Exclusive blog tour content written for you by Nicola Doherty
My Top Five Time-Travelling Rom Coms
Why do we tend to find time travel in rom coms rather than in science fiction films? I think it’s because it allows us to ask the ‘what if’ questions that fascinate us. What if you could be a teenager again? What if you could meet your own parents when they were young? What if you had to live the same day over and over again? Oh, and time travel also allows for all of the mishaps, misunderstandings and complications which make a story fun! Here are my Top Five Time-Travelling Rom Coms …
1) 13 Going On 30
Jennifer Garner is brilliant as a thirteen-year-old who wishes she could escape her teenage years … and wakes up as a 30-year-old. She doesn’t like the person that she’s become; she’s cold and selfish and estranged from her best friend Matty (Mark Ruffalo). So she sets about improving her adult life by (among other things) singing ‘Love is a Battlefield’ into her hairbrush during a slumber party. And making everyone at a snooty magazine party do the Thriller dance. With a brilliant eighties soundtrack and Mark Ruffalo: what more could you want?
2) Groundhog Day
One of the best romantic comedies of all time. It’s a brilliant concept: grumpy weatherman Bill Murray has to relive one day over and over – stuck in the small town of Punxutawney, Pennsylvania, waking every morning to the sound of ‘I Got You Babe’ on the radio. At first, it’s hell, but he manages to change it into heaven. Like It’s a Wonderful Life this has a simple and beautiful message: every life, no matter how seemingly humble and unimportant, can have meaning if you live it to the full.
3) Back to the Future
This Spielberg classic needs no introduction. It’s quite a daring film in that Marty McFly goes back in time to the 1950s where his own mother develops a crush on him (and in fact Disney rejected it for that reason). But he manages to set it all right in the end – until Back to the Future II of course. When I first saw it I was very taken with Michael J. Fox in his snazzy red gilet; especially when he plays ‘Johnny B. Goode’ – a scene that was nearly cut, apparently, as it didn’t advance the plot, but test audiences loved it.
4) Sliding Doors
This isn’t strictly speaking a time travel rom-com … But it asks a similar ‘what if’ question about the tiny events that affect our lives. Gwyneth Paltrow’s life splits into two when she misses a tube train: in one path, she finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her and in another, she doesn’t. I love the way they resolve the two parallel universes at the end and I drew a little bit of inspiration from it when I was writing the ending of If I Could Turn Back Time.
5) Peggy Sue Got Married
I have a confession: I have not actually seen this 1986 film yet. But it sounds amazing: it’s about a woman (Kathleen Turner) who faints at her high school reunion, and wakes up as a teenager 20 years before. What a great concept, and one I might have to steal for a future book …
I would like to thank Nicola for appearing o The Book Corner and I wish her every success with her book 'If I could turn back time' I know it is going to be massive!
You can follow Nicola on Twitter: @nicoladoherty_
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