Movies from the Heart—Romancing the Stone

Let me get it out of the way right up front—I love this movie. And audiences did too. Its budget was $10 million, and it made close to $90 million. The critics kinda liked it too.

Romancing the Stone [1984] by Diane Thomas tells the story of a shy writer of romance novels, all of which are set in exotic settings, who’s barely been out of her New York City apartment. You get the feeling that she only goes out to meet her agent—she doesn’t seem to have other friends.

And then she gets a letter from Columbia—not the university, the country—from her sister’s husband. She opens it up and it appears to be an old, hand-drawn map. She has no clue what this is all about.

And in the background, we see a nefarious guy who looks like he might threaten her, and eventually breaks into her apartment.

Later, amid the chaos of her ransacked apartment, she gets a phone call from her sister—in Columbia. And there’s so much happening—her sister’s husband has been murdered and her sister has been taken hostage—and the bad guys want the map.

So SHE has to get up the nerve to take it to Columbia. And as her agent says to her, “You’re not up for this, Joan.”

Take a look at a trailer for the film.

So we take our shy, afraid-of-her-own-shadow heroine and plop her down in Columbia amidst a bevvy of dangerous and sometimes crazy characters.

I guess I’d classify this film as a romantic adventure. And the action is pretty fast-paced. Even nearly 35 years later, the dialogue still sparkles and the action is fun and sometimes even surprising.

This is an excellent film to study if you want to look at how to incorporate action and adventure into your romantic comedy—which is not the easiest thing to do!

You should also look carefully at her character, Joan. Thomas does a great job of writing a sympathetic woman who’s not an idiot but who is working to deal with what it’s like to feel totally out of her comfort zone.

Joan also runs into a guy who she doesn’t trust—he’s asking her for money to take her through the jungle to a place where she can make a phone call. He’s out for himself, and she knows it. And yet… she kind of falls for him.

Classic good girl falls for bad guy. Of course, he’s not that bad in the end, he’s actually a good guy. And it’s a total theme park ride to see the adventure they go on together.

Oh, and a fun movie story about the making of the film. As the film was being shot, the studio thought it was… horrible. They fired the director, Robert Zemeckis from the film he was to direct next, Cocoon, and replaced him with Ron Howard. When Romancing the Stone was a great success, they now wanted to be in business with him again, and he talked them into doing a project of his he’d been trying to get off the ground for ages—a little film called Back to the Future.

Next week, back to one of our films about older romances, Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry.

Copyright © Diane Lake

21Apr24

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com