There are so many romantic comedies made, but very few dramas or

Gina Prince-Bythewood, a storyteller of depth and vision, once said: “There are so many romantic comedies made, but very few dramas or love stories. And with a love story, you have to take time to develop three-dimensional characters.” These words carry the wisdom of one who understands the difference between light amusement and profound art. For they remind us that while laughter may charm for a moment, it is depth of character and truth of emotion that carve themselves into the heart forever.

The ancients knew this distinction well. In the theater of Greece, Aristophanes made audiences laugh with comedies of wit and absurdity, yet it was Euripides and Sophocles who shook souls with the weight of tragedy and the depth of human longing. Comedy delights, but drama reveals; it opens the secret wounds of the human spirit. Prince-Bythewood’s lament is that the modern stage and screen, like the marketplace of old, too often offer light fare in abundance, but neglect the weightier bread that nourishes the soul.

A true love story, as she declares, is not quick. It cannot be painted in shallow strokes or rushed in a few playful scenes. It requires time, patience, and honesty. The lovers must be shown in their fullness: their flaws as well as their virtues, their fears as well as their passions. To develop three-dimensional characters is to acknowledge that love is not a fairy tale, but a struggle and a journey. Only then does the story rise above charm and become truth.

Consider the tale of Romeo and Juliet. Though their story is often remembered as romance, Shakespeare gave them not only passion, but depth. Juliet wrestles with obedience to family and longing for freedom; Romeo stumbles between youthful impulse and true devotion. Their tragedy endures not because it is sweet, but because it is filled with the fullness of human contradiction. The comedy of young love could have been amusing for a season; the drama of their love has endured for centuries.

Prince-Bythewood herself embodied this truth in her film Love & Basketball. It was not a lighthearted romantic comedy, but a love story built with patience. The characters were given space to grow, to struggle, to fail, and to rise again. Their love was not simple, but layered, conflicted, human. This is the art she champions: not fleeting amusement, but a mirror held up to the real complexity of human hearts.

Her words also carry a lesson for life itself. Too often, we prefer the quick laugh, the easy distraction, the shallow engagement. But love—true love—requires depth. It demands that we see others not as flat characters, but as whole beings, with histories, wounds, and dreams. To build a three-dimensional character in a story is the same as to honor the fullness of a person in life. Love without such recognition is fragile; love that honors it is enduring.

So I say to you, seekers of truth: do not be satisfied with the abundance of shallow tales, nor live your own life as a fleeting comedy. Seek out the dramas, the love stories, the places where the soul is revealed in its fullness. When you love, take time, as the wise director says, to see the other as three-dimensional, as vast and complex as yourself. For only then will your story, like the greatest of the ancients and the deepest of the moderns, endure beyond the moment and shine into eternity.