Thursday Movie Picks-Romance

Ok...so this theme is huge because we could go epic to small to sappy and crappy. I am not one for typical Romance films because I find them kind of boring or irritating because I want to slap one or the other for not just communicating what they feel or mean. Sorry, but I find the Notebook both, except when James Garner and Gena Rowlands are on... Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams bored me to tears and I wanted to slap them. Head over to Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the others have chosen....here are my 3....

1.  BRIEF ENCOUNTER-1945

Sublime! I love this film and consider it brilliant and a realistic portrayal of an affair. No one is evil, no one is wrong even if one should not have an affair, you understand how it comes to be and how guilt comes into power as it usually does. The people are not the beautiful types of Hollywood but a bit more normal. You want someone to be a villain but there are none just a woman who is lonely and a bit bored, a husband who loves her but is absent and the man who enters her life who is also a good man. The 2 would be lovers meet on a train station when she has something in her eye and the doctor helps her out. They start to talk and over time, they keep meeting at the train station until they realize they would like something more. Well written and acted, it is an intelligent film that stands the test of time.

2. SUMMERTIME-1955

This is pure romance with the stunning locale of Venice, David Lean as the director, Katherine Hepburn as a, you guessed it, spinster and Rossano Brazzi(who??) in his typical pursed romantic lips as the man who woos Kate. She comes to Venice on a once in a life time vacation to experience Venice in all its romantic splendour never mind the people who throw out their garbage (my mom went there, after the war,  and hated the smell, the garbage and the rats in the canals.....it is not like that now). She meets Rosanno who sweeps her off her feet for a once in a life time romantic experience. There is one scene where she does the stunt-she falls back into a canal, this gave her an eye infection that she suffered with for the rest of her life so...never swim or dip your toe in Venice. Oh and I love it when she gets her hair done...and it looks the same as before...hahahaaa

3. RETURN TO ME-2000

I can’t remember if I chose this before but I don’t care as I really like this small movie that was a dud at the box office. David Duchovney, of X-Files fame, plays a happily married man to a zoologist and Minnie Driver plays a young woman in need of a heart. David’s beloved wife is killed in a car accident which sends David into a deep abyss and his dog waiting by the door for his mom. Minnie can now do things and live again much to her dad’s happiness. Her dad(Carroll O’Connor) owns a restaurant where his daughter helps out and, a year later, David and his friend go to this restaurant for a bite to eat. David meets Minnie and is smitten but, of course, neither know the true connection even when his dog loves her and the zoo animals take to her as well. It is a sweet movie that I think is well written with a fun supporting cast.

Bonus...

LA-LA LAND-2016

I love musicals and heard this was great so I saw it last summer and....I was not enamoured with it. Maybe I was wanting more like the great musicals of the 1930s to the 50s but it didn’t work for me. I liked the costumes and the cinematography as well as some of the songs but I found something missing. The leads were not dramatic enough for me which might be the wrong word to use. Emma Stone was good although her voice was thin but ok, but Ryan Gosling can’t sing worth beans. He hits the notes but big deal. He is excellent with playing the piano but he can’t dance and can’t sing and he might be balding a Little:) I hope you got my little Fred Astaire reference. I wanted to like it more but I can’t.

What would you choose?