(Credits: Paramount Pictures)

These days, romantic comedies just don’t seem to get the same amounts of praise and commercial success as they used to. In the current cinematic landscape, it’s becoming harder for specific genre films to receive enough attention, their chances to be shown in theatres becoming less and less as bigger blockbusters with widespread appeal dominate. Most rom-coms being made today are destined to head straight for streaming platforms, mainly Netflix.

Yet, it seems as though many of us are still gravitating towards older, beloved rom-coms which are available on the service. Rom-coms these days just aren’t cutting it for many; they either fly under the radar, failing to receive enough advertising, such as Rye Lane – which, although nominated for a BAFTA, has not received enough attention commercially – or, like The Idea of You, are just bad.

The most recent example of a rom-com attaining the same levels of success as a mid-2000s one is Anyone But You, which was released in 2023, grossing £220 million at the box office. Maybe romantic comedies are returning back to form – after all, they offer a fun means of escapism that we could all do with right now – but for now, it appears we can’t get enough of revisiting classic rom-coms.

An iconic early-2000s Matthew McConaughey rom-com is currently climbing the Netflix charts, taking us back to a time when the genre was thriving. How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, directed by Donald Petrie, was released in 2003 to commercial success. However, two decades on, fans are still obsessing over the chemistry between McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

The movie follows Hudson’s Andie Anderson, a writer for a women’s magazine called Composure, who decides to write a column inspired by her friend’s neediness when it comes to dating men. Proving that if she acts like her friend, she’ll be able to get a guy to dump her in 10 days, Andie starts dating Benjamin, an advertising executive who, unbeknownst to her, has his own 10-day plan in mind.

With bigger dreams of working on a diamond campaign, Benjamin’s boss challenges him to fall in love in 10 days if he wants the job, leading him to find Andie. However, Andie has been suggested to him by some advertising rivals who secretly know of her plan, leading to a chaotic series of events as their clashing intentions prove much harder to stick to.

While the story is rather predictable at times, it’s hard not to get swept up in the classic rom-com conventions of the film, which asks us to suspend our disbelief and indulge in pure romance and drama. It also includes one of modern cinema’s most iconic dresses – Andie’s yellow floor-length gown designed specifically for the film by Carolina Herrera.

How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days also stars Adam Goldberg, Bebe Neuwirth, Shalom Harlow, and Kathryn Hahn. For all rom-com lovers, it’s an essential watch; luckily you can stream it now on Netflix.