Is This The Return Of The Rom-Com?

In recent years, there's been a serious lack of romantic comedies in theaters. Traditional rom-coms in the vein of When Harry Met Sally and Bridget Jones' Diary have given way to silly comedies about bromances or dark dramas about troubled marriages. The few true rom-coms that've been released in the past few years have typically not been very good, and the few that have been — Enough Said, Silver Linings Playbook — still fall slightly outside the genre's norm. So it's refreshing to see the trailer for Lake Bell's Man Up , a romantic comedy that looks like a movie that for once might actually fit the category's definition.

Released on Friday, the preview for Man Up, directed by Ben Palmer, has all the elements of rom-coms past: appealing stars (Lake Bell and Simon Pegg), a cute plot twist (she takes the place of his blind date and doesn't tell him), and a romance-testing conflict (he finds out). Sure, it's predictable, but so what? All the best romantic comedies are, and this one comes with British accents and amazingly bad dancing. Plus, it's written from a Black List script (meaning it's good), is from the director of The Inbetweeners, and features enough bad bowling, sex jokes, and loud-mouthed family members to win over practically anyone.

Unfortunately, there's no set U.S. release date just yet, but the movie comes out in the U.K. May 29; hopefully its American premiere will be shortly thereafter. Update: the film will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19.

You can watch the trailer below:

Image: StudioCanal