Romancing the Stone (1984)
Retro Review #62: Is there a better non-fantasy romantic comedy-adventure?
Romancing the Stone (1984)
+ Feature film, 1h 46m
+ 1️⃣/4 works in Romancing the Stone multiverse ⭐
+ 1️⃣/2 films in Romancing the Stone series ⭐
A-^
Grade: A-^ (8.0) / HOF: 15
EQ 👍A | 📖A 👥A 📽️A+ 🎼A
DW 🕶️8.2 | 🌚10 🌝8
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬇️1️⃣ 👀⬇️1️⃣ 🛐⬇️3️⃣
I am having a hard time thinking of a movie to compare with Romancing the Stone, other than its sequel Jewel of the Nile, which nearly everyone agrees isn’t as good.
It isn’t on the list of the all-time funniest movies, but it has plenty of funny moments. The romance in the movie is very good, and it can fairly be included in the rom-com genre, but it is not really typical of what you think of when you think of the rom-com genre.
That’s because it’s better described as a romantic comedy-adventure. How many of those can you think of? I’ll wait.
If you have some you can recommend, let me know in the Comments. I wish there were more. I thought of The Princess Bride and Stardust, but they are significantly different since they also fall in the fantasy genre.
Let’s see, there’s The Great Race, but it mixes in so many genre parodies that it doesn’t really seem comparable either.
Of other good movies that come to my mind, The Gods Must Be Crazy might come the closest to being a non-fantasy romantic comedy-adventure, but I don’t include it in the romance or rom-com genre. It’s borderline. I say the romance in that film is a sweet, likeable sub-plot, but not significant enough to be considered part of its genre. It’s debatable.
The romance in Romancing the Stone is not debatable. It’s right there in the title. The main character, Joan Wilder, is a romance novelist, for crying out loud!
Wilder is played well by Kathleen Turner. She was excellent as a villainess in our most recent review, The Man With Two Brains, and here she gives a superb performance as the romantic heroine. We get to savor watching Turner ably portray the transformation in Joan Wilder’s character arc as the romance writer changes from a timid character who fantasizes about life into a courageous character who embraces life.
Joan is forced into her journey of change when her sister Elaine is taken hostage in Colombia. (Supposed Colombian scenes in the movie are all actually filmed in Mexico.) It’s all about a treasure map in Joan’s possession, pursued both by the two American antiquities smugglers holding Joan’s sister, and by a murderous officer in the Colombian secret police.
As the adventure unfolds, Joan meets Jack T. Colton, played by Michael Douglas. He’s a selfish American living in Colombia to try to save enough money by hunting and selling rare birds so that he can buy a sailboat and explore the world. Jack is in no way the unselfish romantic lead as found in one of Joan’s romance novels. Which, of course, is what makes the romancing in Romancing the Stone so much fun.
Yes, I do think that Romancing the Stone might be the best non-fantasy romantic comedy-adventure movie ever. But that is in large part due to the lack of competition. As much as this movie is a favorite of mine, and as much as I really wish I could give it the highest possible praise, it falls short of greatness in a few ways.
For example, the soundtrack is not bad, but nothing special.
Minor characters? One of the funniest bits in the film involves a great performance by Alfonso Arau as a drug smuggler. But on the other hand, I don’t even want to name the actress who played Joan’s sister. Not a good performance at all.
Danny DeVito plays one of the antiquities smugglers. He’s funnier than the other one, but it’s not one of his best performances.
As a fan of Dark Whimsy, this film had some of both, but would have benefitted from more Whimsy. It was funny, but could have been funnier. A well-meaning but trouble-causing kid interfering throughout the story, might have been a possible improvement, delivering both more comedy and also a Whimsical childlike perspective.
The biggest Whimsy fail though was the excessive adult language used in the film. They avoided an R-rating by avoiding the F-word, but the stream of other words was constant, and, for me, took the movie from a 9 to an 8 on the Whimsy Scale.
Common Sense Media astoundingly rates this film as acceptable for ages 12 and up. Sorry, but I wouldn’t want my teenager cursing like a drunken sailor who is tempered only slightly by suffering under a curse where there’s one word he’s not allowed to say.
The Motion Picture Association ratings board gave Romancing the Stone a PG-rating. A few months later, they added a PG-13 to the ratings possibilities, and had it been released later, that’s probably what this movie would have received—it pushes as close to the boundary of an R-rating as possible, without quite crossing over, in pretty much every type of adult content.
I say the language alone is enough to consider this film as appropriate for adults only. I might have grudgingly looked past that, but the violence, drug usage, sexual content and near nudity are all very, very close to adults-only content as well. So in my opinion, I can only recommend Romancing the Stone as an adults-only film, which also changes its designation in Rick Retro’s Realm from Dark Whimsy to Dark Whimzy.
I hope I’m not being too hard on this film. It may not be as good as it could have been, but it is very entertaining. (Sadly, first-time screenwriter Diane Thomas died in a car accident in 1985 and never had a chance to write something even better.) Romancing the Stone won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. And Turner won the Golden Globe for Best Actress, Musical or Comedy. If you are wondering whether or not you would enjoy it, the odds are good that you would.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (3) 2025-04-16, HDX7, 2.39, 2M
+ first viewed 1984, ThX, 2.39, 2
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+ ❌1️⃣ Light adults-only content. | PGc
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Last updated 2025-04-17
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Another non-fantasy romantic comedy-adventure is The Lost City (2022). A romance writer (Sandra Bullock) is kidnapped by a billionaire who thinks she knows how to find a real-life lost city with hidden treasure, and then the cover model who portrays her fictional hero tries to become her real-life hero. Kelly and I loved it. Come to think of it, I suppose it's likely the writers were inspired by Romancing the Stone!