Redefining Rom-Coms for the Better: Stuck in Love

If theres one thing that we can advertise about rom coms, they give a happy ending . Most rom coms give us an idea that in the end, everyone has their own happy ending. On most days, that’s an idea I’m usally open to, an idea I’m open to believing. But on days when life kicks you on the butt and makes you question everything, happy endings are ones that I don’t really have the luxury to believe in.

Two months ago, an exact same sitaution came way. Life did a complete 180 and for the first time in my life, Rom coms didnt appeal to me anymore. Any time I’d sit to watch something, any title which gave me hints of a romcom was bad enough to give me acid reflux (figuratively)

This continued until about a week ago. I’d flip through titles and question why I’d watched so many rom coms before. Netflix, Prime, even Hotstar had my algorithm figued out, and I’d get so many rom com recommendations.

Then a friend recommended me this film, “Stuck in Love”. Usually a film which had love in its title would have had me running 10 kilometres in the opposite direction, but somehow the title appealed to me. Maybe because the title somehow felt directly applicable to my situation a couple of months ago.

I decided to give the film a shot, during a rainy afternoon last week. By almighty grace, Bengaluru has had its finest spot of weather all of this month. It rains almost everyday here, and its a welcome change from the absolute sweltering heat we had in March and April. All I wanted to do in this weather was curl up in a corner and read a good book and watch a good movie. (I did both)

Stuck in Love is about Bill Borgens (Greg Kinnear), a man trying to pick up the remains of his life after the end of his long term marriage. It has been 2 years since his wife Erica (Jennifer Connelly) has left him for another man, and he still refuses to accept the reality of his situation. He still goes back to his old house once in a while to spy on his wife, and hopes for their reunion.

Bill is a successful writer. Although he hasn’t worked for about 3 years, not since his marriage went to shambles. Although he’s not been writing himself, he still encourages his kids, Sam (Lily Collins) who’s in college and Rusty (Nat Wolff) to pursue the craft. Both his kids share his passion for the craft.

The film kickstarts with Thanksgiving, where both Sam and Rusty have gathered at Bill’s house for dinner. Deespite Sam’s disaaporoval, Bill has still set a place at the table for his wife in the hopes she’ll join them. On the same occasion, Sam has big news. Her first book has been published, and she’s done it without her dad’s help, which is a startling realisation for Bill. For ages, he’s been reading her early manuscripts and giving his feedback, and out of nowhere Sam has gone ahead with a book which she wrote all by herself without any feedback.

While Bill attempts to deal with all these changes around him, his son Rusty feels the pressure after his sister’s book is published. He’s been struggling for years too, and he’s nowhere close to what he’d call a finished product.

The kids too are affected by the divorce, changing how they think about love. To Sam, the fact that her mother left Bill for another man makes her question the sancity of relationships in itself. Rusty however is still a starry eyed hopeless romantic, and he has a huge crush on one of his classmates. On one occasion he writes in his journal, “I remember that it hurt. Looking at her hurt”.

He tells Sam about her one day, and he tells her everytime he looks at her he can hears the Beatles song “I’ve just seen a face”. Sam chuckles at this, and tells him that there’s two types of people in the world.

There are two kinds of people in this world: hopeless romantics and realists.

Samantha Borgens: A realist just sees that face and packs it in with every other pretty girl they’ve ever seen before. The hopeless romantic becomes convinced that God put them on Earth to be with that one person. But there is no God and life is only as meaningful as you fool yourself into thinking it is. Guys who get laid a lot are realists. You should be listening.”

Nevertheless, Rusty continues on his mission. He finally gets to be with this girl Kate, and he loves it. While Kate has her own issues to deal with, including a drug addiction, she becomes convinced that a relationship with Rusty would fix her.

While Sam continues being cynical about romantic relationships, she meets Louis (Logan Lerman) who starts to refute some of her thoughts about how relationships work. He’s her complete opposite, when it comes to belief on how things work. She tells him one day, that he makes her feel less cynical.

The writing in this film is brilliant. The dialogues are beautiful. Unlike some Romcoms there is no intense realisation, monologue that comes in the climax. Each character goes through own set of realisations, but there’s a certain beauty on how Josh Boone decides to go with the characters here.

Stuck in Love doesn’t glorify love in any way. In most parts of the film, watching the characters go through their pain in love is heartbreaking to watch. Bill struggles to move on from his ex wife, Rusty goes through pain when Kate’s issues get in the way and Sam feels betrayed when Louis tries to fix things with her mother and her. Her mother is heartbroken when Sam doesnt allow her to be part of her life.

But thats the beauty of great cinema. Despite the ordinary flow of situations in the film, the underlying message always makes you think. Is love really worth it?

Honest to god, as much of the most cynical parts of the film reflected me from a month ago, I found myself relating to the parts that were hopeful. I saw a bit of myself in Bill setting a place at the table for his wife. I related to watching Louis believe in him and Sam, despite Sam being such a cynic about so many things.

There’s so many quotes in the film. I related to one the most, the one which put things into perspective for me. Towards the end of the film, theres a quote which Bill reads out.

I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.”

I found myself in deep thought after the film ended. I thought to myself, maybe thats what love is. Love is hope, love is suffering, love is cynical. Above all, love is trying to be better for the other person. Love is thinking for two, rather one one, and love is what makes life beautiful in its own way.

This movie didn’t really have a monologue, but its made me spew into one. I will never not stop talking about my love affair with films. The film did what countless drinks, songs, people couldn’t do about my cynicism. It has made me believe again.