The final installment of this 4-part series on believable romantic relationships: does the audience care if they get together in the end?
In the first three parts, I discussed the importance of the relationship being between two characters with compatible characteristics.? They must have mutually attractive traits that make the audience believe they are a perfect match.? Secondly, the obstacles they face must be realistic according to the rules of the world in which they live.? The crazier the world, the crazier the obstacle.? Thirdly, this obstacle must be one which can be overcome without a doubt that it will ever resurface in the future.
You could write a love story that has all these elements and still the audience may not care if they get together in the end.? So what makes us care?
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Likability
It?s one thing for the characters to like one another, but it?s also just as important that the audience likes them too.? Blake Snyder?s book Save the Cat is so titled because he believes that your protagonist must do something kind early on to make him immediately likable to the audience.? Once you establish your characters? good side, they can go on to do all sorts of horrible things and we?ll forgive them and still root for them because we know they?re not all bad.
Likability is two-fold:
- Character likability ? does the audience find each character likable
- Relationship likability ? does the audience like how these two are together as a couple
Lose A Guy.? In the opening scene, Andie rushes off to save her friend Michelle when she doesn?t come into work after another bad breakup.? Andie says a lot of wonderful things about Michelle and even protects her from having her personal life exposed by offering to do the article on How to Lose A Guy.? Ben is pretty unsympathetic in his first few scenes, but we see women find him sexy and his coworkers like him so there must be something nice about him.? He doesn?t seem like a total jerk, but he seems cocky and manipulative.? He swoops in on a business meeting to steal the Lauer Diamond account, yet once he states his case, you kind of like him for his confidence but you also kind of hate him because he doesn?t pause to consider the consequences of manipulating a woman to fall in love with him.? Then as he charms Andie, you really like him, but more importantly, you like the two of them together.? As the film progresses, there are several scenes showing how great these two are together and when you see Andie truly fall in love with Ben at his parents? house, you can?t help but fall in love with them too.
Harry & Sally.? In the opening scene, Harry?s making out with his girlfriend.? He seems kind and genuine because he tells her he loves her and he?ll call her soon and that he already misses her.? Sally honks the horn to interrupt them kissing, which is rude, but funny and then smiles and apologizes, which makes her likeable.? But then we see his crassness and so-called dark side, which is really just pessimism.? And Sally comes off as uptight and pragmatic.? Their flaws are funny and realistic, which makes them likable especially when they spar with one another because of them.? Over the span of the next several years, these two grow into more mature adults and their neuroses are not as prominent, but also because Harry and Sally come to appreciate them, the audience does too.
Friends with Benefits.? Both characters are immediately likable as they?re smart, funny and vulnerable.? It makes sense these two would stay away from each other to avoid heartbreak after getting dumped and audiences can relate to that.?? These two are great together because they?re fun, witty, playful and don?t take their relationship too seriously.? They challenge one another and they?re best friends.? By the time Dylan does the douchebag thing and uses Jamie?s weakness as a reason not to be with her, we hate him for it but understand why he said it: he loves her, but is too afraid to admit it.? So we forgive him right away and it makes us really want him to go after her and apologize.
Legally Blonde.? In the beginning, it?s a little hard to like Elle because she?s so superficial so we can see why Warner dumped her.? Yet it?s because he dumps her when she?s expecting a proposal that we feel sorry for her and resent Warner for hurting her especially in such a shallow way.? Once Elle decides to win him back by going to law school at of all places, Harvard, you can?t help but admire her gumption.? You want Elle to get her way, but you kind of don?t want Warner to win.? Because everyone else is horrible to her especially Warner?s new fiancee, Warner doesn?t seem so awful and Elle?s sweetness shines through.? As Elle matures and realizes her worth, we want Elle to see she?s better than Warner and to end up with someone who appreciates her for who she is, like Emmett.
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Unlikability
What happens when two characters and their relationship is unlikable?? Sometimes films rely so heavily on the charm and appeal of the actors playing the parts that they forget to make them likable.? When characters are too horrible for too long and horrible to one another, there?s nothing to root for even when they do ultimately become better people and fall in love.? This isn?t to say you can?t have a love story between two unlikable characters and make it work.? Characters can be largely unlikable, but not so horrible that there?s no humanity or vulnerability in them.
The Proposal.? When we first meet Andrew we like him simply because he cares if he?s late for work and profusely thanks the Starbucks girl by name when she has his coffees ready.? Yet once he?s in the office, he?s not so nice: he calls the receptionist ?Captain Obvious? for telling him he?s late then yells at the mail guy for bumping into him causing him to spill his coffees.? Margaret, however, is immediately unlikable.? As she enters the office, everyone avoids her.? She?s a bitch, she talks about people as if they?re wasting her time and can?t accept a compliment, then fires someone, and threatens her assistant into marrying her, not caring how it affects his life.? It?s not until about an hour into the film that you see her softer side and actually start to like her, but it might come a bit too late.? Andrew begins to see why she is such a heartless bitch and develops a soft spot for her, so we do too.? He also pushes her around for a change, which she needs and deserves, but it doesn?t necessarily make us like them together as a couple.? They?re supposedly good together because he?s the only one who can stand up to her and the only one she opened up to, but it doesn?t quite work.
If we had a glimpse into Margaret?s vulnerable side before she ?proposes? to Andrew, we?d understand why she was such a cold-hearted bitch and it would have made us want her to break down her defenses to find love.? Margaret didn?t have any friends or family so she did everything herself and has become very successful, but we didn?t see how she felt about it.? If she felt lonely or longed for a relationship or had at least one friend, it would have made her more human.? I guess the idea was that she didn?t think about it, which was why she was able to ?propose? without considering the consequences.? But because we later see she does have a heart and is capable of letting it show, she must have the capacity to think about other people.? She?s human so she must think about relationships, must be attracted to men even if it?s just for sex, but we have no idea how she feels about any of this.? If she closed herself off to love for a reason, it would have helped to know this up front.
It would have helped too to know something about Andrew?s romantic life before the ?proposal?.? He?s too busy to have a girlfriend or even show interest in dating, which is obvious when he doesn?t flirt with the cute girl at Starbucks, but we should at least know how he feels about marriage or that he left someone behind in Alaska to pursue his dream.? Then we?d know what a great sacrifice it was for him to marry someone he didn?t love at the moment she ?proposes?.
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