Six LDS Writers and A Frog

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

What Are Your Three Most Romatic Movie Moments?

A couple of years ago, my wife and I had friends over to the house and one of the wives asked what everyone’s favorite romantic scene from a movie was. For some reason my mind went totally blank. Ask me my favorite action scene, (The first five minutes of the first Indiana Jones movie), comedy scene (the Ned Ryerson series in Ground Hog Day), bad guy (Hannibal Lechter), fight scene (the second Mr. T fight in Rocky 3), and I’m good to go. But romance. Hmmm.

You don’t exactly win brownie points for naming your favorite fight scene on Valentines Day, though. So, with many deep sighs and significant head scratching, here are my three favorite romantic movie scenes.

1) Pretty much the whole movie The Notebook. I don’t know why, but for some reason that movie just gets me. There are so many memorable romantic scenes. My favorite is probably not the one most people think of though. It’s where James Garner’s kids come to try and get him to leave the nursing home and come home with them, He says, “Look guys, that's my sweetheart in there. I'm not leaving her, this is my home now. Your mother is my home.”

Even reading that makes my chest tighten. I think it’s because even after all the years, he’d still rather be with his sweetheart who can’t remember him than anyone else in the world. That’s the way I feel about my Jennifer, and I have no doubt I always will. So, yeah, mush.

I tried to find the actual clip. But this is the best I could do. You can hear the quote in the first couple of seconds of this music video.

2) Pretty much any old Meg Ryan movies. She just had the best smile in the world. And she and Tom Hanks were one of my favorite movie couples of all time. I could pick half a dozen scenes. But I really like this one from the end of You’ve Got Mail.

This version is actually without the dialog, but I think I like it even better because you get to focus on what an incredible job she does of portraying, surprise, confusion, sorrow, and ultimately joy (starting at about 2:11) that he’s the one who’s been writing to her.

3) I think I’m going to get slapped down on this one from some of my female readers. “Wait, you’re putting Adam Sandler in your top three romantic movie scenes!?” But yeah, he and Drew Barrymore are another of the couple that just click so well for me. Every time I come across The Wedding Singer on cable, I get pulled into it all over again.

I could list any of a dozen scenes from their movies, but one of my favorites is from 50 First Dates, where he realizes she has been singing and that maybe, just maybe, she remembers him. You’re all excited for him. And when he asks, “Do you remember me?” you are so sure she does, that when she says no, you are as shocked and disappointed as he is. That makes the scene where she shows him her paintings even more powerful. My favorite part starts right at 2:00 on the clip below.

So yeah, I don’t have a heart of stone. Silly Putty maybe, but not stone. In fact, I’ll add one more of my favorites. Just because it has my favorite actor of all time, and also because some of my own most romantic memories aren’t about going to expensive restaurants and staying in amazing hotels, but having nothing more than the love of my life and not needing any more than that. The scene starts at about the five minute mark.

Happy Valentine’s Day all. I hope you are spending it with the love of your life. And if you aren’t, I hope that you have a great movie to remind you that it won’t be long before you are united or reunited with that amazing someone that still makes your heart go crazy after more than twenty years.


8 Comments:

At 2/15/2011 12:21 AM, Anonymous malibujane said...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Please do a post your top 5 favorite fight scenes. I am much more prepared to discuss those!

 
At 2/15/2011 8:45 AM, Blogger Michael Knudsen said...

Great scenes, great choices all!

 
At 2/15/2011 9:54 AM, Blogger Steve Westover said...

I'm a little disappointed Jeff. You didn't mention the Han Solo and Princess Leia scenes.

Leia says "I love you."
Han replies "I know"

Perfect!

 
At 2/15/2011 10:48 AM, Blogger Sariah Wilson said...

This is like asking me what my favorite book is. I have so many favorite romantic movie scenes, so with that in mind, I narrowed it down to these three:

1) "The Inheritance" - a TV movie version of Louisa May Alcott's story. The heroine is the daughter of a maid that lives with a wealthy family as their daughter's companion. The new eligible bachelor falls for her, but she won't allow anything to happen as they're on different social levels. There's a scene where her young ward nearly falls off a cliff, and the heroine dislocates her shoulder saving the girl (and the hero saves them both). She is wearing a scarf that belonged to her mother - all she has left of her. She's crying over her scarf and the hero's trying to get her to the doctor. The next day he comes to visit her and he has...the scarf. SO ROMANTIC knowing he went to the bottom of the cliff and searched for the scarf...the lengths he went to for something he knew was so important to her...makes my heart melt every time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev6hLV3GLW0

You can see the fall at 1:40 and the return at 3:57.

2) No list is complete with one of the most imitated romantic scenes of all time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j379JbL-xM

3) This scene from "Strictly Ballroom" is another that I adore - the heroine in this story does the ugly duckling thing with her much more handsome partner. They've been dancing together in secret. She realizes that he's going to ditch her for a more beautiful and talented partner, and she's so sad watching the new partner perform and he comforts her the only way he knows how...This is the first time they start to show their true feelings for one another, and the words of the song so perfectly match how they're feeling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycrvNbct1LI

I also need honorable mentions for some "Pride and Prejudice" scenes like these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R-Zg5es7mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqidX_5ZsLg&feature=related

 
At 2/15/2011 11:10 AM, Blogger Krista said...

What a fun post! One of my favorites is from While You Were Sleeping, when Jack is walking Lucy to her apartment, trying to be all gallant because of the icy walks, and then he slips and so she slips and you think they save themselves, and they're close, just clinging to each other and you feel the connection, then they both go down with a crash and Jack rips his pants. It's awesome.
I have to mention one more. In Roman Holiday, at the end, the princess, Audrey Hepburn, is taking questions from the press after this tremendous escape she'd had with reporter Gregory Peck, and she has to be a princess again, and he has to keep it all a secret, and she fields questions from him, in front of everyone, and you can just see the love and the pain and the growth in both of them in that small exchange where they're hiding so much and yet saying so much. Blah. Okay, now I have to watch it.

 
At 2/15/2011 3:33 PM, Anonymous cadams said...

At the top of my head, my three favorites are: the subtle romance and life on the run in the Jason Bourne trilogy. I also enjoy the sexual tension of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934). And perhaps my favorite of all is Jane Austen's Persuasion (1995) starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds.

 
At 2/15/2011 6:18 PM, Blogger Charlie Moore said...

Admitting I have a favorite romantic scene is like admitting I like shopping with my wife (there's something very strange about it). And the scene that came to my mind first was the sketch scene from Titanic.

Charlie

 
At 2/17/2011 11:15 AM, Blogger Jon Spell said...

Jeff, if you like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, you just can't go wrong with Joe vs. the Volcano : you get 3 different relationships in one movie!

Joe: I love you too! I've never been in love before either! It's great! I'm glad. But your timing stinks.

Here's an awesome fight scene from the end of the Matrix-like Equilibrium (Christian Bale)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7n_QV3QP54&feature=related

It doesn't really start rolling until about 3:45, but then it's just over-the-top, non-stop action. (Note: this will give away a major spoiler for the movie.)

 

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