When it comes to movies, I play favorites.
No genre do I return to more than the romcom. I long for its golden era — the late ’80s through the early 2000s — when the writing was sharp, the romance dazzled, and the outfits defined an era of fashion.
We didn’t know how good we had it, did we?
We are undoubtedly in the era of millennial nostalgia, and the entertainment industry is kicking out reboot after reboot of some of the most beloved stories of the early aughts.
The romcom is having a resurgence, and I am rejoicing. But we can’t rely on the same handful of stories to sustain the beloved genre.
The future of the romcom now looks very different from how the greats rose to prominence.
Blockbuster releases have been replaced by streaming — now home to quality romcoms like Voicemails for Isabelle and People We Meet on Vacation — but no film has captured quite the same level of attention and devoted love as their predecessors.
Streaming services are now leaning heavily into the booming romance publishing industry for new material, taking novels with established, fervent audiences and turning them into the next generation of romcom films and shows.
Prime Video’s latest romcom release is The Love Hypothesis, an adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s STEM romance novel about a biology PhD student, Olive, who enters a fake relationship with a gruff professor, Dr. Adam Carlsen.
The film’s strongest asset was the buzz leading up to it. It’s a well-loved novel, with legions of fans weighing in on the casting decisions and moments they wanted to see included in the film.
But Lili Reinhart, the film’s lead, brought her A-game to the press tour, wearing a series of heavily photographed outfits inspired by iconic romcom characters of movies past.
It was a brilliant way to tap into the genre’s incredible legacy, and a clever attempt to position The Love Hypothesis as deserving of icon status like the greats of years past.
But while watching the film — which, all in all, was more or less enjoyable — I kept trying to put my finger on what exactly was missing.
Why was I having a good time, but knew that this film would ultimately be forgettable?
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The Love Hypothesis was like one of the sugary drinks Olive drinks, much to Dr. Carlsen’s chagrin: fun, but lacking the substance that will keep me returning to the film time and time again.
That’s what the best romcoms do. (You don’t want to know how many times I’ve seen 10 Things I Hate About You or Sweet Home Alabama.)
At its core, a romcom is an exercise in suspending belief. The premise that brings our two leads together is always absurd, challenging viewers with how much the story can get away with in the name of love.
You enter into the story world ready to accept the insane terms laid out before you.
Yes, it is totally normal for someone to wake up 13 one day and 30 the next.
Yes, I can see a world where a woman writes a column on how to drive a man away in ten days, only to discover he’s bet he can make a woman fall in love with him in the same amount of time.
Yes, I can suspend any knowledge of US immigration laws and buy into the fact that faking an engagement with a coworker in Alaska can help someone evade the authorities.
But to support the absurdity, the best romcoms know they must also root themselves in something unshakably believable, making the story’s emotional core ring true.
Movies like You’ve Got Mail or When Harry Met Sally invest in a sense of place. While you watch, you get the sense that you know and love NYC as much as these characters do.
Other films, like 13 Going on 30 or Clueless, lean fully into the campy tone of a teenage fever dream, letting you become fully absorbed in the movie’s unique environment.
And of course, I need to be completely bought into the chemistry between the two leads. If it’s strong enough, you can get me to fully jump on board for just about anything.
The Love Hypothesis starts by asking its viewers to suspend their knowledge of how the world works.
In this universe, a male professor can date a younger woman in his department and have it benefit his career. Especially if they exhibit PDA in public.
It also asks us to believe that a ploy to convince a friend you’re in love with someone else, so she’ll date the true object of your affections, could be reason enough to persuade such a professor to let you rub sunscreen all over him at a faculty function.
This is a lot to ask. It might have worked — if I were convinced of the strength of the story’s world-building and the connection between the two leads.
The film only committed to a surface-level exploration of academic culture and the sexism women face in STEM. The film also repeatedly explained away a steady stream of our characters’ actions with reasons that rang hollow.
I was not convinced a group of professional academics would ever speak to or treat a PhD candidate the way they did to Olive at the cocktail party.
No young scientist getting the opportunity to speak at the most prestigious conference in her field would be ignorant of the keynote speaker. Much less so if it were her “boyfriend”.
And no, every Boston hotel would not be booked up for a random biomedical conference. (I can think of a few other ways to make sure it’s believable that our leads need to share a room.)
You may say I’m a pessimist, purposely seeking out flaws. And yes, I may be biased because I just left higher academia, and I have technically worked in a lab. (Where you always have to wear gloves.)
But when the premise is already shaky, a story requires a commitment to every other aspect of the world-building to sell it.
I wanted more from it all. I wanted to feel enmeshed in the culture of higher education.
I wanted to be trusted as a viewer to learn more about the science behind what Olive was working on — like why she was studying the pancreas but needed to test a mouse’s grip strength.
I wanted to understand — truly –- why Adam treated his students that poorly (which often came off as blatantly cruel and played for laughs, rather than gruff, emotionless, and misunderstood).
Crucially, I didn’t quite buy that Adam and Olive’s chemistry and connection were potent enough to drive the crazy plot forward.
However, The Love Hypothesis knew one thing that all future romcom producers should note: the strength of your female lead makes or breaks your movie.
Lili Reinhart is born to be a romcom star. She carried the movie on her back.
She effortlessly blended humor and relatability while making her emotional beats feel rich and real. She has an intrinsic naturalness to her performance that grounds the story, even when you’re shaking your head at everything happening around her.
She’s gorgeous too, obviously.
In a genre that bends the limits of reality, and a movie that plays fast and loose with them, Lili Reinhart’s portrayal of Olive grounded the film in a way it desperately needed.
She turned what likely would have been a bad movie into a decent one. Now, if the creators had paired her performance with a consistent narrative tone and fully committed to immersing viewers in the world? It could have been great.
With many more romcom book-to-screen adaptations coming down the pike, I’m excited to see if any in this next generation will carry lasting weight in the years to come.
These stories are more than just escapism. With grounded truths about real love and human relationships, we need the romcom’s nostalgic, warm, approachable power more than ever.
So romcom fanatics, what book-to-screen adaptations are you most excited for?
Which ones do you think will make the best shows and films? We want to hear all your thoughts in the comments below.
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