When Harry Met Sally, Roman Holiday and the F Word: the importance of a rom-com location

What's the most romantic city in the world? 

Some may say Paris, or virtually anywhere in Italy. For some, Charleston, South Carolina fits the bill, and even Savannah, Georgia ranks pretty high. 

But in the world of romantic comedies, New York City is home to more successful love stories than anywhere else on Earth. 

That is until The F Word suggested that the city of Toronto could not only play itself, but provide us with the backdrop for a rom-com that does the legacy of When Harry Met Sally proud.  

• WATCH: The F Word on CBC Gem

The older guard, the original rom-com heavyweights like The Philadelphia Story, It Happened One Night, Adam's Rib, Woman Of The Year, Bringing Up Baby, or The Shop Around The Corner didn't lean on the inherent romance of a specific place as a parallel plot-point for the budding romance of the protagonists. 

Rare exceptions like Roman Holiday ventured out of the studio and explored the landmarks of a romantic city to lend the film a special layer of wonder and whimsy. 

And while engaging with the impact of ambiance may have started with Roman Holiday, it was arguably refined in Annie Hall. Later films like Hannah And Her Sisters and even Radio Days, a love story about nostalgia, would lean on both the romanticization of a place in time and New York itself. 

The F Word did for Toronto what When Harry Met Sally did for New York. It highlighted the city's gems, both hidden and well-known, and made us fall in love with the city as we become more invested in its protagonists' happiness.

This tactic, of falling as in love with a locale as with the protagonists, would later be adopted by some of the greatest romantic comedies of all time; Moonstruck, Sleepless In Seattle, You've Got Mail, Amèlie, and Clueless, just to name a few. But the most successful of all of these, the benchmark against which all other rom-coms would be measured, was When Harry Met Sally. 

Every location was expertly chosen to make us fall as in love with Manhattan itself as we would with Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan). To us, their friendship and subsequent love story were as much about where they went and what they did as it was about their conversations and chemistry. 

Katz's Deli is now and forever will be famous because of that scene. I myself have duplicated "there is too much pepper on my paprikash" next to the Temple of Dendur at the MET, albeit with my mom. It became a goal to replicate the image of Sally, Marie (Carrie Fisher), and Alice (Lisa Jane Persky) lunching at the Loeb Boathouse while talking about sex and the right to a good relationship. And Harry's emotional conversations with Jess (Bruno Kirby) over football games at the old Giants Stadium and while hitting a few balls at batting cages painted a perfect portrait of acceptable male vulnerability for the time. After all, it was the '80s. 

The F Word did for Toronto what When Harry Met Sally did for New York. It highlighted the city's gems, both hidden and well-known, and made us fall in love with the city as we become more invested in its protagonists' happiness. 

The film is centered around the friendship of Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) and Chantry (Zoe Kazan). The two meet at a house party thrown by Allan (Adam Driver), Chantry's cousin and Wallace's old roommate. They bond over their shared public awkwardness and mutual appreciation of fridge magnet poetry. They leave the party together, and Wallace gets Chantry's digits accompanied by a perfunctory mention of her live-in boyfriend of five years, Ben (Rafe Spall). After a chance meeting at a screening of The Princess Bride at Toronto's iconic Royal Cinema, they grab dinner at the famous George Street Diner, and their friendship blossoms. Unfortunately, so do Wallace's romantic feelings for Chantry over long walks on the boardwalk, visits to Cherry Beach, and coffee at Broadview's Rooster Coffee House with one of the best views of the city. Questions of will-they-or-won't-they ensue, as Allan and his girlfriend-turned-wife Nicole (Mackenzie Davis) badger Wallace about being honest with Chantry, and Chantry dissuades her moderately dysfunctional sister, Dalia (Megan Park), from forcing herself on an unwilling Wallace.

The F Word (or What If, depending on which title you're more familiar with) takes the tropes of virtually every rom-com that came before it and steers into the very familiar skid. Fans of the genre know that the basic premise is always as follows; Boy meets Girl; Boy loses Girl; Boy wins Girl back. Vary at your leisure or creative preference. The Meet-Cute usually happens early on, as the would-be romantic partners meet in a quirky, fun, or embarrassing manner. They bond, and gradually get to know one another — sometimes this goes well, à la Working Girl, Notting Hill, or Crazy, Stupid, Love. In other cases, this step is skipped altogether as the pair in question are already involved, such as Crazy Rich Asians, or Pretty Woman. Then there are the ones who loathe one another from the get-go, which are most of them — 10 Things I Hate About You, The Princess Bride, His Girl Friday, Moonstruck, It Happened One Night, etc.

The F Word takes these tropes and dares to suggest that Toronto is a city of love on the same level as Paris (Amèlie), Rome (Roman Holiday), or New York (take your pick).

Sometimes the couple spends the film navigating the murky waters of new love, whereas in others they spend the duration either lying to themselves (The F Word) or just genuinely enjoying each others' friendship (When Harry Met Sally). Eventually, every fling or friendship blossoms into love, and the couple find themselves at a turning point, a quagmire in their relationship that creates the make-or-break moment of conflict that raises the stakes. In the end, it always works out, one way or another. 

All this being said, tropes aren't always a bad thing. Often tired, yes, but they can be spun to serve a new and refreshing purpose. Love, Simon took the formulaic teen rom-com trope of a secret being shared and made a revolutionary standard for the LGBTQ+ community, one that was long overdue in this writer's humble opinion. 

The F Word takes these tropes and dares to suggest that Toronto is a city of love on the same level as Paris (Amèlie), Rome (Roman Holiday), or New York (take your pick). What's more is it takes the question first posed by its spiritual older sister, When Harry Met Sally, and reverses the sequence of events; rather than asking if men and women can be friends at all, it suggests that romantic relationships are strengthened by friendship, making the platonic aspects of romance equally as important as the sexual. 

When Harry Met Sally made us yearn for long walks through Central Park on a crisp fall day. It made hanging out at a museum cool and normalized frank conversations about sex in public. And while it made us fall in love with all of New York's quirks, charms, and hidden gems, it dared to suggest that men and women could, in fact, be friends, with or without the prospect of love. 

The F Word does the same for the megacity that's most known for playing virtually anywhere else on Earth, and finally lets the whole world fall in love with it the way all Torontonians have. 

From its perfunctory portrayal of aggressive cab drivers and the prevalence of house parties to impromptu dinner dates and leisurely strolls along the boardwalk, it checks every box. It tells the story of two people who deserve to be loved for who they are while capturing the heart and soul of a city that deserves the same.