A.O. Scott of the New York Times explores territory long since mapped in depth here at Ed Driscoll.com:

With a few exceptions, though — “Juno” being the current and somewhat controversial example — the rituals of heterosexual courtship no longer provide as flexible or adaptable a framework as they once did. The sexual revolution, of course, had something to do with this, since it dented the symbolic prestige of marriage and thus challenged the realism of plots that ended with wedding bells. (The quintessential romantic comedy of the revolutionary era was probably “The Graduate,” a movie that ends with the disruption of a marriage ceremony and an ambiguous escape from the altar.) And movies, after the 1960s, were able to deal more candidly with matters that had previously been addressed through indirection and innuendo.

That’s one theory, at any rate. But the movies made under the old taboos of the Production Code are far more sophisticated, and far less timid, than what we see today.

The need to bury these themes to get them past the censors in the Hays Office made for brilliant writing and great moviemaking. As did the need to use innuendo rather than overt sexuality (see: Hitchcock, Alfred). That period ended when--talk about unintended consequences--the demise of the Hays office depressed Hollywood’s box office by removing restrictions upon its writers and directors.

And yet, while the romantic comedy has almost always trafficked in happy endings, that happiness is rarely accompanied by a sense of risk or exhilaration. When you think of, say, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn — or even Doris Day and Rock Hudson — you recall the emotional combat of two strong-willed, independent individuals ending in mutual conquest. Love, in those old pictures, was a dangerous and noble sport that required skill and cunning as well as commitment. It required movie stars whose physical appeal was matched by verbal dexterity and a vital sense of idiosyncrasy. They were not real of course: Who ever met anyone like C. K. Dexter Haven and Tracy Lord, the central pair in “The Philadelphia Story?” They were better.

But then, that's a topic that Frederica Mathewes-Green explored brilliantly two and a half years ago.

The New York Times: Where the news is almost as old as our readers!