The success of ever good romantic comedy boils down to one simple thing: chemistry!
As our leads begin their journey to falling in love, through one unlikely scenario after another, the audience agrees to suspend all disbelief if they can just believe that the characters belong together, no matter what.
Until recently, Hollywood’s on-screen love stories have had a narrow focus: if BIPOC and LGBTQ couples were seen at all, they were in dramas, not romantic comedies. In five years, a list of my favourite romantic comedy couples will undoubtedly include more diverse pairings. Until then, here’s my current list of screen favourites with chemistry so potent they could have been made in a lab.
10. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy
According to Hollywood legend, Hepburn told her future co-star, “I fear I may be too tall for you, Mr. Tracy,” when they met on the set of “Woman of the Year” (1942), to which producer Joe Mankiewicz responded, “Don’t worry. He’ll cut you down to size.”
So began the journey of one of the most memorable onscreen couples in the history of film. (In real life, Hepburn and Tracy reportedly had a 26-year love affair.) In total, the duo starred in nine films together, including Adam’s Rib (1949), “Pat and Mike” (1952) and “Desk Set” (1957). Even in their final movie, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967) — when the stars weren’t playing the leads anymore, but the parents — their chemistry shone through.
9. Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo
Rom-com vet Witherspoon and Ruffalo (whose only other rom-com credit is “13 Going on 30”) starred in only one film together, but it’s a gem. The 2005 movie “Just Like Heaven,” directed by Mark Waters, has an otherworldly premise: Witherspoon plays a ghost named Elizabeth who haunts Ruffalo’s apartment. Does it make sense? Not really. Does it matter? Not at all. Turn your brain off and enjoy.
8. Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson
Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”) brought Canadian screen icon McAdams and Gleeson together for the superb “About Time,” a 2013 British sci-fi romantic comedy. Its fantastical plot may be about time travel, but its romance is grounded in reality, thanks to the effortless, lived-in performances of the two leads. The film’s theme is that true love is meant to be, and you believe that from the first moment you see — or rather, hear — the two leads together.
7. Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts
Both romantic comedy heavy-hitters in their own right, the combination of Roberts and Grant in “Notting Hill” (1999) equals an onscreen presence for the books. What makes the movie so interesting is that, while the romantic tension exists throughout, it’s far more subtle than in most films of the genre. And it includes Roberts’ perfect delivery of the now-famous line: “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
6. Kate Winslet and Jack Black
On the surface, this is an unusual combination: Kate Winslet is known as a dramatic actor, while Jack Black isn’t a typical romantic comedy lead. And yet in “The Holiday” — the 2006 Nancy Meyers hit — their chemistry is undeniable. Winslet plays Iris, a British columnist who is unlucky in love but obsessed with it — when she takes an impromptu vacation across the pond, she meets the charming Miles (Black) in L.A. The other couple in this movie — Jude Law and Cameron Diaz — are the more obvious choice, but I prefer the sweetness of the Winslet-Black relationship.
5. Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell
Of course, Grant — a man synonymous with romantic comedies — is on this list twice. In “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1994), his chemistry with co-star Andie MacDowell is palpable. When Charles (Grant) declares his love for MacDowell’s Carrie, she quips, “Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed.” That line has been the subject of a lot of discourse, but I think it perfectly encapsulates Carrie and Charles’ romance: at that moment, she doesn’t notice or care about anything other than him finally admitting to what we, the audience, all knew.
4. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling
Stone and Gosling have graced the screen together three times. Their first screen outing — “Crazy, Stupid Love” (2011) — featured several interconnected love stories, but none as memorable as theirs. In the 2013 action film “Gangster Squad,” their chemistry remained undeniable. Most famously, the duo showed their magnetism in “La La Land,” Damien Chazelle’s acclaimed 2016 musical.
3. Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore
No matter the story, no matter the complications, when Barrymore and Sandler appear on screen together, the result is pure magic. They’ve been paired up three times: in “The Wedding Singer” (1998), “50 First Dates” (2004) and the classic enemies-to-lovers trope in “Blended” (2014). In terms of writing and dialogues, the latter two films leave something to be desired, but the chemistry of the romantic leads is strong enough to make up for it.
2. Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson
Contrary to what most romantic comedies would have you believe, romance isn’t just for young people — and neither is heartbreak. In her 2003 masterpiece, “Something’s Gotta Give,” Nancy Meyers explores the romantic journey between 50-somethings Erica (Keaton) and Harry (Nicholson). Jack Nicholson’s Harry and Diane Keaton’s Erica Barry. It’s every bit as rife with love, joy, confusion, messiness and misery as your standard romantic comedy. Keaton and Nicholson play off of each other so well, they seem like a real couple. It’s a shame that they haven’t come together again.
1. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan
It has to be Hanks and Ryan for number one. The pair first came together in 1990 as the only memorable part of the mediocre “Joe Versus the Volcano.” Then, in Nora Ephron’s beloved “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), they shared about two minutes of screen time, but those 120 seconds were enough to establish why their chemistry reigns supreme. Five years later, Ryan and Hanks reunited for “You’ve Got Mail” — in which she played a folksy bookstore owner and he the corporate shark with a heart of gold — in a pair of performances that established them as the pinnacle of rom-com pairings for years to come.
