| Posted by Lou | The time is 3.00pm here in London UK |
Favourite love story in a film
I've just spent some quality time in front of my DVD collection contemplating this one. Some seem too sad (where was the devastation of Brokeback Mountain when I was writing my sad list?), others too intoxicatingly heightened (Moulin Rouge). Here are the four I've come up with that are neither exagerrated or tragic, with advance apologies to the many of you disgusted by my love for the last one.
When Harry Met Sally
This is a definite contender for Greatest Romantic Comedy of All Time. Neither lead is perfect, there are no plot falsities keeping them apart, the dialogue sparkles, it's warm and funny, and utterly believable. Also: bonus points for a high level of NYC content.
For those of us long-term singletons, isn't it a dream that one day someone with whom you share an easy and comfortable friendship with will turn out to be the love of your life? (Unfortunately I have zero contenders for this!)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I love the ordinariness of this relationship - that it is two perfectly normal people with normal people's problems and insecurities, all wrapped up in a mind-fuck of a plot.
The journey of seeing their relationship intensify and recede as we spin between the bitter end and the disappearing romance of the beginning, while his subconscious battles against the loss through a surreal landscape, is a stunning achievement of cinematic writing and direction.
Sense And Sensibility
You didn't think I'd write this list without a bit of Austen did you? In this case I have to go for Emma Thompson's adaptation of Sense of Sensibility, specifically the love story between her Marianne and Hugh Grant's Edward.
I'm biased towards this one as I am a sucker for people who get together in the end in spite of sense and shyness getting in the way of taking a proactive approach. The scene where he tells her it is his brother who married and she lets out a sob is a guaranteed tear-jerker for me.
The Notebook
You knew it was coming. From falling asleep on first watch and thinking it was the most boring film of all-time, I am now a complete sobber even after a half dozen viewings. But you're wrong about what part of the film I refer to - it's not the idealised courtship of yesteryear between Our Ryan and Rachel McAdams (complete with passionate kiss in the rain) that gets me.
In The Notebook we see the tailend of a love story - the two people who have spent a life together and find the ravages of dementia stripping it all away. Heart-breaking to think how many times this is played out in the real world.
Oh, and did I mention Ryan?
That time I said I'd only seen Half Nelson and was therefore not an expert on Ryan Gosling but still smitten? I was lying. I have sat through the Notebook. It was the most painful two hours of my life, since my friends LOVE it and I could not hide my feelings about it.
I really liked the clothes in The Notebook......??
Oh and good call on Eternal Sunshine. I also loved how that film showed the parallel love story of the inevitable affair between Wilkinson & Dunst's xters...
I only accept criticisms of The Notebook from people who have watched it a second time, late at night, by themselves. Otherwise I do a patronising smile and think "I used to feel like that..." ;-)