Listicle: 10 rom-com clichés we love to love

In a romance plot, pretend couples are everywhere. High schoolers need prom dates, aristocrats need a placeholder for marriage season, CEOs need Plus Ones to placate stuffy old board members. As Lara Jean (Lana Condor) finds out in To All The Boys I Loved Before (2018), fake-dating is complicated. Lines blur. Kisses linger longer. Turns out, no one can resist Peter (Noah Centineo) for long.

He’s hot-headed. So is she. It’s hate at first sight. Sparks fly even as tensions mount. They’re obsessed with fuming over each other until they realise that it’s each other they’re obsessed with. This is what’s fuelled half the Bridgerton plots. It’s what makes Red, White and Royal Blue such fun to follow. It’s why we rewatch 10 Things I hate About You (1999) every time it streams. Don’t pretend you don’t.

Goofy Will Thacker (Hugh Grant) literally bumps into Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), spilling orange juice all over her in Notting Hill (1999). Yoon Se-ri properly crashes into Ri Jeong-hyeok’s life when her wayward paraglider ends up in North Korea in Crash Landing On You (2019-2020). It’s contrived, sure. But it’s so quick and unexpected, it’s almost believable. This is why die-hard romantics get so excited when they trip in public.

Cinderella had a fairy godmother and a magic wand. Real-world glow-ups come from salons and mascara wands. Cue makeover montage: Frizzy curls smooth out, brows get tweezed, spectacles disappear, there’s waxing, wincing, lip gloss. Ta-da! The gorilla was a hottie all along. Sometimes it works (She’s All That, 1999); sometimes it backfires (Shrek 2, 2004). But it gets the right heads turning.

They meet as kids. They fall in love. They grow up. Life gets in the way. Years on, their paths cross and guess what? The old fire is still burning. Old nicknames get a naughty new life. Pining feels oh-so-sweet. Sasha Tran (Ali Wong) and Marcus Kim (Randall Park) reconnect after 15 years in Always Be My Maybe (2019). Kya and Tate get their second chance – even as she’s on trial for murder – in Where the Crawdads Sing (2018).

Nothing like a little family opposition to fire up a love story. Dads are unyielding. Mums fear the worst. A kindly sibling or aunt might play peacemaker. But they’re hardly useful – the couple must do all the work. Shakespeare’s two households make love almost impossible for Romeo and Juliet. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) has it harder. Two women were secretly in love in the late 18th century. The whole world was the villain.

Everyone who says they hate drama is lying. Third wheels make a love story run faster. Both romantic options must seem viable for this to work. Will Katniss end up with Peeta or Gale in The Hunger Games (2012-2015)? Belly (Lola Tung) must choose between Conrad (Christopher Briney) and his brother Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) in The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022). It’s so hard to choose!

What if The One is someone you’ve been with all along and just didn’t know it? It means the plot can weave into shared pasts, infuse romance into everyday moments and play an endless game of will-they-won’t-they. Alana (Alana Haim) and Gary (Cooper Hoffman) keep us on edge all through Liquorice Pizza (2021). Rosie (Lily Collins) and Alex (Sam Clafiln) are such close buds, it almost threatens their romance in Love, Rosie (2014). It all works out in the end.

He was a punk, she did ballet. She’s Cheer Captain, and I’m on the bleachers. And yet, great love stories feature couples who have nothing in common. Old, rusty Wall-E can end up with career woman Eve in Wall-E (2008). Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) falls for the biggest opposite of them all, a Catholic priest, in Fleabag (2016-2019). The forbidden nature of the pairing is why it’s so exciting to watch.

Why is it always raining when admissions of love are finally made? Did they store their feelings in the cloud all this time? Or is the universe shipping them too? Bad weather forces couples to get closer, confront feelings, get real. Who can take their eyes off Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams) as they share a hot wet kiss in The Notebook (2004)? Real life is rarely this comfortable.