The hunter falls in love with his prey

There is a recurrent theme in romantic comedy for the hunter to fall in love with his prey. Typically, these are the bet films - She's All That, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, 10 Things I Hate About You... In all of them the romantic pursuer (both of them in ...10 Days) has an ulterior motive in pursuing the romantic interest - to win a bet, to further their career, etc., which all have in common a desire to expand their own ego.

This is not a new phenomenon, going back to Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936), the romantic engine of which is retold in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). In each case an ambitious female journalist falls in love with her subject.

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

In the ruthless pursuit of ambition an egoist trips and gets stuck on a detail, only for that detail to grow into the rest of their lives. In paving a road the weeds broke through the cracks and destroyed the road completely. A sudden crisis of conscience on seeing the consequences of their selfish, ruthless ego expansion - if only multinationals would follow suit.

And this motif recurs in 27 Dresses, when Kevin (Malcolm Doyle) does exactly the same thing to Jane that Jean Arthur did to Gary Cooper in 1936.

27 Dresses (2008) The headline pans down...

... to show Jane at her most vulnerable moment.