Rom Com was the same boy meets girl, they fall in love, go through an ordeal, and finally profess their undying love and Happily Ever After story, I got a high out of watching them.

Until one day…

I had stopped watching movies for about 1.5 years and decided to return again. A few great movies here and there for some time and then I stumbled across Indecent Proposal.

A young married couple is pushed into poverty and one fine day the girl falls for a rich old man. Days of betrayal and pain later, the movie ends with the couple getting back together and happily ever after. AGAIN!!!

I understand, a simple, 1-dimensional rom-com movie having a happy ending; But this one!!??

This was one movie out of many that didn’t need a happy ending.

That was the day I understood that Hollywood has an obsession with fairytale love, fantasy, and happy endings.
But somehow weirdly also tries to inject trauma and tragedy into unnecessary situations

I’m talking about Titanic. Yes, I will forever argue that the iceberg had enough space to take Jack too. Just because the ship met with a tragedy, all the passengers in it also didn’t have to. Think about it, Rose could have escaped her arranged marriage and lived happily with Jack.

Back to talking about forced happy endings…

I saw another movie — Lost In Translations. In this movie, the girl and the boy ( man, actually) had their respective partners. Of course, they were unhappy. They were also stuck in Japan and struggled to navigate through the country, their language, and their culture. You could tell they were lonely and frustrated.

And then they meet and get along. With the usual template of Hollywood movies imprinted on my mind, I was keen as a mustard, waiting to watch romance bloom between them, cheat on their respective partners, and justify it by calling it true love.

It didn’t happen. They got along well, yes. But that was it. They were stuck, and lonely, got along during the short time they had, and went back to their world.

The movie made it a point to defy the Hollywood standard and knock some reality into its audience. Because the truth is, more often than not, the filmy-style happy ending does not materialize in reality.

Sometimes, many times, things don’t go our way.
What we want and chase after will run even faster much less chase us back. And that is okay.
There is freedom and peace in accepting the hopelessness of a situation instead of relentlessly chasing it again and ending up with an even bigger despair.

Many of these corny films prove to be just one thing — an escape from reality. From time to time all of us do need that escape. But life begins to get problematic when we begin to put the escape onto a pedestal, make it an ideal, and envision it for ourselves.

But hey! I’m not entirely dismissive of happy endings. They are very much possible; if not with one person, with another, if not with people, with work, if not with work, with any other passion or hobby you might have.

Happy endings are a possibility. But it manifests differently for each of us. And it only manifests differently if you let go of the form you are desperate for.

There are people I know who were lucky enough to have a Hollywood Rom-com play out in their lives. And they are always going to chant that Hollywood is real and if you believe enough it will happen for you too.

Sure it may. But isn’t it safer to assume that you’re the rule and not the exception?