Thursday, February 5, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #30: Romantic Comedies





Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each.For further details visit the series main page here.


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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Romantic Comedies

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This week we're back to regular programming and with Valentine's Day less than two weeks away it's fitting that the theme this Thursday is Romantic Comedies. My picks today are favourites:

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) 
I thought Renee Zellweger was adorable as Bridget, the 30 something singleton, who tries to get her life together as part of her new year's resolution but almost always end up doing and saying all the wrong and embarrassing things landing her in some hilarious situations making this a very fun and funny watch filled with some catchy pop music.
 
Love Actually (2003)
I watch this often, it is pretty much my comfort movie. Love Actually is funny, cute and it not only feature romantic love but other types as well. And what is it with British romantic comedies???...they seem to have the best pop soundtracks.

This is a super cute fun period comedy. Desperate for a job after a recent dismissal, middle age Miss Pettigrew takes on the position of social secretary to the glamorous and charming but ditsy singer Delysia (adorably played by Amy Adams). Basically Miss Pettigrew's job is to assist Delysia in getting the West End role she is working towards including ensuring the different men Delysia is juggling do not meet and clash, including the piano player Michael who is in love with Delysia and wants her to leave with him and go to New York. 

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So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

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27 comments:

  1. Great picks! None of ours overlap at all, although I was SO CLOSE to choosing Love Actually, because it's pretty much the perfect example of this genre done right.

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    1. Cool looking forward to seeing what did end up as your picks.

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  2. I've only seen Bridget Jones. It is a solid movie. Still need to check out Love Actually, for sure. Nice picks.

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    1. No...you still haven't seen Love Actually? It's a sweet fun movie that's especially perfect during holiday periods.

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  3. I've always wanted to watch Miss Pettigrew, but I've never gotten around to it. I think it's still in my Netflix queue. Good call on Love Actually!

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    1. Watch it, it's super cute and fun. Amy Adams and Lee Pace has some good scenes together and so does Frances McDormand and Ciaran Hinds the other romantic couple in the movie.

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  4. I love Love Actually. A film that leaves me feeling all joyous and warm every single time I watch it.

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  5. Bridget Jones's Diary is such a comfort film. Great choices!

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  6. Miss Pettigrew is such a great choice! I like the others too. I agree about Love Actually being a comfort film.

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  7. I can't participate this week but I LOVE that you have Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day on here, it's such a lovely little movie. It's hugely underrated but I think people would be pleasantly surprised by it. My top three would be You've Got Mail, P.S. I LOVE You (which is unfairly maligned by critics) and Return To Me (which is another underrated rom-com I absolutely adore).

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    1. Ruth, Return to Me is a great choice, it's mixture of gentle humor and seriousness sneaks up on you. It really should be better known. I agree P.S. I Love You was unfairly knocked by critics, it shares some similarities with Return to Me. I was nice to see Hilary Swank in something besides a heavy drama. I couldn't connect with You've Got Mail, perhaps because I love the original The Shop Around the Corner, which this is an update of, so much.

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    2. I have watch You've Got Mail but that was probably in 1998 and I can't remember much. 17 years later emails are now are no longer the way to communicate and large chain bookstores are the ones going bust while it is the indies that are surviving. I've watch Return to Me too and remember liking it. And I think I stayed away from P.S. I Love You because it looks too sappy and I didn't really like the leads.

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  8. Love all your picks, especially Bridget Jones's Diary.

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  9. Miss Pettigrew is so much fun, Frances McDormand takes full advantage of being able to cut loose with a really relaxed performance. The period detail is terrific as well. Bridget Jones was okay, I would have enjoyed it more with someone beside Zellweger in the lead I think. My favorite of your three is Love, Actually. Like several others it's a comfort film for me, it's so easy going and Bill Nighy is absolutely brilliant. As light as it is overall my favorite part is Emma Thompson's heartbreaking vignette.

    Mine this week are:

    Barefoot in the Park (1967)-An appealing comedy of the first few weeks in the marriage of a young couple played by Jane Fonda and Robert Redford as they adjust to each other's idiosyncrasies. She's an expansive free spirit and he's a buttoned down attorney so obviously conflicts ensue. Jane and Bob are charming together matched by terrific performances from Charles Boyer as their eccentric upstairs neighbor and especially Mildred Natwick as Jane's flummoxed mother.

    Holiday (1938)-Cary Grant falls for heiress Katharine Hepburn's sister on a ski getaway, they return to New York and Cary meets Kate, complications ensue. Holiday's subject matter is very contemporary, the quest for what life actually means vs. the things that money can provide, it keeps it fresh despite the age of the film. While that makes the film interesting it's Cary, Kate and their delicate interplay that really puts the romance across. It's not just them though. Binnie Barnes and Henry Daniell are wonderfully venal as Kate's cousins who can easily be read as fascists. Jean Dixon and Edward Everett Horton balance them out as Cary's surrogate parents, the two of them share a marvelous chemistry as well. This also contains, along with All Quiet on the Western Front, the best work Lew Ayres ever did as brother Ned. He steals every scene he's in. While Katharine Hepburn will always be associated with Spencer Tracy and their films together are classics I've always felt that she had a stronger romantic chemistry with Cary Grant. This is my favorite of their four co-starring pictures.

    The Wedding Singer (1998)-Cute 80's nostalgic romantic comedy with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore charming the pants off the audience. Perhaps not the best constructed comedy but the leads are so disarming and the supporting cast sprinkled with good actors, Christine Taylor, Steve Buscemi, Ellen Albertini Dow, as fun characters it makes up for any weakness of direction or logic. Sandler's big breakthrough as a movie star and aside from Punch Drunk Love his best movie so far.

    Honorable mention-Last Holiday (2006) Love this film but while it has a romance as a story thread it's not strictly a romantic comedy. A remake of an Alec Guinness comedy with a gender switch and Queen Latifah stepping into the role. A hard working but unappreciated woman, who secretly pines for a co-worker, mistakenly believes she only has weeks to live and decides to blow her life savings on a last big adventure at a jaw droppingly beautiful European resort. The romance comes in when the co-worker discovers her secret crush and sets off in pursuit. Queen Latifah carries the whole film on her shoulders and has rarely been better.

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    1. I love Emma Thompson's vignette in Love Actually too. She's heartbreaking as the taken for granted wife and I love how they had her confront her husband.

      As usual I haven't seen your older picks but I pretty much love Wedding Singer and had contemplated having it as my picks but went for the English route. Really enjoyed the 80s nostalgia in it and I'm not much for Sandler's brand of comedy either but he was good in it this.

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    2. I LOVE the Queen Latifah version of Last Holiday. One of those films that I will always stop and watch whenever it is on TV. The Wedding Singer is so much fun, and I usually don't care for Adam Sandler. I also love Sandler and Barrymore in 50 First Dates, although their most recent film looks God-awful.

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    3. Holiday often reminds me of an alternate universe Sabrina. Instead of Audrey Hepburn pining for the carefree William Holden only to fall for his more level-headed brother (Bogart); Cary Grant is engaged to the level-headed sister, and falls literally head over heels for the carefree Katharine Hepburn.
      With such a talented ensemble it makes me beg the question, how did this film come to be overshadowed by Bringing up Baby and The Philadelphia Story?

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    4. Wow...it seems everyone this week have watched and love Holiday which I've only heard about through this. Thanks for the recommendation guys.

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  10. I've never seen Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day before, but I liked Bridget Jones and Love Actually. Really great choices! I liked the concept of Love Actually and some scenes!

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  11. Three great films and I personally adore them all! So glad you picked Miss Pettigrew... it's such a delight, one of those "gee, they sure don't make 'em like they used to" kinds of films! Renee Zellweger is so great in Bridget Jones. And Love Actually... I wrote it up for its big anniversary recently over at The Film Experience; suffice it to say I actually do love it, and Laura Linney's storyline is my favorite.

    Well, that and Hugh Grant dancing.

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    1. Hugh Grant dancing!! Yes! I think that's why the film is so loved, it's studded throughout with those little moments. Like Andrew Lincoln showing up at Keira Knightley's door with the cue cards. It's borderline ridiculous but swooningly romantic. Laura Linney's storyline is so moving and she nails it.

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    2. Yes...I love Andrew Lincoln story...so sweet and Laura Linney's is great as well.

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  12. Lots of great titles to choose from this week, I finally found time to join back in :)
    Great list Wanderer, of the three mentioned I have only seen one and that would be Love Actually. I almost chose that one for my list but I didn't want to overlap yours.

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  13. Excellent picks! My wife and I watch Love Actually every year when we decorate our Christmas tree. Such a good mosaic of love. Bridget Jones' Diary is a classic as well. Haven't seen your other pick, but I've definitely heard of it. Need to check it out.

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    1. Yes, its made for repeat viewing and enjoyment.

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