Where Would Our Favourite Rom-Com Couples Be In 2020?

When you go to see a rom com, you know what you're getting. A feel good film with a set of predictable, probably lightly problematic characters, which ends with a kiss. But if you're anything like us and therefore a huge fan of vintage rom-coms, you might have given thought to where all of the characters would eventually have ended up.

Well, because we love you, and because it's nearly Valentine's Day, we decided to imagine where each of our favourite romantic heroines would be in 2020.

How To Lose A Guy In 10 days

You’ll remember that Andie Anderson ‘How To Girl’ and Benjamin Barry found themselves in a situation where Andie is trying to make him dump her, and Ben is obliged to get her to fall in love with him.

After the credits rolled they stayed together, got married and had one perfect child. Unfortunately, without the gamification of romance they never quite recaptured the heat.

They consciously uncoupled around the same time that Gwyneth and Chris did, with a tasteful love fern burning ceremony and now share amicable custody of their child, Coco. Andie remains best friends with Ben’s mum, but had to leave journalism when the digital boom meant that writing one 800 word ‘how to’ column per month couldn’t support a Manhattan apartment and significant shopping habit.

She wrote a very unsuccessful autobiography titled 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Years'.

The Holiday

While everyone was rooting for the international romances, the characters involved quickly realised that long distance is hard. Cameron Diaz’s Amanda worked out quite swiftly that she couldn’t be a film trailer maker in Surrey WAS IT THE COTSWOLDS?, and Jude Law’s Graham wasn’t up for moving his two children to LA.

In happier news, Jack Black's Miles and Kate Winslet's Iris compromised and now live together in New York. They still maintain that they had the original idea for Airbnb

Legally Blonde

In order to allow Legally Blonde the dignity it deserves we have chosen to omit the sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde.

Elle Woods married Emmett Richmond-Woods in a small ceremony, a week before she was appointed to the supreme court. Ruth Bader-Ginsberg is godmother to their children. Emmet took a career break to be a stay-at-home father, and now does pro-bono charitable work.

Sweet Home Alabama

In case you’d forgotten, Melanie Smooter / Carmichael became a very successful fashion designer after leaving her red-neck roots behind. She goes home to tell her family she’s marrying Patrick Dempsey, who is the son of the actual Mayor, but when she’s there she falls back in love with her childhood secret who runs a glass shop and dumps the life she spent the last decade building.

Unsurprisingly this does not work out long term. After a sixmonth marriage the whole thing is annulled and Melanie moves back to New York. After a goodly amount of therapy she gets back together with Patrick Dempsey.

Maid in Manhattan

Surprisingly, a relationship based on Marisa, a hotel maid, pretending to be super rich, and falling in love with Chris, dog owner and future senator (played by Ralph Fiennes AKA Voldemort), works out quite well.

Chris’s polling numbers soar thanks to Marisa’s photogenic face and relatability, and she’s able to jack in cleaning for her own career in politics, working to enforce better workers’ rights and to fight human slavery.

Two Weeks Notice

Hugh Grant is a gloriously useless billionaire who hires Sandra Bullock as a lawyer, in a company where lawyers do the same jobs as personal assistants. She hands in her notice because the job is literally hell. Then they fall in love, because they’re two very attractive people in a rom-com.

Unfortunately the emotional labour of teaching George (Grant) how to act like an adult human proves too much. They split up after a few months, but remain friends. She married a fellow activist and had kids. He is a godparent to her children and regularly brings 19-year-old girlfriends to her dinner parties.

Never Been Kissed

Josie (not Grosie anymore) goes back to high school as an undercover journalist (wildly un-ethnical but we’ll take it). She also falls in love with her dreamy English teacher (we’ve all been there) who tries to resist his feelings for her, on account of her being a minor and all.

While the whole thing seemed quite romantic in the moment, Josie quickly realised that the man who hit on her when she was, to all intents and purposes, a teenager in high school, probably isn’t the best guy. She struggled with jealousy issues whenever he was tutoring students and eventually called it a day.

She is now happily celibate and the author of 2019’s best selling non-fiction, Never Been Kissed (And That’s OK).

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Julianne realised quite quickly after her best friend Dermot Mulroney married a 20 year-old college student, that being 27 and single is not a problem, but panicking about it is. She sought lots of therapy, went on a retreat, enjoyed some casual sex and moved in with her actual best friend, Rupert Everett.

And now for the best rom com moments of all time, because we're just that good to you.