Romantic comedies are all about selling you the package deal of instant soulmates and hilarious misunderstandings. They’re the ideal that we’re all looking for, right? The measuring stick we use when we’re looking for the loves of our lives. But, while some rom com couples are paragons of everything you should strive for, like compassion, mutual understanding, and intense sexual magnetism, some iconic duos aren’t as great as they seemed. Would they even still be together after the credits rolled? Some couples have staying power, and others are just disasters in the making. Today, we’ve compiled our favorite and least favorite couples from romantic comedies. Are your favorites on the list?
Best: Kat and Patrick in 10 Things I Hate About You
There’s something special about two misfits finding each other. Kat is the holier-than-thou, artistic, anti-social girlie we all strive to be. Patrick is the misunderstood bad boy with a heart of gold. And while he enters into their relationship with some shady goals (don’t get secretly paid to date someone, friends), by the end of the movie, he’s so head-over-heels for Kat that it makes up for their bad beginning.
Despite being outcasts and oddballs, Kat and Patrick fit together perfectly. They love each other just as they are, not trying to change how judgmental Kat is or how apathetic Patrick can be. They’re in it for the long haul, accepting each other’s faulting and falling in love anyway. And who wouldn’t want someone willing to embarrass themselves in front of the whole school while singing on the bleachers?
Worst: Sandy and Danny in Grease
It looks like a couple of musical numbers might be hiding something more sinister. While the bulk of the plot of Grease feels very equitable between Sandy and Danny, that’s quickly abandoned as the credits roll. For these horny teens, they’re like exact opposites. Danny is the bad boy leader of the T-Birds greaser gang while Sandy is a virtuous and inexperienced cheerleader from across the pond. But both try to improve themselves to fit with the other.
It all starts with Danny attempting to join a sport. He goes through the whole catalog of after-school activities until finally landing on one that would eventually earn him a letterman’s sweater. Cute! But as soon as he sees that Sandy has done similar, donning skin-tight black pants, perming her hair into unruly curls, and smoking a cigarette, Danny immediately ditches his sweater and is back to his bad boy ways. Their relationship proves that, in this classic rom com, it’s the woman’s job to change for her man, and not the other way around.
Best: Sasha and Marcus in Always Be My Maybe
Nothing beats the friends-to-lovers arc of Always Be My Maybe. Sasha and Marcus grew up next door to each other, best friends from the start. When one awkward night at the end of high school gets them way closer than they ever would have thought, it ends up tearing them apart. Now, adults who no longer speak to each other, Sasha and Marcus’s lives have diverted so much.
You’d think that it wouldn’t work. That Sasha’s intense celebrity chef career wouldn’t mesh with Marcus’s vague slacker energy and admittedly bomb-ass music, but the chemistry is wild between the pair. You can’t get to the end of this movie without thinking that they’re meant to be together. Adorable soulmates, through and through. And it all comes down to supporting each other for who they are, and not who the other wants them to be. May we all have a love like Sasha and Marcus.
Worst: Kathleen and Joe in You’ve Got Mail
It pains me to say this, but Kathleen Kelly should not have ended up with Joe “F-O-X” Fox. It’s not that they were from rival bookstores. It’s not that his mega store wound up destroying her cute little kids’ book store. It’s not even that he didn’t say right away once he found out that it was her that he’d been having an anonymous AIM relationship with for so long. What is it then? The gaslighting-adjacent manipulation, of course.
There’s a moment in You’ve Got Mail when it seems like the right moment for Joe to reveal that he’s NY152. Kathleen just closed her store, she has a terrible cold, and Joe visits her with a bouquet of flowers. They even have a moment where it seems like she understands. And then we get seemingly weeks or months of him perpetuating an elaborate lie, having NY152 string her along, befriending her so she can fall in love with him and feel confused about her warring feelings between friend and online beau. He could have said something at any point, but he instead waits until her emotional turmoil is at its peak before revealing who he’d been the whole time. No relationship should start with manipulation and lies–not even between rom com royalty, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Best: The Body Double Couple in Love Actually
Love Actually is packed with a slew of romantic relationships large and small, from love transcending language barriers to the absolute devastation that Alan Rickman serves Emma Thompson. By far the cutest and most goal-worthy romance is actually one of the smallest and most unassuming: The body double couple.
They work together as stand-ins for nude scenes filmed on a movie set. They’re just there to show some skin and get out, but in the “hurry up and wait” downtime between takes, they get to know each other so well. You’d think that simulating sex acts for the cameras would make them bold, yet it’s the shyness they both have with each other that makes their relationship incredibly endearing. Watching Martin Freeman’s joyous face after she says “All I want for Christmas is you,” is enough to make anyone believe in love again. The pair end the movie with a ring on her finger and we’d like to think they’re married to this day, almost 20 years later.
Worst: Janis Ian and Kevin G in Mean Girls
Most of the relationships in this movie likely didn’t last beyond a year following the end credits (sorry Cady and Aaron), but by far the worst offender is Janis Ian and Kevin G. Where’s the chemistry? Absolutely nowhere. Their romance feels shoe-horned in just to give their characters–especially the acerbic fan favorite, Janis Ian–a happy ending. Something tells me that a more realistic happy ending for Janis would be finding joy in things other than romance, like a kickass art career or a continued boss friendship with Damian. Alas, a happy ending for every female character in a rom-com is romantic love, regardless of whether they’d want it or not.
