How Screwball Comedy Genre Builds the Desire at Marriage

The movie appears interestingly depending on the genre that they have. As time goes by, the movie has several genres such as romance, drama, thriller, horror, action, and many more. One of the favorite genres that I want to talk about is a screwball comedy. This genre is the blending of romance and comedy. According to David R. Shumway, as an ideology, romance bears some connection to illusion, but there is a more significant connection to the genre. In my opinion, screwball comedy is not only showing the love-life and having a funny scene. It is beyond that. This genre might have a particular message delivered to the viewers. In this section, I would like to analyze Rumor Has It as a movie to explain the relation from the PDF text about the marriage culture. Additionally, this essay emphasizes showing how the screwball comedy genre constructs the desire at marriage and gives the strength to the main character to marry someone there.

The movie shows us the struggling of a woman named Sarah to find the truth behind the rumor about her mother's in the past who brought her to ensure her relationship. Moreover, this movie has a simple story and a unique conflict. The simple story that shows here telling about the faith to marry her fiance, Jeff. They have a pretty long story to go to the marriage stage. According to David, The specific illusion that the screwball comedy constructs are that one can have complete desire and satisfaction. The name for this state of affairs is marriage. Those sentences stated if the screwball comedy genre can construct the desire to marry their loved one. I agreed with his statement because I found some scenes from the Rumor Has It movie that shows about it.

The scene tells about Sarah's life as the main character in this movie. Rumor Has It started with Sarah, who doubts marrying her fiance because of an unsolved thing. Sarah solely wants to find the truth about her mother's life in the past. Since the rumor said, she is not the biological daughter of her parents. It makes her doubt to marry Jeff. That is the reason why she tries to find the truth with much effort. Unfortunately, the coincidence moment comes when Sarah meeting Beau Burroughs.

She did wrong because she had slept together and even kissed Burroughs at the party. Jeff caught them the day after Sarah went to his place with disappointment. She should not have forgiven her mistake easily because Jeff put his trust do on Sarah. Sarah makes an apology to Jeff sincerely, and she regrets her unconscious action at that time. However, this conflict brings a positive result for both of them. It makes Jeff and Sarah realize something they left, and the desire to marry each other is getting bigger.

Through these conversations between Sarah and Jeff, let us see when Sarah goes to Jeff's apartments to explain her feelings. Here are the conversations,

Sarah: I know there is nothing that I can say that will take away.

Jeff: Then, don't try.

Sarah: I never told you; when I was a kid, I was in a car accident. I was tenth and smashed my head on the dashboard and cracked my skull, spill it open from here to here, seventeen stitches. I never thought that I would long for that day until now. It didn't mean anything. It meant something to me. Words mean something to me. "Engaged" means something to me. It doesn't mean, "maybe I'll get married." It doesn't mean, "I'll see how I feel." I don't know. I'm not sure. It doesn't mean I'm going to test the waters and see if there's somebody else out there that I like better. It means you've fallen in love with the person. That you want to spend your life with and that you want to marry them. I want to marry you. I'll marry you next month, I'll marry you this week. I'll walk out of this apartment right now and marry you. I'll walk out of this apartment right now and I will marry you. It doesn't work that way, okay? You can't just walk in here now…I love you. I didn't come here to tell you that I can't live without you. I can live without you, but I just don't want to.

Jeff : One condition. If we have a daughter…Burroughs doesn't come within 1,000 miles of her.

Sarah : It stops with me.

From the conversations, we can see both people's desire who want to be the one after the incident back then. Their different characters make them separated and feel doubted about marriage. Because of this conflict, their love is getting strong and more prominent, even though Sarah doubts this marriage at first. She takes the marriage context as seriously as that. That is why she is taking much time to think about it. Besides that, the funniest scene shows when I, as the watcher, know that Beau Burroughs has slept with Sarah, her mother, and her grandmother. It is funny because how could someone do this in reality? If it is ever happening, this is interesting since this story has a unique conflict to build romance in it, how the conflict can strengthen people's feelings.

Additionally, from the cultural context of marriage, I can tell that marriages were necessary things for them at that time. This movie shows if marriage is not a simple thing to do. We can see through Sarah how she considers marrying her loved one. It is not as simple as she wants. Both of them need agreement and preparation for it because having feelings does not reflect eternal happiness. Matureness, preparation, and agreement are the most important things.

To sum up, screwball comedy as the genre here constructs the comedy and the romance to build the desire at marriage. For instance, the Rumor Has It movie gives an overview of the blending between the comedy and romantic sides. I strongly agree with the statement stated about this by David. The specific illusion that the screwball comedy constructs are that one can have complete desire and satisfaction and that the name for this state of affairs is marriage. Since I have shown the point and the explanation above. How the conflict can strengthen people's feelings, and how the cultural context about the marriage does not simply about the feeling, but it is way more complex.