Heart

When I'm reading a screenplay, there are two elements that are particularly tough to predict how they are going to play on screen.

One is humor. The other is heart.

Humor, of course, isn't going anywhere. People want the funny, and studios will continue to chase the elusive great comedies, because even okay comedies tend to perform well.

Heart is a dicier element, because its commercial aspects are more ephemeral. Plus, while it's hard to make a movie that is too funny, heart is an ingrediant that can be overdone; no producer wants their movie to be called sappy.

So too often today, movies tend to be shying away from heart. It's rare that you see pure romances any more; now they tend to be romantic comedies, in which the heart is undercut with a dumb premise, as in something like Failure To Launch. Forget teen romances; now it's all about attitude and dance sequences.

Small love stories, like "Dirty Dancing"? You just don't see them much any more.

Yet there are signs that the public is really crying out for solid, romantic movies, or movies in which characters aren't afraid to put their heart out on their sleeves.

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a lingering example; it's still the highest grossing romantic comedy ever. One of my theories for its appeal? The romance at the center remains fairly strong throughout; the comedy comes from all the family stuff around it.

"Titanic" was amazing-looking, but it also had one of the best pure romances of a movie in the last 20 years. Don't discount that element.

One of the purest romances of the past few years was "The Notebook", which starred Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, two unknowns at the time. It made $81 million.

The most honest, emotional romance of last year was "Brokeback Mountain". Even though the romance was between two gay men, it made $83 million.

The two best comedies last year were "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" and "The Wedding Crashers". Both had romances at their core that really worked well.

And both had good friendship stuff too -- don't underestimate the emotional power of the buddy scene. The best buddy movies are often ones in which we really feel that these two guys are friends, and wish we had a friend like that. Don't laugh, it's true. In Shrek, Shrek has more chemistry with the donkey than the princess (though he has chemistry with both). It works.

The downside, of course, is that bad romances tend to sink without a trace, and they also tend not to have the big foreign sales and DVD potential that makes producers salivate. Though even a mediocre romance like "The Lake House" still made $51 million. Imagine if it had been really good.

So heart too often gets short shrift, in favor of more special effects. Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, in which three men are all eyeing the same woman, can be remarkably devoid of any real heart -- compared to the first one, in which we felt throughout that the main characters at least formed a wary friendship, here too often they are working at cross-purposes, and it makes us less invested in the story.

Superman Returns is frustrating because despite an easy set-up for a lot of heart -- reunited lovers, an unknown child -- the movie almost aggressively avoids it; Superman and Lois Lane just don't have any honest emotional moments here, while the kid is a plot construct, his relationship with Superman almost completely unexplored.

In comparison, in additional to its romantic-triangle plotline, Clerks II has a subplot about the friendship between the two male main characters that works really well -- and which was still blasted by some critics for being too sappy.

Still, it says a lot when a movie like Clerks II, which no parent should take their child to see, has more heart than Superman Returns does.

I'm not saying that all movies need to be drenched in heart. Still, it wouldn't be the worst thing to see more at least try to embrace it, and risk taking their characters in a more human, vulnerable, emotional, real direction.

Dontcha think?