Happily Ever After

As Roberts and Ryan were becoming silver-screen rom-com queens, another comely cutie was parlaying the genre into a multifaceted (and multimilliondollar) career. Virginia-born and internationally raised, Sandra Bullock amassed a resumé of charming rom-coms — Love Potion No. 9, The Thing Called Love, Hope Floats — in rapid succession. But, having shown flickers of comic savvy in her starmaking turn in the ’94 thriller Speed, 1995’s While You Were Sleeping sealed the deal. Bullock played Lucy, a Chicago toll collector who springs into action to save her secret crush from being smooshed by a train, setting in motion a series of white-lies-meettrue-love events that make her a part of his family for real.

Family for real is also at the heart of Cameron Crowe’s 1996 award magnet Jerry Maguire, a formidable building block in Tom Cruise’s burgeoning leading-man empire. The film was America’s true introduction to Renée Zellweger, who delivered a winning, sweet and spunky performance as single mom Dorothy Boyd, who refuses to let Cruise’s titular slick sports agent fall victim to his money-hungry lesser angels. She firmly coaches him to the conclusion that love, friendship and family are the ultimate winning team.

Every romantic comedy of the ’90s took us to the same place, and it’s why we love them all.