Go Ahead, Blame Meg Ryan For Your Rotten Love Life

According to researchers at Heriot Watt University, romantic comedies are partially responsible for creating unrealistic expectations in relationships and fans of such films often have difficulties communicating with their partners.

Personally, I am not surprised. I mean, I love a good romantic comedy as much as the next girl. While You Were Sleeping, Amelie, and It Happened One Night are among my favorite films. However, I am the first to bemoan the fact that the storyline of many a rom com fails to make sense (i.e. the actors have no chemistry, the storyline either makes no sense, and/or the ending is absolutely impossible given the story we were told for the first ninety minutes) and suspect that the producers of said films think that the target audience is so profoundly stupid that they will just believe any drivel thrown on the screen so long as the actors, costumes, and sets are pretty enough. Is it any wonder that some people bend their view of reality and their expectations of real life relationships after exposure to this crap?

However, I find it significant that the researchers had some volunteers watch Serendipity (a rom com which, despite the efforts of John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, falls into the "you must think all of us out here watching this are a bunch of morons" genre of romantic comedy) while others watched a David Lynch film (the article didn't mention which one, but pretty much any of them are going to give you a somewhat warped view of love and relationships). It is hard not to wonder if the results would be different if, instead of David Lynch, the non-rom com group had watched The Hunt for Red October or School of Rock.

Of course, in addition to the researchers perhaps stacking the deck in their favor with regards to choice of movies, they never bothered to ask about the influence of those damned jewelry store commercials on people's expectations.