And here we are again, exploring the fascinating world of film through my eyes. Today let's explore the world of Romantic Comedies! Here's some of my pics this month:
1. Return To Me- (2000) David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, Carroll O'Connor and Bonnie Hunt. A woman who's been sick all her life is in the hospital dying and is given a new heart and another chance at life. Then she meets a man and there seems to be a special connection. They fall in love. Enter the quirky best friend with a ton of kids and a husband who is the comedy relief and her grandfather (who owns the restaurant where the couple meet) and his cronies who add the 'feel good' family part of the film. Then the woman finds out that the heart she has been given belonged to her love's wife who died in a car accident. How to feel now? Grace feels guilty for living when Bob's wife couldn't and Bob feels conflicted because he loves two women and feels like he's choosing one over the other. I confess I like David Duchovny and this movie I found heart warming and funny. The addition of the big family element makes it a good choice for a light-hearted comedy with a touch of drama as the couple learn how to cope with the new twist in their relationship. Enjoy!
2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding- (2002) Nia Vardalos and John Corbett. We all laughed hilariously when we first saw this popular indie film about a Greek girl still living with her parents with no friends (boys or otherwise), overshadowed by her huge, loud and obnoxious family and in need of a makeover. Wanting to change her life, she starts taking college courses (which her father is opposed to) and changes her appearance and job and starts enjoying her life for the first time. Then she meets the man of her dreams. He's good looking, sweet, and nearly perfect...other than the fact that he's not Greek. The couple sneak around at first until the family finds out and Toula is told to break up with him. Unwilling to do this since she's in love, the couple continue to see each other and become engaged. The hilarity of the engagement, the families meeting, and Toula's family taking over every aspect of the wedding is unique and watching Toula learn to appreciate her heritage instead of being embarrassed about it and her parents learning to accept a new idea (a new member of the family who isn't Greek) is the moving part of the film. Don't miss this one.
3. Notting Hill- (1999) Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant. Ever wonder what it would be like to date a movie star? Well, in this little flick Julia Roberts plays...a movie star (quite a stretch I'm sure!). Hugh Grant plays Will, a goofy but lovable travel book store owner who literally runs into the uber-popular Anna Scott, movie star, one day. A short awkward experience for a first meeting and Will is left wondering what it would be like to get to know Anna on a personal level. They meet many times under different circumstances and the good and bad of being with a celebrity makes itself known. Will's sister and friends add fun to the dynamic as well as Will's unbelievably stupid flatmate. The question ends up being: is fame really worth the price you pay for it, and how can love survive through the constant bombardment of criticism and lack of privacy that comes with the life of the famous?
4. Win a Date With Tad Hamilton- (2004) Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace and Josh Duhamel. Another date-a-celebrity movie. Tad Hamilton is America's heartthrob but behind the scenes he's a bad boy getting a bad reputation. In order to save said reputation, his manager and his agent (both hilariously named Richard Levy) devise a tactic to restore it: A 'Win a Date With Tad Hamilton' contest. Girls all over America scramble to enter and Rosalee Futch, a small town West Virginia good girl wins the contest. She's a consummate Tad Hamilton fan and can't wait for her chance to meet him. To Tad's surprise she's gorgeous and just quirky enough to catch his attention. The clincher, she's unwilling to sleep with him on their date. Her wholesomeness makes him decide he needs a change in his life and he comes to West Virginia to spend more time with her. This infuriates Pete, Rosalee's manager at the Piggly Wiggly who also happens to be her friend and the boy who's secretly in love with her. The longer Tad stays, the more Pete realizes that he's losing his chance with Rosalee. When Rosalee finds out about Pete's feelings will she choose Tad, the man of her dreams, or the hometown boy next door Pete? Good clean fun.
5. Heart and Souls- (1993) Robert Downey Jr., Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, Tom Sizemore, Kyra Sedgwick, David Paymer and Elisabeth Shue. One night 4 passengers with very different lives get on the bus not knowing it will change their lives. The distracted bus driver crashes the vehicle and there are no survivors. At the same time, a woman in a car is having a baby, very close to the sight of the crash. These 4 passengers end up tied to the newborn baby boy, Thomas. They grow up with him and are his imaginary friends, since he is the only one who can see them. They love him like he's their own child, but when they realize how hard they're making his life by just being in it, they disappear from him...though still stuck to him, they no longer interact with him and he can't see them anymore. He grows up and one day the bus with it's bus driver show up again to take them to heaven. Unfortunately for them, they were never told that the reason they were tied to this man was so he could help them with their unfinished business. Now it's a race against time to reappear to Thomas, get him to drop his whole life for a few days and help them finish their business before they move on. The hilarity of this is paramount. And his current girlfriend thinks he's going crazy. Fortunately, he is able to help each of his friends and in the process help himself. A good cast and an original premise make this one you don't want to miss.
6. The Holiday- (2006) Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black. Amanda, after breaking up with her live-in boyfriend decides she needs to get away for Christmas. Where to? How about England? She finds a cozy little cottage in Surrey and contacts the owner. Iris, finding out that the man she's in love with (who frankly has treated her badly but won't let her go) is engaged to be married is horribly upset. She hears from Amanda who wants to rent her place, but it's only available for exchange...they switch houses, cars, everything for 2 weeks. Sounds like paradise to both girls so Amanda comes to England and Iris goes to L.A. In England, Amanda meets Graham, Iris's brother, and though their relationship is at first purely physical, she finds out just what kind of man he is...a widower with two adorable little girls. In the meantime, Iris is enjoying being away from her life and she meets Arthur, an elderly man who was a screenwriter in the golden age of Hollywood and Miles who is a film composer who is funny and treats her well. So when it's time to go home, how do these women give up the men they've come to care about?
7. Confessions of a Shopaholic- (2009) Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy. Rebecca Bloomfield is a shopaholic. Brought up by ultra-thrifty parents, she has learned the pure joy of purchasing what you want...until she realizes she's severely in debt and can't pay her bills. But she also can't stop shopping. She accidentally (sort of) gets a job writing for...wait for it...a financial planning magazine who have no idea just how bad her personal fiduciary troubles are. She has a collection agent, who will do whatever it takes, out to get her and she knows nothing about finances. She is able to surprisingly write very good, and popular, financial articles by using her knowledge of shopping and the problems she's learned and writes her articles under the guise of 'the woman in the green scarf'. She falls in love with her boss, who is intrigued by this unconvential young woman. But when he finds out, on national TV no less, that she's a fraud, what will happen, and will Rebecca ever be able to control her need to find happiness only through VISA?
8. Sliding Doors- (1998) Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch. One morning Helen gets up and goes to work...and gets fired. On her way home, she narrowly misses getting on the subway and from here on the movie splits into two parts: Helen's life and how her life would have been had she got to the train on time. Amazing how one small thing can change everything. In one version, Helen goes home to find her boyfriend in bed with another woman and they break up. In the other, she gets mugged and gets home right after the woman has left and she has no idea that anything is wrong. In the first version of Helen's life, she gets a makeover, starts a new business and meets another man and falls in love. The the other, she gets a second job to try to pay bills and finds out she's pregnant, all while her boyfriend continues to cheat on her. It's fascinating to look at the different aspects of her life and it's a very original idea for a movie about what to do with life when the unexpected happens.
9. Head Over Heels- (2001) Monica Potter and Freddie Prinze Jr. Amanda is looking for a new apartment and finds a place living with 4 models, an amazing view, a huge closet and a tiny room, but it's affordable. The models are shallow and selfish but friendly and sweet as well. Amanda runs into a good looking guy with a huge dog in an unfortunate accident and realizes she's very attracted to him, but is shy because she just got out of yet another bad relationship where the boy had cheated on her. One night Amanda is looking out the window to the apartment across the street which just happens to belong to the hottie with the dog (named Jim) when she sees what she thinks is Jim murdering a woman. The police won't believe her so she and her model friends decide to be detectives and find out for themselves what happened. In the meantime, she dates Jim to try to find out his nefarious purposes from up close and winds up falling in love with him. Is he a murderer or not? This movie is very funny (the model friends are stupid but hilarious) but there are a few scenes which are a tad crude. All around a light hearted romantic comedy my husband I enjoy to watch.
10. Oscar Wilde comedies- Oscar Wilde the playwright wrote a couple of very funny comedies: The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. They've both been made into enjoyable romantic comedies. The first movie, starring Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon is about a man named Jack who while in town goes by the name of Ernest and lives the life he's always wanted to. He's in love and wants to propose to the girl but has opposition from her mother. He also has a ward, a young girl named Cecily who he takes care of in the country. He talks to his friend Angernon about his life entanglements, then goes to the country to find out that Algernon has beat him there and has taken up the name of Ernest in order to woo Cecily. A comedy of errors ensues while the two girls try to find out who is Ernest and the boys try to make the women they love, fall in love with them. The second movie respectively, was made in 1999 and stars Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver, Cate Blanchett, Jeremy Northam and Julianne Moore. Sir Robert Chilton is successful political figure with a virtuous wife, Gertrude, who he loves dearly. His friend Arthur is friends with Gertrude and constantly flirts with Robert's sister Mabel. Mrs. Chevely (who happens to be in love with Arthur) comes out of the woodwork with damning evidence from Robert's past and tries to blackmail him into voting a certain way on a proposition currently being debated about, by threatening to tell his wife about a past misdeed. Robert does not know if Gertrude would ever forgive him for the one dishonest thing he did and he has to try to find some way of still doing what's right while trying to to let his wife find out about his past. His friend Arthur lends a hand and mixups and funny dialogue and interesting situations occur while both men try to navigate through what to do with the different women in their lives.
