Ever After
Ever After is one of those films that I keep expecting to outgrow, but somehow I never do. It is a retelling of the Cinderella story, which is cliche in itself, but it somehow manages to sidestep any of the more tedious portions of the tale, and brings a whole new- and yet shamelessly romantic- story to light. Cinderella (here named Danielle,) is played by Drew Barrymore as a modern woman in Renaissance-era France. Despite being chronically used and abused by her wicked stepfamily, Danielle is intelligent, well-read, compassionate, and a great contemporary thinker, and through a series of events finds herself under the eye of Prince Henry, a restless royal who finds his life of duties and expectations suffocating. Unlike in most versions of the story, Danielle and Henry are given time to grow and learn to love one another; they bicker, they irritate each other, and yet they are entirely enthralled by each other. Lush and beautiful, yet entirely modern in its retelling, this fairytale is one it seems will always enchant me.
Blue Valentine
When I say I like movies about love, I don't necessarily always mean the "happily ever after" type of love. There is a place and time for that; however, I'm also interested in love that doesn't end well. Love is a finicky thing, and often, when love is built on mistakes, personal failures, and violated expectations, it doesn't end quite as planned. Such is the case with Blue Valentine, an interpersonal drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as a pair of broken people who fall hopelessly in love as young adults, but whose love turns to disappointment and resentment as time wears on. At the beginning, Dean (Ryan Gosling,) is a hopeless romantic, singleminded and determined, but not ambitious. Cindy (Williams,) is an insecure person whose history has damaged her, and though she initially isn't charmed by Dean, begins to fall for his friendliness and easy nature. They marry under circumstances that are not promising, and within 10 years, they have drifted apart. Dean is unemployed, lazy, and has completely let himself go. Cindy is the breadwinner, overstressed and always tired, who has lost faith in her intelligent but unambitious husband. Watching them fall apart is fascinating, and also disheartening. Love can fail. It's unfortunate, but it can, and Blue Valentine is a painful but poignant image of what doomed love is: heartbreaking, slow, and altogether devastating.
Enchanted
Everyone is familiar with the way Disney romances go- a beautiful girl and a handsome boy meet, fall immediately in love, and almost without a word, are whisked away into a happily-ever-after. Enchanted, a clever and insightful Disney film released in 2007, lovingly disarms the old Disney formula while also honoring its legacy, and the result is a charming, funny, genuinely heartfelt film about the limits of fairytale love and the eternal hopefulness of real ones. Giselle (Amy Adams) is a fairytale maiden from an animated world who is about to wed the prince of the land (whom she met the day before,) when she is cursed by a wicked witch (of course!) and banished to a frightening land with "no happily ever afters"- New York City. There she meets Dr. McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey, as Robert, a divorce attorney whose negative experiences with love in and out of the workplace have left him a bit soured on romance altogether. They are an unlikely but enjoyable couple, with Giselle's plucky charm and Robert's slowly melting heart as charming a pair as ever was on screen. More to it, it's fun to watch Giselle's growth- she starts out all starry-eyed about romance and believes in 'true love,' which is without anger or sadness or hurt feelings, just blissful, ignorant ever after. When she starts to learn about real relationships, which are often fraught with all those things, she finds them alarming at first, but over time realizes that those things are what makes relationships stronger and more human. Once she loses that innocence, she can't ever get it back, but at the end she appreciates just how powerful a real romance can be.
Crazy Stupid Love
I'm not a fan of most romantic comedies, since most of them are inane, pandering things that rely on cliches and broad characters, but Crazy Stupid Love is a notable exception. Sharp and funny, it's the story that balances multiple characters and their romantic entanglements; from Cal (Steve Carell,) as a thoroughly despondent man whose wife has just left him; his ex-wife Emily, who is balancing her own mixed feelings about her divorce and the attentions of her former lover, with whom she had a brief affair; Jacob, a cool and sophisticated urban bachelor who takes Cal under his wing with aims to spiff him up, so he can win Emily back; and others, all hoping to reunite or be united with their true love. There are lots of excellent stories here, but Cal and Jacob's dynamic is the most enthralling; Cal is in his forties and schlubby; Jacob is a suave 20-something with the world in his hands and beautiful women in his bed. Their relationship is a truly enjoyable one, and the supporting cast, particularly Emma Stone as Cal's college-age daughter, are remarkably good as well. It's a hopeful, heartwarming look at modern relationships and their expectations, as well as being just a plain enjoyable romantic comedy. If you haven't seen Crazy Stupid Love, rent it for your valentine immediately- it's worth every minute.
I am a huge fan of indulging in shameless romance (so long as that romance isn't written by Nicholas Sparks,) and Moulin Rouge is just that. If you happen to be a fan of musicals as well as love stories, Moulin Rouge is practically Nirvana- sweeping romance, endless faith in love, a tragic ending (sniff!), and classic pop tunes redone in a musical style, as well as Baz Luhrmman's theatrical visuals make Moulin Rouge a real treat. It is shamelessly sentimental in its own way, and anyone who grows weary of endless dialogue about love and how awesome it is might want to stay away. But for lovers at heart who crave high emotion and intense passion (or just a really weird rendition of "Like a Virgin" done by a man in a tuxedo with a handlebar mustache,) Moulin Rouge is pretty much everything you could want in a movie. Just be sure to turn it off before the curtain falls... if you want to keep the smile on your face.
Brokeback Mountain
It is truly unfortunate that this masterpiece of a film is often tritely written off as "the gay cowboy movie." It is about two cowboys in love, yes, but to reduce it to simply that makes it sound unimportant and small. This little film is not small; it is not only a masterpiece of a film in presentation and execution, but it is enormously influential. It is the first mainstream romance film marketed as exactly what it is- a passionate, sexual romance between two men who would otherwise be read as straight, red-blooded types, and it forced the public to really consider their stance on the issue. Not much is made of the gay issue within the film; it's a story about two ranchers, Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllanhaal) who find themselves falling in love with each other in the early 60s, a time when a very hint of homosexuality was taboo and could be life threatening. Jack is the only character that actively seems to be "gay," in our definition of it. He seems more open to the idea than Ennis, the quiet, long-suffering beneficiary of his love. Ennis never reveals his thoughts on Jack until the end; in a truly powerful, heart wrenching performance by the late Heath Ledger, Ennis is a man of few words and many thoughts. He greatly fears his affection of Jack, so much that it renders him near immobile with fear. Through the years, the two men marry women, father children, and go on about their lives, but continue to love each other. It's the story of a love that cannot be, and it ends in just the way that Ennis feared all along. Passionate, moving, and quiet, Brokeback Mountain is a true testament to sacrificial love, and a remarkable portrayal of what love is when it simply cannot speak its name.
Closer
Remember when I said that I don't always like movies where everything ends well? Well all certainly does not end well for these four characters, who all go about attaining, keeping, and losing love in their own way. It's more of a mood piece than a narrative; the film is based on a play by the same name, with only four characters in the entire cast. Together, they take lovers, lose them, betray them and long for others, regret it, and change up again. They do not seem to be people who truly understand love- not sacrificial love, not unconditional love, but love that is self serving. The plot can be slow and hard to follow for some, but for those who like mood pieces with much to say about love, if about nothing else, it can be quite a treat. My favorite part of the film is the dialogue. It's sharp and poignant, dart-like and vague, romantic and hopeless, all at once. "Have you ever seen a human heart? It looks like a fist, wrapped in blood! Go fuck yourself! You writer! You liar!"
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This is a film that I just has to admit has personal value to me. It's the story of a world where you can erase someone from your memory, as if you never knew them. It's now a profitable business- ex-lovers and neglectful parents can now be wiped away, and you will never feel or remember the pain they inflicted on you. But would it be worth it? Would you trade in the good memories for the chance to erase the ones that aren't so good? That's the question the film raises. It tells the story of Joel (Jim Carrey), a man whose impulsive ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet,) has him erased from her memory, and feeling hurt by her lack of hesitance about banishing him from her mind, decides to do the same. In a medically induced deep sleep, he relieves his memories with Clementine one by one, as they are snatched away from him, and halfway through, he realizes that he doesn't want to lose her. Their relationship was tumultuous- she was free spirited, unorganized, artsy, prone to excess, and insecure. He was introverted, thoughtful, resentful, and sometimes neglectful. They fought and didn't always communicate well. This is how real love is- because it is imperfect, does that mean it isn't real? The film itself is remarkable- the visuals are the best I've seen, and it creates a very real world in which what we know and love can be taken away from us at the blink of an eye. Jim Carrey, who has made a name for himself playing absurd characters with huge personalities, is excellently reserved here; if there was ever any doubt he could be a 'real' actor, there isn't now. Clementine is one of my favorite characters ever- she shares a few traits with the typical Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, in that she's creative and quirky and dazzles Joel with her eccentricities. But she is definitely not a MPD; she is deeply flawed on her own, and actively rejects men who use her as a 'concept.' She doesn't exist to give Joel a sense of the wonder of the universe, but rather she exists alongside him as a realistic, broken person just searching for her other half. In truth, Eternal Sunshine is a film I revisit often because I find it soothing; it always allows me to be taken away, and come back refreshed. Memories are painful, but they are part of us, and most of us would rather keep all the ones, even the ones that hurt, than lose them and ourselves in the process.
