Minnie Driver for Rom-Com Hall of Fame

I am not a Rom-Com (romantic comedy) type of guy (although I admit to being a complete sucker for You've Got Mail). However I have seen enough of the genre to be taken aback by Grantland's Rom-Com Hall of Fame: Champions and Challengers. About half way though the (long) article I kept wondering "when are they going to mention Minnie Driver?" But they never did.

I would argue that Minnie's three year run of Debi Newberry in Grosse Point Blank (1997), Skylar in Good Will Hunting (1997) and Jane in Disney's Tarzan (1999) was as good a run than anyone who made the list. Maybe she's not included because her career was like Sandy Koufax's but instead of retiring after the 1966 World Series she quit the major leagues and went on to pitch in the Pacific Coast League (nothing really memorable since Y2K).

Maybe it was the quirkiness of Minnie Driver and the quirkiness of her major roles that kept her from the list? But for people smart enough to see that Jerry Maguire was not a sports movie but a rom-com to not see that Good Will Hunting was also a rom-com at its heart is frustrating. An off the charts broken genius is healed by Robin Williams cracking therapy enough to chase the woman of his dreams is the basic plotline of Good Will Hunting. Sure Minnie Driver's character did not get jilted at the altar like many of the women on the list but in Grosse Point Blank she did get jilted at the senior prom! And Tarzan and Jane is one of the most historic romantic pairings in all of literature. People forget that Tarzan loses Jane in the original Edgar Rice Burrough's book. He gives her up to a lesser man because he thinks that's what will make her happy.

Quirky Minnie Driver should have made the Rom-Com Hall of Fame Challengers list! There I said it! How do you like them apples?