WINTER WARM UP BLOG HOP!!!!

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www.hopswithheart.blogspot.com

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WHEN YOU BELIEVE!

 

THE MOST ROMANTIC CHRISTMAS MOVIES

I admit it. I'm a hopeful romantic. I don't like the term 'hopeless romantic' because I think all romance is hopeful in some way. Besides, I don't want to be cured of my Romantic Nature. I like it. There's three movies I call my favorite romantic Christmas films, one a classic classic, one a classic, and one my new Christmas favorite. Each is, as of the posting of this blog, available on Netflix or Amazon Streaming. So grab a fluffy blanket, some tea, Christmas cookies, and a box of tissues. Then sit back and enjoy these movies with me. Happy Christmas to you and yours, I believe, and God Bless us, every one.

1. LOVE ACTUALLY

Rated R for sexual situations, nudity, and language (very free use of the 'f' word).

            This gem of a movie takes place in London during the five weeks leading to Christmas with a delightful countdown. It's not just one story and set of characters but at least ten in interweaving features of love, romance, and most of all, life. While I love the romance and love stories, I also love the 'realness' of them. This film tackles some heavy life subjects: death of a spouse, divorce, weddings, infidelity, family obligations, dating, career, child rearing, and many more with sensitivity, humor, and a bit of tear jerking. It boasts all star cast as well, including scene stealers from 'Mr. Bean' as a store clerk, the stoic Alan Rickman with the most comical facial expressions of any of his films combined and Martin Freeman (aka Sherlock's John Watson) as a film star, um, sex scene stand in. Be warned: Not all of the stories have a 'happy' or even a 'happily for now' ending, which while it breaks my heart, it's also 'real' to life. Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson are the strongest with a stellar performance from Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister and Colin Firth as a man I'd love to meet (plus he's a writer).

BEST LINES:

"I'm going somewhere exciting and brilliant and amazing! I'm going to Milwaukee!"

"This is so much more than a bag. You won't regret it Sir." "Want to bet?"

"You turn out to be the love of my life."

"If you can't say it at Christmas, when can you? I'm actually yours."

"Let's do it! Let's go get the s&*^ kicked outa us by love."

"I should have told her every day, because she was perfect every day."

"Yes, yes you have been a fool. But you've also made a fool out of me and made the life I lead foolish too."

"I've come here with a view of asking you to marriage me. Some will say I insane person cause I knows you no much but sometimes things are so transparency, they don't need evidential proof." (deliberate misuse of words spoken in another language)

"All I want for Christmas is you."

"I'm not usually this forward, it takes me ages to get the courage up to ask someone." (In context, the most hysterical line of the movie)

"Another thing about romance. People only get together right at the end."

2. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (THE ORIGINAL 1947 VERSION)

Rated G, no bad language, nudity, or sexual situations

            This classic black and white movie from Hollywood's High Days of filming follows one man's fight to be taken seriously as the REAL Santa Claus. Hired by career minded single mom Doris Walker as a fill in Santa for the Macy's Christmas parade float, Kris Kringle (his real name, he claims) quickly becomes the department store Santa. Before long, he is directing customers to other stores for cheaper or 'better' products. This action scandalizes the store psychiatrist and at first shocks then delights the owner, who floods the world with Macy's 'Spirit of Sharing in the True Meaning of the Season' media campaign. Of course arch rival Gimbels must then do the same to compete for customers in a tight Christmas market. Kris even manages to bring the two competitors together in a 'cease fire', at least for Christmas. The romance comes in the form of Doris, who has been burned, and badly, by love in a past relationship. She refuses to allow her daughter Susan any sort of fantasy play or belief so she won't grow up "believing all that nonsense about a prince waiting to sweep you away". Nick's lawyer Fred Gailey helps show Doris love doesn't have to take you over, but can add to who and what you are. At the same time, Kris teaches a very lonely Susan how to play make believe and 'zoo' as a monkey. The romance is secondary to the Santa story but it is the glue that holds the whole story together. All star (for the time) cast, Maureen O'Hara rocks the Doris role, John Payne is adorable as Fred, Natalie Wood is charming as Susan, and Edmund Gwenn even had me convinced he's the REAL Santa.

BEST LINES:

"Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to."

"Didn't you, Daddy?"

"One day you're going to discover lovely intangibles are the only worthwhile things."

"When you believe…when you really believe…"

"If... you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt. "

"I ask, which is worse: A lie that brings a smile or a truth which brings tears?"

"I believe. . . I believe. . . It's silly but I believe."

3. Scrooged

Rated PG 13 for language, mild violence, and sexual situations

                Many won't consider this cheesy screwball type comedy movie 'romantic' but I love the subplot story line of lovers who meet when she knocks him off his feet (literally), begin a relationship, and then separate when ambition takes one away. This re telling of the classic Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol" is a modern take on the grumpy, hateful Scrooge in the form of Bill Murray, an extremely mean TV executive named Frank, who hates Christmas, thinks only of money and position, and is rude to everyone around him. Three ghosts show him the past, present, and future, and are delightfully played by David Johansen and Carol Kane (who is hysterical as a manic angel with some serious anger management issues) and a hooded, unspeaking Chaz Conner. It's up to Frank to make the decision to change or not. When he does, during a live Christmas Eve broadcast televised in several different countries, you will stand up and dance with a wonderful rendition of 'Put a Little Love in Your Heart'.

BEST LINES:

"I'm ready for it! I am, I'm ready for the miracle to happen to me."

"She hit me with a toaster! I love a girl with spirit!" (double pun, in context)

"I've never liked a girl enough to give her twelve sharp knives."

"It says here there's a place you can touch on a woman that will make her bark like a dog."

"You don't know who you are, you don't know what you want, and you sure don't know where you are."

"It's Christmas Eve. It's not too late."

"It's the one night a year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more, and for a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be."