Comfort Movie

[intertext]

More self-therapy for the week of stress last night in the form of an unabashedly sweet but surprisingly not too brainless chick flick, The Holiday.

This is decidedly the most "chick" of the chick flicks I have seen - all female affirmation and fantasy. I can't imagine the "date" sitting through this with much pleasure, except of course for the comely Cameron Diaz and to my eyes comelier Kate Winslet, who was inexplicably playing the "plain" one, and who even more inexplicably ended up with a sweet but completely unattractive Jack Black. But the eye candy stakes on the other side were more than compensated for by the godlike Jude Law (my word, if I were 20 years younger, I would get on a plane and hunt that man DOWN!!!). Jude was playing completely against type (this is the female fantasy part) by being a totally NICE guy who weeps when Cameron is going to leave him and has two beautiful daughters whom he adores and is not even divorced, he's widowed, which is of course oh, so romantic... And of course all this sounds like a sick-making anti-feminist nightmare, except that the message seemed to be that women needed to divest themselves of attractive men who were bad for them (and find themselves an even more attractive one like Jude who would be good for them, yes, I know) and stick up for themselves and get a life, and the whole premise was that both these women were having holidays BY THEMSELVES (which of course I'm going to be doing in less than two months time) and changed their lives and it was really their decision and not because they were rescued by some man. And I'm sounding pretty incoherent, but that's probably because I'm thinking about Jude Law with his tousled blond locks and his faded blue jeans and I haven't had my first coffee yet today...

I love romantic comedies; in fact, some of my all time favourite movies fall into that genre - The Sure Thing, Say Anything, High Fidelity (oh, did I mention they also have to star John Cusack?), or Working Girl (well, a young and still attractive Harrison Ford will do nicely, too), or, of course, pretty much anything with Audrey Hepburn in it, especially if it's also starring either Gregory Peck or Cary Grant. Nowadays they do make me feel a bit "ubi sunt" and wishing I were 20 or even 10 years younger. I fear even Miss Brodie in her "Prime" was younger than I am now... sigh. This is not to say that I am not totally content with my postmodern bohemian spinster state, but... a woman can still dream.

Comments

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Ranj liked it. We saw it in a sneak preview about a week before it came out, and he found the characters engaging and the story involving.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Well, Ranj sounds like a real sweetie - but, yes, it was an engaging movie. Glad it wasn't "just" a chick flick!

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

He said it was the best thing he'd ever seen Jack Black in. :)

[lidocafe.livejournal.com]

You'll love this comment I overheard one woman make to another in Blockbuster yesterday: "I want a movie where they get together and stay together!" I know I often fall for those movies myself, even though I don't think I will. My favorite, speaking of Audrey, is Breakfast at Tiffany's, which takes Capote's story of a gay man and a prostitute and turns it into a hip and charming love story. Talk about spin!

Maybe these movies are really for those of us who are not 25 or even 30. Romance becomes more attractive once reality sets in, perhaps!

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like Breakfast at Tiffany's, but my all-time favourite Audrey movie is Charade. Audrey, Cary, and Paris, plus Henry Mancini and a sizzling script. What more could you ask for? (I think I've seen it about ten times...)

[superfoo.livejournal.com]

Aw man, I have wanted to see Holiday for so long. Chick flicks are my guilty pleasure. Some of them I love to hate (like the majority that are utter crap), but some of them I just love.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Romantic comedies, when they are done well, are like champagne, bubbly and heady and delightful. They can be just silly twaddle, but when they sing, they sing.

[superfoo.livejournal.com]

Oh, did you get my email about the letter?

[lidocafe.livejournal.com]

Yes, if they're good, they're just like champagne. If they're bad, they're like a bottle of warm Baby Duck (do they still make that stuff?).

I agree about Charade, by the way. And somehow, Cary Grant doesn't come across as a dirty old man despite being so much older than Audrey. What do you think of Reality Bites? Or Before Sunrise?

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I actually haven't seen Reality Bites. I LOVED Before Sunrise, and Before Sunset, though I liked the first one better, I think because it was so... familiar. I've lived that one.

[lidocafe.livejournal.com]

Oh, you should check out Reality Bites--it's pretty clever, and three people who aren't normally that charming (Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and ben Stiller) are all adorable in it. Plus it's got the great Janeane Garafolo as the wittier, edgier friend. Though maybe I should go easier on Ethan Hawke, since I loved Before Sunrise too. I don't think I've ever hated so much to see someone get on a train!

[lidocafe.livejournal.com]

Wait a second . . . "lived that one?" Tell me more!

[intertext.livejournal.com]

yes, and replied in the affirmative!

[intertext.livejournal.com]

...and see your gmail - sorry, misunderstood your question!