10 Rom-Com Heroes Who Were Actually The Villains
Most rom-coms hinge on certain characters being heroes, while others are the villains. But sometimes as a viewer, what we’re being sold is not always what we will buy.
Of course, there are characters like Daphne in What A Girl Wants or Jenna in Suddenly 30 that you can’t help rooting for. However, when it comes to characters like Rachel in Something Burrowed and Mary in The Wedding Planner being treated like helpless victims of their circumstances, you know what?
Enough is enough!
These rom-com heroes were actually the low-key villains:
1. Rachel, Something Burrowed
Jennifer Goodwin’s character, Rachel, loved to play the victim. She acted like Darcy (Kate Hudson) deserved to have her fiancé, Dex, snatched away because Rachel was into him first. I’m not buying Rachel’s passive-aggressive BS. If Rachel wanted to date Dex, she had her chance. He was flirting with her all through college, but then she encouraged him to get with Darcy.
She could have told Darcy not to go there but she didn’t. She then waited until Dex and Darcy were engaged to then start an affair with Dex, ending in Dex and Darcy breaking off their engagement. The movie demonises Darcy for her confidence and self-determination — two qualities that Rachel lacks that apparently makes her a better person and partner.
2. Emma, Bride Wars
First of all, Bride Wars and Something Burrowed are essentially the same movie — change my mind!!! They both hero passive-aggressive brunettes — Jennifer Goodwin and Anne Hathaway — at the expense of Kate Hudson’s character. And they both involve two childhood best friends getting to a stage of their lives when they start to get competitive over creating the ideal life for themselves.
In the case of Bride Wars, Emma (Hathaway) and Liv’s (Hudson) friendship becomes strained when they end up having their weddings on the same day and at the same venue. Once again, Hudson’s character is characterised as the Bad One against Hathaway’s Emma — but that’s not how I saw it. Emma was in a terrible relationship and shouldn’t have been getting married in the first place. And when it came to the pranks played on each other, Emma’s were far crueler than Liv’s — from ruining Liv’s hens’ night to dying Liv’s hair blue. Emma is the queen of petty. I see you.
3. Julianne, My Best Friend’s Wedding
This doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining. Julia Roberts as Julianne is deranged!!! Despite being friends with Michael (Dermot Mulroney) for years, she only decides that he’s the love of her life when he’s about to get married to Kimmy (Cameron Diaz). She then attempts to break them up mere days before their wedding, endangering Michael’s job in the process, without even checking whether Michael reciprocates her feelings.
Go to therapy, sis!
4. Thomas, Made Of Honour
Make no mistake, Made of Honour is just My Best Friend’s Wedding but with Patrick Dempsey in Julia Roberts’ role. Same story: our happily single lead decides they are in love with their best friend just when they find out their bestie is about to get married. This isn’t love, this is greed. They don’t want any of their options taken away. Love does not work like that — it shouldn’t be an emotion that needs to be triggered.
Get away from her! Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) should have run off with the Scot. This is obviously very on brand for characters that Dempsey has played, as he also exhibited nothing but red flags as Derek on Grey’s Anatomy.
5. Josie, Never Been Kissed
A journalist returning to her high school to write an exposé could have been quite wholesome, if it wasn’t for the fact the journalist was lusting after one of the school’s teens, Guy. Josie started seeing parallels between Guy and her teen crush, Billy, who humiliated her before the prom. In contrast, Guy invited her to the prom which she took as validation she was no longer ‘Josie Grossy’.
Thankfully, Josie and Guy don’t kiss but it’s still inappropriate. As is her brother Rob’s behaviour, who is also an adult dating a teenager in the film. The ’90s were truly a time.
6. Margaret, The Proposal
Speaking of unethical, Sandra Bullock’s character, Margaret, is rather problematic! As the editor-in-chief of a book publishing company, she is hated and feared by her employees. One of these employees is Andrew (Ryan Reynolds), who is her personal assistant with aspirations to be an editor. When Margaret’s visa is rejected — meaning she will be deported back to Canada — she then blackmails Andrew into agreeing to marry her in order to obtain a green card.
She encourages him to agree by telling him that he will lose his job if she is deported. I know Margaret and Andrew end up making an adorable couple, but it’s not OK that Andrew was forced into something he was uncomfortable doing by his boss. I’m pretty sure it violates every HR policy imaginable.
7. Noah, The Kissing Booth
I could write a 10,000-word thesis on all the issues I have with Noah (Jacob Elordi) in The Kissing Booth. How this character was written for a teen-targeted movie is beyond me. He has some serious anger issues exemplified by the scene when he punched a car, he treated Elle (Joey King) like he owned her, and he slut-shamed her about her school uniform.
Absolute trash.
8. Mary, The Wedding Planner
The Wedding Planner is about two people starting an emotional affair while engaged to two other people. There are no winners here. But I would argue that Mary (Jennifer Lopez) is even more guilty than Steve (Matthew McConaughey), because she got engaged AFTER she met Steve. She was already invested in him, then dragged poor Massimo (Justin Chambers) along with her to get married simply out of revenge — even though she was never keen on Massimo.
Not cool, Mary!
9. Jake, Sweet Home Alabama
Jake (Josh Lucas) was simply just not very nice to Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) for most of the movie. It was obvious that he resented Melanie for leaving Alabama to focus on her career and make something of herself — and tbh, that sounds like small dick energy to me.
Melanie returned home because Jake wouldn’t sign their divorce papers, which is straight-up psycho. She wanted to get divorced ASAP so she could marry Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), and she had to chase Jake around town begging him to sign — before Melanie and Jake eventually got back together. Sure, that’s nice, but this infers that women can’t make their own decisions and that men shouldn’t take no for an answer. Not great!
10. Benjamin, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days
This last one might be a little ~controversial~ but just hear me out: what Benjamin did to Andie was so much worse than her trying to “lose a guy in 10 days”. Firstly, she pitched the article to help her friend deal with a breakup, while Benjamin came up with his bet to steal a job from two women more qualified. While Andie simply had scare off Benjamin in 10 days by acting like a nightmare, if you think about Benjamin’s bet it was far more sinister: he pledged to make a woman fall in love with him. That’s so creepy! And then what? He would then assumedly… break it off and break her heart??
Benjamin’s intentions were way more emotionally manipulative than Andie’s ‘How To’ article. The fact that it’s Andie — and not Benjamin — who has to pen a long apology is one of the greatest injustices in modern cinema. The nerve!