These rom-com characters really speak to us. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re only counting characters who acknowledge the audience in some way.
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00:00Prepare for a night of heat.
00:02When you open the door, your man should be sitting, waiting on the couch.
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the romantic comedy characters that really spoke to us.
00:13No, literally.
00:15For this list, we're only counting characters who acknowledge the audience in some way,
00:19so in-universe voiceover narration doesn't count.
00:22You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention.
00:25Then you gotta take it up a notch.
00:28Number 10. Buddy Love, The Nutty Professor
00:31Hey Nutty, so your anticipation helps make the appetite grow stronger, if you know what I mean.
00:35No one can cast a knowing look at the camera quite like Eddie Murphy.
00:39In The Nutty Professor, he plays a scientist who develops a powerful weight loss formula.
00:45Unfortunately, it has some extreme side effects.
00:48You have my family to boot!
00:50I got it!
00:53Professor!
00:55Professor with a point of love! Good night, hamster boy!
00:58Along with shedding some pounds, Professor Sherman Clump's formula also unleashes his evil alter ego,
01:04the uber-confident and amoral Buddy Love.
01:07Throughout the movie, Buddy Love makes sure he knows we're watching him.
01:11Whether it's his joy at being in exercise classes with gorgeous women,
01:15or glancing at us when something unhinged is happening,
01:18he oozes the confidence Professor Clump clearly lacks.
01:22Now come join me, because you can't beat me!
01:25You can't beat me! You can't beat me!
01:28Number 9. Shirley Valentine, Shirley Valentine
01:32Based on a hit play, this underrated British classic revolves around Pauline Collins in the title role.
01:38Shirley Valentine is a bored housewife who takes a chance and finds life-changing romance on a Greek holiday.
01:45I know whatever happens, he won't take anything from me.
01:49I know he'll keep his promise.
01:52The truth is, I don't want him to.
01:55Although the stage version is a one-woman show, the movie expands on Shirley's world,
02:00dramatizing scenes she only tells us about in the play.
02:03But the film adaptation smartly keeps many of her best asides to the audience.
02:08I always said I'd leave him when the kids grew up.
02:11But by the time he'd grown up, there was nowhere to go.
02:15I'm not saying he's bad, my fella. He's just no bleeding good.
02:19Shirley treats us like we're old friends.
02:21Her frankness about how disappointing life can be is equal parts hilarious, wise, and devastating.
02:28She knew who she was.
02:31But somewhere along the way, the boy called Joe turned into him.
02:36And Shirley Valentine turned into this.
02:38Number 8. Tom Hanson, 500 Days of Summer
02:42It's a work thing. The whole office is going.
02:45I can't go even if I wanted to.
02:46You're not listening to me.
02:47What?
02:48The whole office is going.
02:56Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays hopeless romantic Tom,
02:59who spends much of the movie imagining different versions of his love story with Zooey Deschanel's Summer.
03:05That he acknowledges us several times, usually with a cheeky smile,
03:09makes his delusions about their relationship all the more aggravating.
03:22Tom spends most of the movie romanticizing Summer without being able to see what's gone wrong in their relationship.
03:28And even at the end, once he meets someone else, he's seemingly learned little to nothing.
03:33He smirks at us one last time.
03:35My name's Tom.
03:36Nice to meet you. I'm Autumn.
03:40We can sense the whole thing's about to happen again with this new woman.
03:45Number 7. Stanley Ipkiss, The Mask
03:49This guy's incorrigible.
03:52Jim Carrey put his elastic face to great use in this Dark Horse comic adaptation.
03:57The makers of the 1994 hit wanted to take the bleak tone of the comics and rework it into something a bit more audience-friendly.
04:05They came up with what amounts to a rom-com dipped in a zany crime-caper coating.
04:10She is so coy.
04:12I love it!
04:16Playing the dual role of Stanley Ipkiss and The Mask, Carrey delivers many of the best one-liners right to us.
04:23Forget breaking, the fourth wall is almost non-existent here.
04:27The Mask can't help but make sure we know just how incorrigible he is with every new and audacious antic.
04:34Who can?
04:38It's party time! P-A-R-T.
04:41Why?
04:42Because I gotta!
04:44Number 6. Anne Elliot, Persuasion
04:47There's nothing worse than thinking your life is ruined and then realizing you've got much, much further to fall.
04:54Jane Austen's work is just as popular as ever, but sometimes even classics could do with updates.
05:00Released by Netflix, the 2022 movie version of Persuasion injects some fourth-wall breaking to give us some historical context we might miss.
05:08One's family is only as capable by two things. Marriage and death.
05:16Both seem unlikely in the immediate future.
05:18Austen's work isn't supposed to be stuffy.
05:21By adding this modern but engaging narrative device, it gives us a fun and ironic view into Anne Elliot's life post-breakup with Frederick Wentworth.
05:30Juxtaposing Anne's desperate state with her assurance that she's fine might make her more understandable to a modern audience while maintaining the book's humor.
05:39So then just be myself?
05:41Oh no, don't do that until at least the second year of marriage.
05:46That may not be the worst advice.
05:47Number 5. Alvy Singer, Annie Hall
05:50What do you want? It was my first play. You know, you're always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it's real difficult in life.
05:58Woody Allen wrote, directed, and starred in this Oscar-winning film.
06:02Annie Hall is essentially a rom-com about how ridiculous falling in love can be, and why we do it anyway.
06:09The neurotic comic Alvy uses the audience like he's testing new material, engaging us when he has deep or embarrassing insights to share about his relationships.
06:18Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.
06:25Allen has a talent for delivering wisecracks right to a camera, but the movie plays with the fourth wall in all sorts of ways.
06:32At one point, Alvy is able to conjure the media philosopher Marshall McLuhan just to win an intellectual discussion.
06:39I heard what you were saying. You know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong.
06:46How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.
06:49Boy, if life were only like this.
06:55Vivica A. Fox stars in this rom-com about a slick and confident woman who thinks she has men all figured out.
07:02Shante Smith is a self-described expert on relationships. She treats us, the audience, like her students.
07:08If you ever find yourself in a situation like this, rule number one, never panic. Stay cool. Act like it doesn't bother you one bit and address the issue head on.
07:21We get to watch how she handles her boyfriend's infidelity as she sets out on a series of mind games to teach him a lesson.
07:28Fox is so charismatic, you kind of forget just how crazy some of her advice is.
07:32Cardinal rule number two. When your man messes up, no matter how small it is, you gots to punish him. Punish him hard.
07:41The film as a whole isn't perfect, but she nails the switches between her character's real emotions and her all-knowing teacher persona.
07:49While it's fun to watch Shante demonstrate her wit and expertise, we also watch her realize she may be in over her head.
07:57I guess I didn't consider that when it comes to love, there are no rules.
08:04Number three. Rob Gordon. High fidelity.
08:07John Cusack plays a music lover who works at a record store. But for all his knowledge about music, there is one area where Rob is clueless. His love life is an absolute mess.
08:19Allison Ashmore, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Alden, Charlie Nicholson and Sarah Kendrew. Those were the ones that really hurt. Can you see her name on that list, Laura?
08:33In the wake of his latest breakup, he takes us on a journey to understand what went wrong in all his previous relationships.
08:40We get a front row seat with his straight-to-camera musings about how he's completely lost when it comes to women.
08:46I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door. And that prevented me from doing a lot of things. Like thinking about my future and I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing.
09:01His self-deprecating humor and frustration reads loud and clear. And who hasn't felt like they were doing this dating thing all wrong?
09:09So what am I gonna do now? Just keep jumping from rock to rock for the rest of my life until there aren't any rocks left? Should I bolt every time I get that feeling in my gut when I meet someone new? I've been thinking with my gut since I was 14 years old.
09:232. Amélie Poulain
09:25Amélie. You probably couldn't find a romantic comedy heroine quirkier than Audrey Tautou's wide-eyed title character. Amélie Poulain is the kind of person who doesn't go to the movies to watch movies. She goes to watch the people.
09:39This hit French film pulls all sorts of fourth wall breaking antics. Its protagonist often makes eye contact with us when she's feeling particularly mischievous or excited about simple things like cracking the crust of a creme brulee.
10:03This narrative device makes a lot of sense given how expressive Tautou is, especially with her eyes. She's captivating to watch even when she's saying nothing.
10:341. Alfie Elkins
10:36Alfie.
10:42Michael Caine exploded onto the scene playing this title character. London playboy Alfie takes pleasure in sharing with us his secrets to bedding women. The Bachelor parades his string of affairs in front of us like he's presenting a how-to guide.
11:04Between his cockney accent and his casual attitude towards relationships, it would be easy to root against him. But Caine is just so charming.
11:16He navigates Alfie's callous quips and contradictions, making you feel for him later when he gets his inevitable comeuppance. Caine even earned his first Academy Award nomination for his efforts.
11:46Which of these characters do you relate to the most? Let us know in the comments.
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