Happy Places

We are once again discussing movies. I think we have said a great deal about movies over the years, but I do love movies. Most of my family was keen on movies when I was growing up; my mother used to sit me down and have me watch movies which she considered important, ones with things to teach or show me.  I did the same with my nieces, then my sons, and as I could, with my grandkids, although they are not as much into movies as they are into streaming series, but I digress. I still watch movies when I am alone, (or put familiar ones on in the background), plus The Husband and I are big movie-watchers, so if I repeat myself here from previous posts, please bear with me.  

There is no one feel-good, go-to movie that is an ‘always go for’ choice for me. Indeed, a ‘comfort’ movie may not be a total ‘feel-good’ movie; it may mean a good cry! 

“Les Misérables”, (any but the musical), “After the Wedding”, “The Time Traveller’s Wife”, “Jezabel”, “Now, Voyager” (or many other Bette Davis movies) fall into this category.   

I walked over to our extensive fifty-cent to one–dollar movie collection and picked out movies that I think few readers this may have seen. I hope that if you run across these, you will take a chance on them.  
 

I’m limiting myself to five, and omitting animated ones, (or we’ll be here all day!): 

“RV”, I know that this one has gotten mentioned here. Screenwriter Geoff Rodkey was a guest of mine years ago when he published a Middle-Grade trilogy that I liked very much, and Grandson #1 loved, when he was that age. (In fact, he asked me to make sure that I keep them for him for his future children!) 
Geoff also wrote RV, among other movies, and skeptical as I was with Robin Williams as the star, it is a very funny, feel-good movie about a highly driven executive who finally finds out what is truly important. I liked it so much that I took a chance on other movies of Williams and enjoyed most of them.(He bloomed as an actor.) 
 

“Laws of Attraction”. As often happens, this movie came out at the same time as a very similar one concerning opposing divorce lawyers and as usual, the better movie got overshadowed by the hype and bigger stars of the other. This one stars Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore. They have their baggage, as he’s personally opposed to divorce and she has issues, having lived in the shadow of a glamorous mother. This has surprisingly become one of The Husband’s favorites. Not only is this movie well-acted and has a nice story, the scenery of the portions filmed in Ireland alone are worth the watch. 
 

“R.I.P.D.” is not for everyone. It hasn’t the sweetest dialogue all the time, but it is terribly funny and is definitely ‘good triumphing over evil’ which always hits the spot with me and makes me feel like there is a reason for everything. In this one a lawman gets killed and to serve out the reparation for his sins, he is put into the Rest In Peace Department, where he and the long-timer with whom he is partnered, have to catch errant souls.  The thought that there is always hope for eternity unless you consciously, completely reject it, is comforting. Do that with humor and  good acting, (by Jeff Bridges as a sheriff from the Old West and Ryan Reynolds as the ‘new recruit’), and it is a hit with me. 

A recent acquisition for us is a DVD of a Hallmark movie that I watched when new in 1997: “What the Deaf Man Heard”. This story starts in a very small town many years before, where a mother and her boy were traveling on a bus, stopped to refuel.  The boy’s mother vanished and the town tried very hard to find out anything about the woman or her son, who was too frightened to speak. The people assumed that the boy was deaf, and in the goodness of their hearts, this village decided to raise the child.  By the time the boy got over his shock and fear, he realized that he didn’t want to embarrass the people who were being so kind to him and who spoke openly around him, and that the information they imparted to him was very useful. As he grew, he let himself become a sounding board for his friends, who said things to him that they could not say to others, thinking that he could not hear what was in their hearts, Fortunately, he returned kindness with kindness, until speaking out became essential. 
All ends very well for those who need it. (That’s not a spoiler, as we ARE talking ‘feel-good’ movies.) Matthew Modine was quite famous at the time and did a fine job as the boy when grown-up, and among the good cast is James Earl Jones, so how could you go wrong? 

“Family Man”, that Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni starred in is a rather reverse “It’s a Wonderful Life” story. There seems to be a virtual flood of  ‘Christian” movies  in the last ten years where a cab or limo driver, (or a tow truck driver), is actually an angel come to give the person on the wrong path a glimpse of the better life they could have had. This one was the first I saw and did it best.  Don Cheadle and more in a good supporting cast are icing on this cake. 

Have you seen any of these?  Did you like them? 

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