Five ridiculous romantic movie premises

This Friday sees the release of If I Stay, the Chloe Grace Moretz-helmed rom-dram in which Mia (Moretz) enters a coma after a horrible car crash that claims the lives of her entire family and must decide – does she join her family in death or remain alive to be with her indie rocker boyfriend?

On the one hand, there's the eternal embrace of the void. On the other, there's a guy with so many feelings but not enough creative discipline to write Mia a love song.

Watch the trailer, and we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did. (Join the void, Mia!)

If I Stay isn't the first instance of a high-concept heartbreaker, however.

As if it's not hard enough to just find and connect with someone in this world, movie studios have a storied history of throwing elements of magic/science fiction/straight-up nonsense in the mix, often to ludicrous results.

Here's a look at five ridiculous romantic film premises.

WHAT WOMEN WANT

Mel Gibson stars as an ad executive who gains the ability to tell what woman are thinking after drunkenly electrocuting himself while wearing lipstick and stockings in a premise that makesradioactive spider bites seem like solid science.

With great power comes great responsibility, and Mel proceeds to use his newfound abilities to steal ideas from his co-workers, market products to the masses and trick women into sleeping with him. You know, like a sociopath would.

It's the touching tale of a man who only needed to literally hear another gender's thoughtsbefore he could experience empathy.

What Women Want has the added bonus premise of taking place in an ad agency, which means you spend two hours watching commercials under the guise of plot points.

SLIDING DOORS

The premise of the Gwyneth Paltrow-starring Sliding Doors is that your entire life can hinge on whether you catch a train, and wouldn't it be interesting if we explored those two realities? (No, it wouldn't.)

But a more accurate accounting of the premise would be that your entire life can hinge on whether you catch your partner consciously coupling with another woman.

Either way you're getting two films for the price of one. In one reality you've got Blond Gwyneth and in the other you've got Brunette Gwyneth but in both she'll affect a British accent anddate men nowhere near as attractive as she is.

Which of the lives proves to be better for ol' Goop?

Well, (SPOILER) Blond Gwyneth dies (yep. DEAD. This is a rom-com, right?), so in our books, it's infinitely better to be Brunette Gwyneth.

Don't feel too bad. One had to die, as a world with two Gwyneth Paltrows would rip the universe asunder.

Einstein said that.

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE

Based on the novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife is bold enough to ask: "If you could travel through time, would you go back and hang out with your wife when she was a child?"

If you answered yes, congrats! You're a creepster!

Literally nothing else that happens in this movie matters.

At one point Eric Bana (creepy time traveler) suspects that his relationship withRachel McAdams (creepy time traveler's wife) might be "too weird," but she quickly disabuses him of this notion.

Here is some actual dialogue from the film:

Bana: Is it too weird?

McAdams: No … I mean, it's kind of magical

Who taught you about magic, Rachel McAdams?! That is bad, bad magic.

We can only hope that something was lost from the book, where perhaps they had an extra 200 pages of nuance to explain why visiting your wife as a kid is not mega-creepy.

THE LAKE HOUSE

The couple that couldn't be stopped in Speed reunite to bring you what is essentially You've Got Supernatural Mail.

Thrill as Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock hastily pen love notes! Marvel as they wait eagerly besides mailboxes!

The premise of this rom-dram is that Reeves and Bullock both own the same lake house but he owns it in 2004 and she owns it in 2006 (it should be noted, both times when e-mail was firmly ensconced in the culture) and communicate to each other, across the seas of time, via letters in their shared mailbox.

A few points:

1. Wait … what?

2. The lake house with which Bullock and Reeves are both completely enamored is made entirely out of glass, making it a poorly insulated box where everyone can see you naked. Cozy!

3. If you can communicate with someone two years in the future, the ONLY things you should be asking about are gambling and stock tips. Maybe then you'll be financially solvent enough to keep your see-through house.

4. WAIT … WHAT?

Eventually Sandra and Keanu meet and make out but it doesn't involve Dennis Hopper so who cares?

KATE & LEOPOLD

It's a real fish-out-of-water story. In that, you'll feel like you're slowly dying of asphyxiation while watching it.

Long-short: The Duke of Albany, Leopold (Hugh Jackman), travels from 1876 to 2001 via a time portal that can only be accessed by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge (duh) wherein he meets Kate (Meg Ryan) an accomplished and effective businesswoman successful at everything but love. They overcome the trials of time-displacement and fall for each other.

But the duke is forced to go back to his own time because ever since he arrived in 2001, elevators (which he invented) stopped working and let's face it, no love story is worth having to walk up five flights of stairs in a New York summer.

BUT BUT … no worries because Kate decides to follow him back to 1876 because – and here is the important lesson, young girls – no successful career or sense of self or even appreciation of modern conveniences is more important than the love of a handsome, charming and well-meaning duke.

They live happily ever after as Kate tries to forget about indoor plumbing and her right to vote.