Here’s Why the ‘Danny DeVito Rule’ Is the Best Way to Judge Rom-coms
A rom-com only works as a movie if it would still be romantic once you recast Danny DeVito as the male lead. Needless to say, Pretty Woman es the test.
Much like the billboard industry, Hollywood is a superficial business. This isn’t news to anyone. At the same time, much like the billboard industry, there are plenty of ways for people of all shapes and sizes to find a (troll)foothold in showbiz, even those artists whom the rest of society deems to be irregular in appearance. But rom-coms? Well, that’s a different story. In the world of romantic comedy, only people who look like they live at the gym and eat nothing but collagen are deserving of both love and a spot on the poster.
Since so many movie writers and executives seem to think that the entire point of a romantic comedy is to make two models kiss each other in the third act, actual romance can be hard to identify in the genre, which leads us to the Danny DeVito Rule, which, in 2017, one Redditor by the name JTW0079 coined as thus: “If a romance movie becomes a horror movie by recasting the lead man as Danny DeVito, it’s a shitty example of a romance movie. If it’s still a sweet movie, it’s really romance.”
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To be fair, the horror is probably all Charlie’s fault.
Now, if I could just amend the Danny DeVito Rule, which recently saw a resurgence of interest online as DeVito fans all ed in to recast their favorite rom-com with the Trash Man himself in the lead role, I would alter it to this: “If a romance movie becomes so absurdly funny by recasting the lead man as Danny DeVito that it resembles a late-season It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode, it’s a shitty example of a romance movie. If it’s still a sweet movie, it’s really romance.”
After all, there’s nothing horrific about the idea of a guy who looks like DeVito falling in love in interesting circumstances. Plus, rom-com plot lines can be quite bizarre and trite as untalented screenwriters craft ludicrous circumstances for the two models to go from sexy enemies to smoking hot lovers, so much so that some popular movies are practically on the level of the late-series Lethal Weapon movies from a writing perspective.
Think about it: Danny DeVito plays a New York lawyer whose friendship with Meg Ryan escalates to deep, meaningful love after many years? Still sweet, not an Always Sunny plot line. When Harry Met Sally clears the Danny DeVito Rule.
On the other hand, however: Danny DeVito plays a mobster who kidnaps a mentally disabled man and falls in love with the least believable lesbian in the history of cinema? Textbook Always Sunny madness. Gigli doesn’t the test.
See, The Danny DeVito Rule shouldn’t be a knock on the film and TV legend’s appearance, but rather an embrace of his ability to bring out both the truth and the bullshit in everything that he does. And until Hollywood finally nuts up and casts him as the romantic lead for once, it’s the closest he may get to finding on-screen love, seeing as Roxy has sadly serviced her last crank/heart.
