I love lists, and I also love the idea of having a handy list of things to consider for a rainy afternoon or to recommend to others. So I thought I'd put together a list of favorite romance movies. It's heavy on period drama but in other ways is kind of eclectic.
1. definitely, maybe
Great cast: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks, and Isla Fisher. Derek Luke plays the roommate. To me, this is a "grown-up" romance, one that acknowledges grown-up issues like job loss and divorce, and most of all, offers a touching love story in the relationship between the protagonist and his 10-year-old daughter. That's the center of the film and its most satisfying component (besides the fact that the daughter has the most wonderful bedroom ever, with white Christmas lights wrapped around her bed). This film had me at "hello": the titles sequence begins with Sly and the Family Stone's "I Love Everyday People".
2. True Romance
Despite its title, a film with quite a bit of violence and some grit. Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater are the lovers on the run. Most memorable is James Gandolfini's breakout performance as a gay hitman who's a good listener.
3. Pride and Prejudice
1995 edition. Because: Colin Firth. That's a bit of a glib remark and while entertaining, and true, not quite sufficient. There's many reasons to like this adaptation. One, I think, is because the novel is served far better here in a longer adaptation meant to convey the sexiness that the reader understands. The performances are fantastic: Firth and Ehle, but also Alison Steadman, Ben Whitrow, David Bamber and many others. It was so fun to see Lucy Briers (Mary) again in Parade's End. Some have criticized Steadman's performance for being too broad but I feel that it underscores the humor that may not always be obvious to readers and viewers that are new to Austen. This film contains my favorite Austen quote, here in the mouth of Mr. Austen: “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”
I think that sums up the humor of Pride and Prejudice, and how a domestic drama about a few families in a village can contain worlds of psychological truth and humor.
1. definitely, maybe
Great cast: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks, and Isla Fisher. Derek Luke plays the roommate. To me, this is a "grown-up" romance, one that acknowledges grown-up issues like job loss and divorce, and most of all, offers a touching love story in the relationship between the protagonist and his 10-year-old daughter. That's the center of the film and its most satisfying component (besides the fact that the daughter has the most wonderful bedroom ever, with white Christmas lights wrapped around her bed). This film had me at "hello": the titles sequence begins with Sly and the Family Stone's "I Love Everyday People".
2. True Romance
Despite its title, a film with quite a bit of violence and some grit. Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater are the lovers on the run. Most memorable is James Gandolfini's breakout performance as a gay hitman who's a good listener.
3. Pride and Prejudice
1995 edition. Because: Colin Firth. That's a bit of a glib remark and while entertaining, and true, not quite sufficient. There's many reasons to like this adaptation. One, I think, is because the novel is served far better here in a longer adaptation meant to convey the sexiness that the reader understands. The performances are fantastic: Firth and Ehle, but also Alison Steadman, Ben Whitrow, David Bamber and many others. It was so fun to see Lucy Briers (Mary) again in Parade's End. Some have criticized Steadman's performance for being too broad but I feel that it underscores the humor that may not always be obvious to readers and viewers that are new to Austen. This film contains my favorite Austen quote, here in the mouth of Mr. Austen: “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”
I think that sums up the humor of Pride and Prejudice, and how a domestic drama about a few families in a village can contain worlds of psychological truth and humor.
4. North and South
If you loved Pride and Prejudice, you will also love North & South, adapted from Mrs. Gaskell's novel, with Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe, which has many similarities in the unfolding of its love story. Sinead Cusack gives an outstanding performance as Richard Armitage's mother; her unwavering firmness feels real and gives the love story some ballast.
5. Persuasion
Also 1995. Persuasion is my favorite Austen novel, with its promise of second chances. Another wonderful cast, directed by Roger Michell: Amanda Root, and Ciaran Hinds, in the leads, along with Sophie Thompson, Susan Fleetwood, Corin Redgrave, Fiona Shaw, Samuel West, John Woodvine, Robert Glenister, Richard McCabe, Phoebe Nichols, Simon Russell Beale. I loved Susan Fleetwood as Lady Russell, and Sophie Thompson's Mary was a revelation: she's the best Mary I've seen. Samuel West was the perfect Mr. Eliot. I understand that Austen rewrote her first draft of this novel and greatly lengthened the ending, including Captain Wentworth's climactic letter:
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.
It's impossible to imagine the novel without this letter. (I recently read that after Austen had completed the novel, she picked it up again, revised it completely, and gave it this new ending.) Good grief! The movie's worth watching for this alone.
It was filmed in Bath, a beautiful city filled with Georgian architecture, another reason to watch.
6. Vintage films:
It Happened One Night
My Man Godfrey
The Little Shop Around the Corner
Ball of Fire
The Lady Eve
It Happened One Night
My Man Godfrey
The Little Shop Around the Corner
Ball of Fire
The Lady Eve
