Romantic Recycling: When Harry Met Sally/Groundhog Day

This is Confessions of a Closet Romantic, a podcast where I celebrate my favorite romantic TV shows, movies, books and talk in detail about why I love them so much. Without embarrassment or shame. Mostly! This episode is about the romantic recycle.

Two of my all time favorite romantic comedies are Groundhog Day and When Harry Met Sally —oh I haven't been going on and on about these yet?!

And one of my favorite romances of the year so far is People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, which is a sort of retelling of When Harry Met Sally. I love this book so much —more in a bit — so I started googling to see if any other contemporary romances are inspired by classic rom coms.

I found a great online roundup (I’ll link to in the show notes) that are either retellings or inspired by classic rom coms, so I decided to  read as many of the books as I could to see if I agreed—I’ve already seen most of the rom coms, naturally.

 Recycling or reimagining good plots, story or character arcs and tropes of course happens all the time in stories for the stage, movies and books.

Old Hollywood did this frequently and Broadway and the Hallmark Channel do this all the time. My favorite giggle when watching Hallmark movies is identifying all of the classic plots smashed together in one single 2-hour story.

Sometimes it's creative laziness but most of the time it's because certain plots just work and resonate with audiences. 

Groundhog Day is one of those movie plots that gets recycled a lot. It’s a modern classic and one of my GOAT rom coms —greatest of all time. 

If you haven't seen it, it’s about Phil, an arrogant local news meteorologist who travels with his TV crew to Punxsutawney Pennsylvania for the annual Groundhog Day festival.

Phil is a self-centered cynic who needless to say is not a fan of a cutesy rodent who can predict weather, but his lack of humor and empathy causes a ton of problems in his relationships. 

He has the hots for his producer Rita, but she’s a sweet kind person who’s repelled by his negativity.

When the whole crew snowed in in Punxsutawney by a blizzard, Phil wakes up the next day but it's not the next day— it’s Groundhog Day again  for some reason. In complete confusion, he keeps waking up on February 2 again and again, and has to figure out why, and what to do about it.

Of course Phil handles this situation very poorly in the beginning, but with enough repeats and redoes of the same day, he stops avoiding his poor coping skills, faces them, and realizes if he's ever going to be the person who could win sweet Rita’s heart, he's going to have to start truly caring about himself and others. 

Of course, he tries to gather information about her to manipulate the situation in his favor first.

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But reliving the same day for years helps him understand the value of truly knowing and seeing someone. And with enough tries he finally gets it right:

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The gorgeous movie About Time also explores a similar idea of redoing and repairing romantic chances, and its utterly charming.

Sliding Doors with Gwenyth Paltrow takes a slightly different angle —it's a story about parallel universes and what might happen if you could take both forks in the road at the same time and make simultaneous, but different choices in a romantic relationship. 

If you've ever had analysis paralysis about where a relationship is going, you'll love this movie.

The book In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren is another cutest Groundhog Day story, set at a mountain cabin at Christmas. I'll talk a bit more about this one in the show notes.

I talked a bit in my Romantic Longing episode about an important close male friendship in my life and that maybe there was a bit of an attraction there, and that's why we had such a strong connection. But I chose to ignore it so we could stay friends.

So it's no mystery why one of my other GOAT rom coms is When Harry Met Sally. I have loved this movie for decades. 

If you haven't seen it, the story follows the long friendship of Harry and Sally, who rideshare  to New York after graduation from the University of Chicago.

 At the start of the story Harry tell Sally basically says friendship between them is doomed. Why?

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So they get older, have many other relationships but never marry, and it becomes clear that they're the love of each others' lives — proving Harry's theory correct.

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 I'm sure this is why I fell in love with the book People We Meet on Vacation. 

This friends to lovers romance is the most gorgeous, heartfelt story, full of delicious sexual tension. Poppy and Alex meet as students at University of Chicago (like when Harry Met Sally) and realize they're from the same small town in Ohio. 

She was bullied in high school and has always felt like an outcast and he’s quiet, introverted bookish nerd.

Poppy moves to New York (like the movie) and starts a budget travel blog but Alex goes back to their hometown after grad school to teach English lit at their old high school.

Poppy eventually gets a job at a big NY travel magazine and she takes Alex on her vacation assignments every summer. They're best friends through thick and thin, through romances, job challenges and family stuff. When they’re on vacation in New Orleans this small, beautiful but seismic thing in their friendship happens.

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This sweet and loving opposites attract story, which evolves into so much more, quickly topped my favorite romance stories ever. The audiobook is phenomenal and I wanted to live with these characters forever.

Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren is similar to when Harry Met Sally too. Delightfully daffy Hazel is elementary school teacher.

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Hazel meets her former college TA, sweet grounded Josh, by chance a few years later and they become besties. They care so much for each other that they keep trying to fix each other up on double blind dates. So hilariously bad, one after another, until someone points out that they're actually already on a date — with each other. This story is pure delight.

I talked about how much I love the book The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang in my Romance Spectrum episode. 

The Kiss Quotient is actually a clever reverse Pretty Woman story: Stella hires gorgeous Michael, an escort, to help teach her how to have sex, because being on the spectrum, intimacy has always been awkward for her and she wants to find love.

Of course we know who falls for each other, don't we? The story is hot and steamy as hell and utterly heartwarming. 

I believe it's now been optioned for a movie. Oh bring it on! Seeing these characters come to life on screen will be a dream come True for me if they cast it right and get the right script.

it was a sweet surprise that I’ve loved all of these books from the article and already loved most of the rom coms, but the book that knocked my panties off is Not the Girl You Marry by Andie Christopher, which is heavily influenced by How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Jack is  desperate to use his fancy journalism degree for more than listicles that go viral at his current job at an online haberdashery magazine. So his editor agrees to give him a more serious assignment if he’ll create one final click-baity article—a cynical how to lose a woman in 10 days. 

Hannah is a gorgeous, slightly cynical and fiercely independent woman who wants to get the big classy wedding assignments at her special events company. Her boss thinks she's too bitter and down on love to pull it off. 

After they meet at a local hipster bar, Hannah wonders if she can trick Jack into being her pretend lovey-dovey boyfriend for the time it'll take her to land an upcoming wedding assignment. He thinks she could make a good subject for his final article. Oh juicy story and character arcs, how I love you.

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To their credit, Jack and Hannah are uncomfortable with their deceptions from the get go, but their career goals are so important to them, they're willing to take the risk. Little do they know that the most perfect partner that will change their mind about love forever is right in front of their faces! But we knew, because we know how this trope goes, don't we?

Now... there’re some details I wouldn't mind reliving over and over again…

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Find show notes with links to what I've been babbling about at  confessions of a closet romantic.com  

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So nice to have your company…until next time, wishing you the best shame-free romance on repeat!