Valentine’s Aftermath

Valentine’s Day has passed and quite frankly, I am a little relieved.

Many of us are lucky enough to have found our one and only. We have a great partner and get to let them know how lucky we are to have that person in our lives.

But then there is that one friend. You know the one. The one who has no one in their lives, the one that seems to be a magnet for losers and users. You feel sorry for this friend because what they want more than anything is to be a part of a couple, to have that true love thing going.

Poster Image from IMDb.com

Let’s face it, movies show true love all of the time. It looks so easy even when it is not. Over the weekend I watched The Princess Bride with my kids. It is filled with action, adventure, revenge. How does Inigo get Miracle Max to save Wesley? By promising humiliation galore to the man who fired Max.

But the deepest part of the message in this movie is about true love, how it can defeat death and come back to save a person. It is about a love so strong that even when a person is being very annoying, her true love still loves her. Isn’t that the kind of love we all want? To me The Princess Bride depicts the impossible love affair that we desire but may never ever see.

Instead, we look to movies such as The Holiday starring Kate Winslet and Jack Black to show us how love can just happen. After the Winslet character has her heart broken by the cad who gets engaged to another woman, she decides to switch houses with another woman in a split second. While in L.A., Winslet meets Black who doesn’t try to sweep her off her feet. Instead, they become friends who do things together over the course of 10 days and begin to like each other.

Kate Winslet and Jack Black in “The Holiday,” Picture from IMDb.com

Now take a closer look at these two characters. Winslet and Black want to be swept off their feet with love. They are both desperate for it. At the beginning of her trip, Winslet is ready to fall in love with a handsome man on the airplane  who might be her seat mate. Black is crazy about a woman who seems to ignore his interest in her. Both are looking for that overwhelming feeling of being the only person their love sees romantically.

I believe that is what my friend wants as well. She wants that love everlasting with your best friend kind of love. If I thought she would listen to me, I would tell her to back off a little. Stop acting as if every new guy she meets has the potential to be “the one.” Don’t play impossible to get but maybe let the guy know you have stuff going on and are not always available. Take the time to pamper and love yourself. In doing that, you change your perspective of you.

Love is not always like we see in the movies. There are messy times and arguments and unreasonable behavior. If I could tell anything to my friends who are searching for love, it would be to love yourself first and the rest will follow if it is meant to be. In the

              Sleepless in Seattle                             with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan

end, perhaps what we really want is what Meg Ryan wanted in Sleepless in Seattle. She wanted to fall in love like they do in the movies despite how unrealistic it might be at times. She wanted to be swept up and feel magic at the touch of the other person’s hand.

Sometimes, when I am swamped by work and household duties and kid activities, I feel the same way.

Until next week see you in the rental aisle.

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Flashes of Kate

Family Movie Night

 

By Karyn Bowman

 

This past weekend was the first parade for the grade school band.

 

It had been a great weekend with the weather until Sunday morning when it started raining. And I wondered if it would continue raining.

 

Thankfully, the rain stopped long enough to watch the parade to the very end and get enough candy to fill a Halloween pumpkin. There were some great cars along with fire trucks and tractors galore. There were singers, veterans, and boy scouts – classic Americana .

 

By the way, the band sounded great.

 

Last week, the kids went back to school and it was none too soon. With the passing of fair and band camp, so goes summer.

 

But as the days of summer are ending, I have been thinking about Kate Winslet. I love watching movies with this British actress because she is so interesting to watch. Even when she is in a romantic comedy that is nothing special, she lights up the screen.

 

When I watch her in The Holiday, I love how her character is very vulnerable and open to new relationships. Her character is suffering from a big blow as she watches the man she loves become engaged to another woman. She is able to take a vacation in L.A. when Cameron Diaz responds to her ad for house sharing.

 

Both women are suffering from broken hearts but it is Winslet who captures our eye as she charms not only Jack Black but the old codger Eli Wallach with her wit and charm. This movie is a lightweight jaunt compared to some of her other offerings.

 

In The Reader, she plays a German nurse who is accused of war crimes years after WWII. One of the witnesses testifying against her is the man with whom she had an affair during the war years. He was a teen at the time and a part of their courtship was him reading novels to her as she was illiterate.

 

Another difficult movie is Little Children in which Winslet is a wife and mother who starts an affair with a stay-at-home dad. A Doctoral graduate in literature, Winslet has given it all up for a stifling marriage and rambunctious child. But a part of her yearns for something more. There is also a subplot about a sex offender who comes home from jail and has a difficult time settling back in due to harassment. This film is meant for adults and makes one wonder at how life moves and breathes.

 

The last movie that I really love is The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also starring Jim Carrey. The movie is set in the near future in which people can choose to have certain memories erased from their mind. Carrey and Winslet was an item but after a particularly nasty fight that leads to their break-up, she has him erased from her mind. So Carrey decides to do the same.

 

Of course, it is not that easy. Flashes keep coming back that they cannot explain. They find themselves circling around each other until they realize maybe, just maybe there was a reason for their loving emotions.

 

I would love to see Winslet do a “family” movie just because I wonder what she would do with it.

 

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

The Last Piece of Christmas

Family Movie Night

 

by Karyn Bowman

 

Image by Kevin Rosseel

This past week I noticed that there were Christmas bulbs on the new trees in our downtown area. The ornaments are in colors of green, red and gold, making our downtown look a little festive.

 

So does the new Christmas tree that is over by the railroad building. It is full and bushy, decorated as it should be for the holiday.

 

I don’t know about you but I am ready for the holidays to be over. It has been crazy busy at my house and just when I think I have a night at home another ‘holiday’ activity has found its way onto our calendar.

 

So while I hope for some time to clean my house from more than its usual wreck, I am also planning to watch a few movies on those nights I plan to wrap a few presents.

 

Once the kids go to bed, I bring out the stash of presents, paper, scissors, tape and marking pen to begin the task of making magic happen. I pick out a movie, pour out some egg nog and get to the task at hand.

 

Kate and Jack in "The Holiday," Image from IMDb.com.

One movie for this “me” time that I love is The Holiday starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet as women trading homes during the holidays. Both have broken hearts and need new sights to help the healing process. New connections are formed as these women meet the other’s family members, neighbors and friends.

 

They both find love and perhaps something more important, a renewed sense of self. It doesn’t hurt that the incredible Jude Law is one of the suitors and Jack Black shows vulnerability that makes him more accessible.

 

If I want a good cry, the Christmas movie of choice for me is The Family Stone starring Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson. Here we follow a family who is about to meet the girlfriend of one son. She appears to be as uptight as this family is relaxed or maybe its nerves and wanting to do the right thing.

 

Meeting the family in "The Family Stone," Image from IMDb.com

Of course, there are things that complicate everything. A hidden medical diagnosis, a pregnancy for one sister, another who is greatly opposed to this new person. Then there are the brothers, one of whom is deaf and gay, the other a pot-smoking filmmaker. And just when it could not get worse, the sister of the girlfriend shows up and changes the game entirely for the boyfriend.

 

But there is a moment that changes everything for me, a food disaster that leads to a moment of bonding with the women. From that moment on I cry on and off. I have done this ever since I watched this movie for the first time.

 

Let me wish you and yours  a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 

Until next year, see you in the rental aisle.