Bridget Jones, Austenland, & The Fantasy Of Being Loved Just As You Are

It's a powerful one, isn't it?

When you write romantic comedies for a living, as I sometimes do, you have to think long and hard about what makes one tick. There’s a lot that goes into it: Conflict, tension (sexual and otherwise), character, plot, hijinks. At the center of it all, though, is the idea of fantasy. It’s what makes it all shine. It’s what makes a romantic story function. It’s what draws us in — and back in, and back in again — no matter the setting (England? Space?), the set-up, and all the rest. If a fantasy doesn’t work for you, the movie’s probably not going to, either. This very thing was the topic of much discussion at a dinner party I went to recently.