15. OUT OF AFRICA (1985)
From shooting lions on safari to diving in a biplane over a flock of
pink flamingos, Sydney Pollack’s romance about real-life Danish baroness
Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), her life on her plantation in early
20th-century Kenya, and her love for adventurer Denys Finch Hatton
(Robert Redford) is sweeping and epic.
Maria says: After seeing this film many times, I’ve come to the
conclusion that Robert Redford was a cad. If he hadn’t gone flying off
to see some other woman he would have still been alive and come back to
Meryl. While this film would have been on my top 25, after careful
consideration – it falls down to the top 50.
The steamy romp between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in a New York
City loft changed how everyone looked at pottery, breathed new life into
the Righteous Brothers’ ”Unchained Melody,” and launched a host of
parodies. But, in this supernatural love story about a Swayze’s specter
trying to reconnect with his lover (Moore) and help her solve his
murder, it’s the tender last kiss the couple shares before Swayze walks
off into the light that’s the most touching.
Maria says: “Oh my darling, I hunger, hunger for your touch.”
That’s the song that’s playing when they get messy with the clay. Yes,
this film is fun, and feel good and is one of those rentals you can see
again and again. Top 25 for sure.
”No one puts Baby in a corner,” growls dancer Johnny Castle (Patrick
Swayze) at the overprotective dad of his new starry-eyed protégée
(Jennifer Grey). Same goes for this movie. And if you’ve got a problem
with that, we’re available for a dance-off anytime.
Maria says: Seriously, is there a question about this one. The dancing alone puts it in the top 25. Enough said
Sofia Coppola’s darkly comic romance about two lost souls (Bill
Murray and Scarlett Johansson) stuck in the limbo of a Tokyo hotel ends
with one of the great enigmatic moments in cinema history: Murray
leaning in to whisper some parting words of wisdom into Johansson’s ear.
Maria says: Why? I didn’t get this one. First of all, Bill
Murray is old enough to be Scarlett’s father. Second of all, he’s
depressed, directionless, dour. Romantic? By who’s definition?
Tim Burton’s pastel-colored, break-your-heart career highpoint — and
the beginning of many fans’ love affair with an elusive, eccentric young
man named Johnny Depp.
Maria says: This one was haunting from start to finish. I’m not
sure I would call it romantic, but it did capture my attention and
imagination.
You could make a pretty decent horror flick that featured dog
poisoning, gruesomely injured genitals, a fitness video-obsessed serial
killer, and a beautiful young woman being followed around by an
assortment of lovestruck stalkers. The Farrelly brothers decided to make
a hilarious bad-taste comedy instead.
Maria says: I know, I know – tons of people loved and laughed
out loud at this film, I was not one of them. The photo says it all:
man accidentally gets fish hook in his mouth while someone else is
fishing – this is the kind of slap stick I don’t like and can’t watch –
no matter how funny everyone else says it is. This film made me want to
slap Cameron Diaz silly.
It was a bit of a throwback — a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold fairy
tale — even when it first came out. Yet it announced the arrival of a
postfeminist princess culture, complete with Richard Gere playing an
early incarnation of Mr. Big. More than anything, it was the moment we
all fell in love with Julia Roberts.
Maria says: Having seen this film a couple of hundred times I’m
of the conclusion that yes it’s romantic – after all boy rescues girl,
and girl rescues him right back – BUT it’s slipped down on my list of
‘go to’ films. It is a throwback and I’ve become jaded, a prostitute
isn’t going to make it with a billionaire – but maybe I’m naive, maybe
in real life there are a few out there who have.
Tom Cruise’s richest go-for-broke performance. Cameron Crowe’s most
quotable script. Unbeatable support from Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée
Zellweger (in her breakout film), Bonnie Hunt, and — remember this
little guy? — Jonathan Lipnicki. Jerry Maguire is what every big-studio,
star-vehicle blockbuster should aspire to be.
Maria says: “You had me at hello.” I didn’t love this film on
first viewing, but three times the charm, and I’m a big fan of Bonnie
Hunt, who has some great lines in the film.
Though they owe a thing or two to Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in
Annie Hall, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are, by now, just as classic a
pair.
Maria says: This is a classic romantic comedy that stands the test of time.
Should scientists ever actually invent a method to wipe away memories
of unpleasant past relationships (like the intense romance Kate Winslet
and Jim Carrey tried to forget in this trippy film), be sure to tell
them not to touch the part of your brain that remembers watching
screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s most mind-blowing two hours.
Maria says: Didn’t see this one – I’m not a Jim Carrey fan, in
fact, I wouldn’t see him if he was playing in my basement. Oh, that was
harsh.
Dismiss the evenly composed, well-behaved, and gussied-up films of
Merchant Ivory as ”boring” at your own peril. A Room With a View is a
firecracker lit by its fuse, leading lady Helena Bonham Carter. Deeply
romantic, it is the apotheosis of its genre: the exquisitely made chick
flick.
Maria says: I really hate the phrase ‘chick flick’ – this was a very good film, whether you’re a man or a woman.
The cool move here would be to ignore the fact that Heath Ledger and
Jake Gyllenhaal enacted a truly groundbreaking love story — and simply
concentrate on what a gorgeous, nuanced, heartbreaking movie Brokeback
is for people of any sexual orientation. But Ang Lee’s undeniably
romantic movie did break ground. It reached, and moved, mainstream
audiences in ways that no ”gay” movie ever had before.
Maria says: Yes it was ground breaking – but also heart
breaking, and that is the reason it doesn’t make my top 25. Don’t like
heartbreak.
A labor of love for all involved (the director struggled for years to
get the film made and the two leads ended up a real-life couple), this
musical Irish indie tells the simple, sweet story of a budding
relationship (and artistic partnership) between a street musician (Glen
Hansard), made bitter by a failed romance, and a Czech immigrant
(Markéta Irglová) with her own complicated affairs. Together they make
beautiful music: the soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy, and the
opening track, ”Falling Slowly,” won an Oscar.
Maria says: What this is doing in the top 25, let alone the top 3
is astounding. This film falls into the category of “Reality Films.”
It’s very much like reality TV where you watch the ‘drama’ of people’s
lives unfold on the screen. That’s pretty much what happens here, and
there are some excruciatingly, painfully slow unfolding scenes. Even
the music didn’t carry it for me. Not on my list.
Audacious in its madcap use of music, daring in its unabashed embrace
of romance, Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge (starring
Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor) taps into all the passion of the old
movie musicals while recharging them for this century.
Maria says: This was an original. For that reason alone, it gets on my list.
The one disaster movie that’s also a primal work of popular art.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet strike romantic sparks, but the
beauty of James Cameron’s epic is that it knows all too well their
breathless affair wouldn’t have lasted had it not been for that iceberg.
In Titanic, it’s death that makes love eternal (and worthy of 100
hankies). The sinking of the ship, which plays out in what feels like
real time, is one of the cinema’s great spectacles of beauty and dread.
Maria says: Number one? Not even maybe. This film was released
in 1997 when films lasted in the movie theater for more than a week.
In fact this one broke records. Marisa and I finally saw this in the
theater six months after its initial release. We moaned throughout, we
just couldn’t believe how long and sappy this one was. They actually
sank the Titanic in ‘real time’ and we were forced to watch every
agonizing second of Leo’s demise…it seemed to take hours. We were
heartless and kept yelling at the screen, ‘Die already.” Shameful, I
know.
Friday 23 November 2012
Entertainment Weekly’s Top 25 Romantic Movies
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