Top 10 Rom-Com Characters Who Didn't Deserve Their Ending

Comedies are made by misunderstandings. But a miscommunication about a double-booked wedding at the Plaza Hotel leads to an all-out brawl between besties Emma and Liv, played by Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. Unfortunately, neither one can be the bigger person. Rather than make peace with their conflicting schedules, their feud escalates until they end up in a physical altercation at their own weddings. But they both end up in happy marriages and go back to being best friends not long after. It’s hard to feel like their storybook endings are earned. The rushed resolution just doesn’t allow much time for the needed growth to happen.

If there’s one guy who knows something about love, it’s William Shakespeare. In “Shakespeare in Love,” a fictional version of the bard falls in love with Viola de Lesseps, who has disguised herself as a man to act in an early version of “Romeo and Juliet.” The two begin to see one another, but her betrothal to Lord Wessex complicates things. She doesn’t end up with Shakespeare, but sailing for America with her husband. It’s an ending that not even the Queen herself can stop. We know it’s more poetic this way, but how could we not want to see them together after all they’ve been through?

A high school outcast ends up unexpectedly texting a handsome football player who believes she is someone else. Instead of correcting the mistake, Sierra keeps up the charade. Things might have started innocently enough, but the catfishing in “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser” goes to some dark places. Sierra’s offline behavior isn’t much to write home about either. She’s kind of a terrible friend, she invades people’s privacy, and she even pulls a comedic switcheroo for a non-consensual kiss with her unknowing target. Because it’s a rom-com, Sierra and her football player do end up dating at the end. But she doesn’t really seem to pay a real price for her truly unhinged behavior.

One of the stories in this Christmas-set ensemble rom-com follows Mark, who has fallen for his best friend’s wife and spends the movie pining over her. His borderline obsessive behavior is written off as harmless romance. In one of the movie’s most famous scenes, he shows up at their door with cue cards spelling out his feelings. He does this while his oblivious best friend sits mere feet away. He only ends up with a kiss from Keira Knightley’s character, but it still feels like more than he deserves. It’s presented as a simple, sweet ending to another kind of love story, but is that really the kind of behavior that should be rewarded?

Mia Farrow stars as a Depression Era woman in an abusive marriage in this Woody Allen film. When the man of her dreams literally comes off the screen and romances her, it sets in motion a love triangle between her, the fictional character, and the real-life actor who plays him. She ends up choosing the actor because she wants to live in the real world. Well, the real world comes crashing in when the actor leaves her. The already downtrodden Cecilia ends up alone, and still only finds her real comfort at the movies. It’s a poignant ending, but it’s also profoundly depressing and unfair.

Drew Barrymore plays Lucy, a woman suffering from a memory disorder which makes her feel like she’s repeating the same day over and over. Adam Sandler’s Henry falls in love with her, and instead of letting her go, marries her, and makes her watch a tape each day to remind her of the accident that gave her brain damage and who he is. She wakes up at the end some years later, having married Henry and living with him on his yacht. Every day, she has to relearn that she’s a passenger on some stranger’s boat, and that she has an entire child with him. It sounds more like a “Twilight Zone” ending than a happily ever after.

Drew Barrymore might be a rom-com queen, but we’re not always on her side. In “Never Been Kissed,” she’s a journalist who’s never had a relationship. She’s assigned to go undercover at a high school for a story on modern youth, and it brings up all her insecurities. It’s easy to empathize with her, but several things she does give us pause. She brings her brother, fellow adult Rob, in on her scheme. Rob seems to revel a little too much in having the amorous attention of their new classmates. Josie also falls for her teacher, who doesn’t know she’s an adult, and so his budding attraction to her is increasingly uncomfortable. All in all, this one didn’t age well at all.

This mid-aughts rom-com stars Will Smith as a pick-up artist whose grasp of respect for women is shaky at the start. Frankly, it doesn’t get much better, even if the film is insisting to us that he’s learning his lesson. His whole thing seems to be helping men pretend they care about women to secure long-term relationships. Even when he has his big epiphany near the end, it only seems to register as a generic “be yourself.” Never mind how messed up his manipulative tactics were. In fact, he considers himself to be the good guy all along. Hitch wins back the woman he’s wronged, but it’s a hollow victory for us.

Sam Baker’s dreams come true at the end of this John Hughes classic, but her popular crush, Jake Ryan, is not all he’s cracked up to be. While she spends the movie trying to get his attention, he’s busy being a whiny tool and neglecting his girlfriend, Caroline. Yeah, it’s clear they’re not meant to be. But Jake could break up with her and spare her feelings. Instead, he treats her like garbage. He even comments to the nerdy Farmer Ted that he could take advantage of a drunk and unconscious Caroline if he wanted. The way that particular storyline wraps up is better left unsaid. We root for Sam, but if Jake is the prize, maybe she should dream bigger.

Jules realizes she really is in love with her best friend Michael. Unfortunately, it took him telling her he’s engaged to someone else to realize it. She sets out to win him back, even if it means destroying his sweet fiancée’s life. Jules displays audacity and selfish behavior, but Michael isn’t without blame here either — he eggs her on with plenty of flirtatious and suggestive comments. Jules’ attempts to ruin the wedding become more and more desperate and underhanded. Michael does end up getting married, but still. It seems like Jules and Michael had a little more mess to sift through before they could earn their happy endings.

Did your favorite rom-com character get the ending they deserved? Tell us in the comments.