Romantic Comedy Structure & Tropes: Part 3

A Comparison of Secretary and When Harry Met Sally

In all romantic comedies, there is what can be considered the “will they, won’t they moment.” This is the moment where the audience sees and feels the chemistry between the protagonists long before they admit it to each other. This creates a major turning point in the film. Being true to form, this moment occurs approximately 45 minutes or half way through both films in question. In When Harry Met Sally, the two are dancing cheek to cheek – he smells her hair, she presses in closer and they separate as if to kiss. They deny themselves this moment but as an audience we are able to understand they have fallen for each other. In Secretary, this moment occurs as Mr. Grey hears her sniff and he pauses, unsure if he should chastise her and she in turn waits for his rebuke. As an audience, we feel the heightened sexual tension that this creates which is then followed by Mr. Grey finally stepping over the line of employer/ employee to spank her for the first time which is how they show affection and love in their relationship.

In romantic comedies, “the heroes and heroines…often confront difficult moral dilemmas. ” These dilemmas can go against either their personal beliefs or those of society. In both films, these dilemmas lead to a falling-out between the protagonists that occurs at the beginning of the third act. In the case of When Harry Met Sally, Harry’s belief is that sex ruins friendships and that’s why men and women can’t be friends. Sally and Harry’s friendship springs up despite of this so after they sleep together, Harry wants to erase that moment and keep their relationship as it was. To Sally, it has changed and she is tired of being a consolation prize so there is a huge rift between them. In Secretary, Mr. Grey believes he should conform to society’s idea of male and female relationships even though it’s not what he needs. After masturbating on Lee, he finds a spot of semen on his trousers and the reality of what is happening between them becomes apparent. He immediately destroys all of her framed letters and fires Lee believing that by getting rid of her, he would rid himself his unusual sexual needs. This then spirals Lee into a search for a replacement for Mr. Grey and drives the potential couple further apart. In both films, these moments are the darkest for both protagonists.

This trope is typical of romantic comedies as it leads to a further trope of this genre where the protagonists “have to make some sort of personal sacrifice in order to prove themselves and finally win the one they love.” Alone on New Years Eve, Harry passes the place where Sally first dropped him off when they arrived in New York twelve years earlier. Remembering the moments between them, Harry realizes that he indeed loves Sally and his beliefs about the ideas of love and friendship shift. In Secretary, Mr. Grey, untrusting of Lee's love for him and having asked her to prove it by remaining at his desk with her hands firmly placed on top, reads about Lee in the paper when she becomes a local celebrity as she is still waiting for him after three days. This gives him the insight that her declaration of love is true and their type of relationship is what works between them. This being the case, Mr. Grey knows he must go against the societal norm to finally have true love. Both then have the “run to the airport moment” that occurs in lead up to the climax of most romantic comedies. Harry runs through the streets of New York in hopes to find Sally to declare his love to her while Mr. Grey drives to his office and from amongst reporters, community and family members, whisks Lee away.

To round off the comparison between these two films, the fairytale ending can not be overlooked. When Harry Met Sally shows the first kiss of the new lovers and then gives a final interview between the two as they talk about their marriage and their happiness together. Secretary gives us the moments of Mr. Grey lovingly taking care of Lee, their marriage and unorthodox honeymoon and finally their settle into suburban lifestyle where their sadomasochist relationship still occurs behind closed doors. Both films show that though the protagonists went through adversity and misunderstandings, love prevails for them and an audience can assume that these characters will live happily ever after which is one of the most recognizable romantic comedy troupes of all.

As shown, Secretary has all the elements of a romantic comedy as compared to When Harry Met Sally, a seminal film of this genre. Due to the unorthodox relationship that occurs between the protagonists, however, most people will be unable to see it as such. In this case, social politics overshadows what could be considered a standard love story. Only by looking beyond societal norms can an audience appreciate the humour, passion and tenderness of a film no less worthy of the title of romantic comedy.

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Romantic Comedy Structure & Tropes: Part 2

A Comparison of Secretary and When Harry Met Sally

Another similarity between the two films is the presence of the best friend. There are three reasons for the best friend in romantic comedies. They serve to add humour, to move the plot along and to give an insight to the protagonists’ inner thoughts in order to reveal their character as well as their insecurities and in some cases musings on the focus of their love. As a traditional romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally gives both Harry and Sally a friend, Jess and Marie respectively, which serve all three of the above purposes. Secretary also has a representative best friend. Melanie Halsall states in her article “The Best Friend in the Romantic Comedy” that “if the best friend is absent from the film, there has to be the addition of another device, such as a narration, to allow us an insight into the motivations of the characters. ” Secretary uses a combination of narration and Lee’s boyfriend, Peter, as best friend. Of course, he then plays a duel role in this case as not only does he provide insight into Lee and moves the plot forward but also serves to show that the relationship between Mr. Grey and Lee is real love compared to what she has with Peter.

This relationship leads to another romantic comedy trope which is found in the unsuitable relationship that the protagonists have apart from each other. This often serves as a catalyst for the progression of their relationship. It also serves to highlight how suitable the protagonists are for each other. In Secretary, Lee embarks on a liaison with her friend Peter as her attempt to have a normal relationship. Their first kiss, witnessed by Mr. Grey, sparks the beginning of Mr.Grey’s criticism of Lee which eventually leads to their sadomasochistic relationship that Lee comes to crave. Peter, on the other hand, can’t fulfil her sexual or emotional needs as he requires a conventional relationship. Near the end of the film, when Lee is being fitted into Peter’s mother’s wedding dress, she realizes that she loves Mr. Grey and runs to him to declare that fact. In comparison, When Harry Met Sally uses the ending of unsuitable relationships as a catalyst into their friendship, the one that Harry claimed could never exist in the first place. This moment occurs approximately 30 minutes into the film which is also when the same type of catalytic moment occurs in Secretary. Further to this, When Harry Met Sally uses the finding of new loves by the protagonists’ prospective exes to push Harry and Sally into new areas of their relationship. When Harry sees his ex-wife at the department store, it drives him to needle Sally about her inability to move on from Joe, her ex-fiancé, and how she is emotionless and Sally retorts that his way of dealing is no better as he seems to be sleeping with the entire female population of New York as a form of revenge. Though Harry then apologizes, this exchange turns their light friendship into something deeper. When Sally hears Joe’s, engagement, she falls into the arms of Harry which leads to them having sex, which inextricably changes their relationship forever.

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Romantic Comedy Structure & Tropes: Part 1

A Comparison of Secretary and When Harry Met Sally

Throughout cinematic history, romantic comedies have been very popular with filmgoers, as demonstrated by the 53,444,481 tickets to romantic comedies sold in the USA in 2006 alone . Since the idea of love is the thing that is often cherished and sought after in society, it is no wonder we are drawn to these films that “tell us about ourselves as men and women, sexual desire, love, relationships, our longings and wishes, our fallibilities and fears. ” As the face of love is changing, so must our idea of romantic comedy. Though Steven Shainberg’s Secretary has been labelled a drama or even a black comedy, this film actually uses the basic structure and tropes attributed to romantic comedy to tell its sadomasochist love story. By comparing it to a well known romantic comedy of the 80s, When Harry Met Sally, we can see that Secretary, though dark at times, can still be considered a romantic comedy due to its structure and genre tropes.

According to Sally Potter in I Love You But…Romance, Comedy and the Movies, the basis of all romantic comedies confronts the same questions including: “What makes a good relationship? What makes us happy? What do men and women really want?” and in an article in July 2004’s Scriptwriter, she goes further to say “The essence of all romantic comedy lies in the formidable obstacles the lovers must overcome in order for their love to survive, if only for a short while. ” As an overall structure, these forms are true for both films in question but how do they hold up when dissected into genre tropes?

In most romantic comedies the viewer is faced with two protagonists who together would make an unlikely couple. Nothing more is true for both When Harry Met Sally and Secretary. In the beginning of both, it is clearly set out that the couples are unsuitable for each other. Harry is a slobby, angst-driven pessimistic as compared to Sally’s chirpy, overly-organized, eternal optimist. In the case of Secretary, Mr. Grey is Lee’s efficient, worldly employer, and she is merely his employee in her first job role. These conflicting personalities lead to personal and social obstacles between them that have to be overcome. This is key in romantic comedy as the conflict between what we want and what we need or believe is the core of most love stories. “Change is, in essence, what most of us seek in love-relationships – we want change, and love changes us.”

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