The conversation is taken from the Finnish romantic comedy The Storage (Varasto, 2011). The film is based on a gritty realist novel of the same name written by the late Arto Salminen (1998). In the scene in question Karita and Antero, a new and dysfunctional couple about to have a child, are visiting his future mother-in-law whose experiences of marriage are appalling to say the least. She has faced poverty, domestic violence and cheating before her husband committed suicide. Before that he tried to kill her. Now, because of her sexual needs, the mother-in-law lives in a common-law marriage with another man who is an overweight drunk who spends his days watching sports on television. The young couple find him disgusting, but the mother-in-law defends her choice: ‘I like it when my lady neighbours are jealous when I'm out, happy and glowing with my man. And he doesn't beat me.’ Clearly, she has learnt to lower her demands and expectations when it comes to relationships.

‘(Un)romantic comedy’ was the tagline with which The Storage was advertised. In the context of the romantic comedy genre this definition is a purposeful twist on the genre because romantic comedy, contrary to Salminen's novel, is regarded as escapist entertainment that fuses the romance and comedy genres (Mortimer 2010: 4). Readings and interpretations of the novel, which has been turned into a play that was performed at The Finnish National Theatre, have been pessimistic. Director Taru Makela says that contrary to these interpretations she modelled her film on Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938)1 and other screwball comedies of Hollywood's golden era in order to heighten the comic aspects of Salminen's story (Laakso 2011). As The Storage combines conventions of the romantic comedy genre with Salminen's realism, (un) romantic comedy can be taken to mean realistic romantic comedy.