In a cynical dig at the Valentine's Day-inspired season of loving, Hollywood gave the two-fingers to romance this year with the opening of the much-awaited thriller Hannibal across America last weekend. The sequel to Silence of the Lambs took in over $58 million at the box office over three days, with people queueing to watch their favourite cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, disembowel, then dine on his hapless victims. Predicted to be the blockbuster of the year, Hannibal opens across Europe this week, with most of the premieres scheduled for tonight.
That knocks the wind out of romantic Valentine's Day plans Stateside, but luckily for those of us this side of the Atlantic, this gory blood-and-guts-fest doesn't open in time to interfere with our own romantic plans for today. So on this Hallmark-inspired day of red love hearts and rhyming poetry, when lovers gaze into their beloveds' eyes, what passionate pairings have the movies got to offer? Well, not a lot actually. Those of you looking for a little love on the big screen tonight, will find it drowning in gimmickry, comedy and irony. Formulaic and predictable, even the lighter romantic comedies on release at the moment will leave you unmoved. The present fodder is so bland and unoriginal that as Hollywood gets mushy the audience can only say: "Oh pleeaase. . ."
Billed as a romantic comedy, What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson - as we've never seen him before - and Helen Hunt, is little more than one long product-placement slot with a moral at the end of the tale. Gibson has ditched the war-paint and kilts for which he's renowned and is forced to discover his feminine side in his first-ever foray into light entertainment. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, but mostly this watches like a film version of a self-help romance book along the lines of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Although not a movie for the handkerchief brigade, it's a politically-correct chick flick that smacks of insincerity.
About Adam, an offering from Irish director Gerry Stembridge, starring Stuart Townsend, Kate Hudson and Frances O'Connor, is one to watch, and while it won't restore this generation's faith in romance, it will bring a wry smile to their faces.
This romantic comedy has a twist on the boy-meets-girl theme. This boy meets the girl, and then he meets her sisters, seducing them all with his adaptable charm. While this is essentially a tale of infidelity, there are some very romantic moments that pepper this clever film with just the right touch of amour to warm the audience.
So do films still take romance seriously? While once the romantic epic could be guaranteed to draw in millions at the box office, younger generations of cinema-goers don't have much of an appetite for star-struck lovers. The big romantic blockbuster of recent years, Titanic, was so over-done it left people suffering from sea-sickness. America's youth seem to prefer their romance served with a big dollop of cheesy gimmicks. There's Something About Mary and American Pie are the best example of this "gross-out" genre of movie, where each sketch is created to outshine all previous comedic efforts. That apple-pie scene still ranks up there.
This may not be the golden age of romantic films, but there are exceptions. Casablanca and Gone with the Wind will probably always be regarded as the all-time classic romances, but there have been some recent worthwhile additions. Although it's not an original script, the modern retake of Romeo + Juliet was a touching romantic movie. The crackling chemistry between Clare Danes and Leonardo Di Caprio needed no speeches. Masquerading as a Chinese martial arts movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has some of the more gentle and sincere love scenes seen on the big screen recently.
So why doesn't Hollywood produce some decent romance? The obvious problem with these films that they are often perceived as chick flicks, a label that ensures men are only dragged in kicking and screaming. Apart from Mel Gibson-styled New Age men, most other guys find romance mind-numbingly boring and would much rather watch an action-packed martial arts combat scene. So in order to appeal to the mass audience, directors are dousing scenes with irony and deceit.
Gay romance has managed to avoid this treatment to some degree, however. In films like Philadelphia, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Talented Mr Ripley or even the colourful The Bird Cage, the romantic scenes are more tender and serious. When Harry met Sally, Pretty Woman and Sleepless in Seattle were all popular in their day, but that sort of 20th century Meg Ryan-inspired romance doesn't really strike a chord with today's teens. Leading men once hogged the camera, but during the 1990s, the leading ladies grabbed a much larger share of the action for themselves.
But those late-1980s and early-1990s Cinderella tales ring hollow in the new century. Clueless, Never Been Kissed and 10 Things I Hate are the big coming-of-age teen romances of the 1990s.
The teenage quest for love and sex has inspired hundreds of almost identical movies since the 1980s and each year there's a new gathering of good-looking actors playing out those over-hyped insecurities.
The result is always mindless fluff, but occasionally it's funny fluff. So go for the popcorn and the global cultural experience and don't dwell too much on how Hollywood killed romance.
