Pour your heart out
It’s nearly Valentine’s Day and time once again to think about jumpstarting your love life. What better way to kindle the flames of romance than to watch someone else do it through the perfectly timed, favorably lighted camera eyes of Hollywood.
So stop worrying about your own sad romantic state of affairs and head down to the local video-rama-megaplex for some unrealistic (but cuddly) entertainment. While you’re there, allow me to suggest one of the following selections. They’re sure to please.
“Sabrina”
Sabrina stars Audrey Hepburn as a chauffeur’s daughter who becomes the object of affection for the two sons of her father’s employer. After Hepburn returns from a French finishing school, the playboy brother immediately falls for her. His older, business-minded brother decides to intervene to save her from his womanizing sibling. Before long, he finds he, too, has fallen for Hepburn.
“When Harry Met Sally”
“I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend a day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” The quote says it all. This movie is sure to please fans of romance and comedy alike.
“An Affair to Remember” Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, high-profile types both engaged to be married to other people, meet and fall in love during an ocean voyage.
To test the depth of their commitment to each other, Grant and Kerr promise that, if they’re still in love at the end of six months, they will meet again at the top of the Empire State Building. Sound familiar? It should. Nora Ephron lifted most of this plot for her 1993 hit “Sleepless in Seattle.”
“Somewhere in Time”
Playwright Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) visits the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and stumbles upon a photograph of Elsie, an actress who made an appearance at the hotel in 1912. Richard becomes obsessed with the actress and decides he has fallen in love with her (without ever having met her). Learning from a professor that time travel is possible, he hypnotized himself so that he can travel back to 1912 and find her. In 1912, Richard finally meets her, and they fall in love. After an interlude of misty love scenes and walks through the park, Collier’s dreams are cut short by an errant penny.
“Casablanca”
This is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), an ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during World War II. Rick’s café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit that will allow them to escape to America. He is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and his wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), Rick’s true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she’s renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca.
“You must do the thinking for both of us,” she says to Rick.
He does, and his plan brings the story to its satisfyingly logical, if not entirely happy, conclusion. Casablanca boasts one of the most famous movie quotes of all time. Look for it at the end of the movie.
“Return to Me”
In this romantic comedy, a man loses the love of his life, only to find her heart beating in the body of someone new. Architect Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) is happily married until his wife Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), a zoologist, dies in an auto accident. A year later, Bob is still dealing with his loss when he meets Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver), a shy woman who waits tables in an Irish/Italian restaurant run by her grandfather Marty (Carroll O’Connor). Bob falls for Grace at first sight, and she’s attracted to him as well, but what he doesn’t know is that a year ago Grace was the recipient of a heart transplant-and that Elizabeth was the donor. “Return to Me” is one of the few love stories where the romantic icing is spread just right, so as not to make the whole cake fall.
“Roxanne”
This modernization of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac casts Steve Martin as C. D. Bates, the fearless, quick-witted fire chief of a Colorado resort town. Bates’ one of the firemen is the handsome but tongue-tied Chris McDonell (Rick Rossovich).
Both men are in love with the beautiful Roxanne Kowalski (Darryl Hannah), but Bates, adorned with a huge nose that makes Bob Hope look like Nanette Fabray, is convinced he’s too homely to win Roxanne’s heart.
Thus, in the self-sacrificing tradition of Cyrano de Bergerac, Bates courts Roxanne vicariously by feeding his rival Chris the proper romantic words and phrases. The inherent pathos in Roxanne is offset by moments of slapstick, notably the scene wherein C. D. Bates vanquishes a pair of hooligans with a tennis racket.
“Always”
Richard Dreyfuss stars as a reckless fire-fighting pilot who is killed in what was to have been his final mission. Ascending to Heaven, Dreyfuss is introduced to businesslike angel Audrey Hepburn.
Hepburn instructs the spectral Dreyfuss to pass on his aviation know-how to his young successor, Brad Johnson. He also smoothes the course of romance for his girl friend Holly Hunter, who after several months of grieving has fallen in love with Johnson.
“16 Candles”
Molly Ringwald is about to turn sweet 16, but nobody in her family pays her any attention because her older sister is about to be married. Things aren’t much better for Ringwald at school, where she quietly pines for unobtainable jock Michael Schoeffling. She in turn is followed around puppy-dog fashion by nerdy Anthony Michael Hall. For a price (a pair of her underpants), Hall agrees to set Molly up with Schoeffling. Directed by John Hughes, Sixteen Candles manages to convey teen-age angst while keeping the story lighthearted and entertaining.
“Say Anything”
Ione Skye plays a high-school valedictorian on the verge of heading to England on a prestigious scholarship. When Skye begins dating irresponsible Army brat John Cusack, her father despairs at her choice of an “underachiever.”
Pressured by her dad to break off the relationship, Skye spends the rest of the summer being pursued by the love-struck Cusack, who does everything he can to win her back.
Skye finally realizes there’s more to life than perfection when her sainted father comes under the scrutiny of the IRS.