We all enjoy a good love story. We sit in our chair and slip into the plot imagining it is all happening to us. We feel the hero’s pain as he wanders the world miserably before meeting his soul mate, only to discover it is an impossible relationship (as in the movie, Pretty Woman). We shed a tear when fate separates the two lovers and rejoice when finally, at the last scene, they fall madly in love and give us the happy ending we were rooting for.
Communication is a major factor in romantic movies. It is all about communication or should we say – lack thereof. If only the hero had the leading lady’s phone number…If she just told him the truth when she had the chance it could all be so easy (and fast!).
Imagine this scenario: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love; boy goes out to sea and does not return. It’s the beginning of a great romance that goes on for years as the girl waits for the boy with a broken heart. If only they had e-mail, phones or even well trained pigeons to communicate with one another, they would not have to go through hell (literally) and back and it would all end differently. Then again, we wouldn’t have memorable quests like this:
Westley: I told you I would always come for you. Why didn’t you wait for me?
Buttercup: Well… you were dead.
Westley: Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
Buttercup: I will never doubt again.
Westley: There will never be a need.
(The Princess Bride)
Sometimes the whole plot is based on the lack of communication between the leading characters. In the movie Serendipity, Jonathan and Sara meet briefly, have an amazing night but do not exchange numbers or even last names, since they are both “unavailable.” It takes a few years (and a very funny story line) until they meet again and give us our fairytale ending. Why go through all that trouble if they could just call each other the next day? Oh, this is where fate (and the director) steps in to do its job and work its magic on our hearts…J
But it’s not all bad; some great romantic stories are based on a unique way of communication that allows our heroes to meet. We saw it in the classic movie, Sleepless in Seattle, when Meg Ryan hears Tom Hanks on the radio talking about his dead wife, falls in love, and decides to send him a letter:
“Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together… and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home… only to no home I’d ever known… I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like… magic.”
We saw it in Message in a Bottle, where Robin Wright discovers a tragic love letter in a bottle washed to shore and decides to find the author of this letter. This journey brings the two together, but only after a long line of heart breaking scenes. At least we got the chance to hear Kevin Costner say these incredibly romantic lines:
“Every step I took since the moment I could walk was a step towards finding you.”
Last but not least, we have You’ve Got Mail, the modern version to sending love letters and getting to know one another without meeting in person. It’s the ultimate tangle where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are business rivals who hate each other, but fall in love online. In this tale, communication saves the day and gets the worst of enemies hugging and kissing in the end.
“I like to start my notes to you as if we’re already in the middle of a conversation. I pretend that we’re the oldest and dearest friends- as opposed to what we actually are- people who don’t know each other’s names and met in a chat room where we both claimed we’d never been before. What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You’ve got mail. I hear nothing, not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beat of my own heart. I have mail. From you”
When it comes to love and romance, communication and conversation is key. Next is listening. If you just gush your heart out every once in a while you might get to have a fairytale ending, just like in the movies.
So what are you waiting for? Your story begins today, right now. So reach out and touch someone because as a very wise man once said “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna’ get.” J
