Ain’t love grand? Well, it all depends really. For about seventy percent of people it’s a dark hole of pain where your one hope is that someone looks at you with a little less disgust than how you look at yourself and that their fear of being alone is just as soul destroying as yours. Of course, even then, happiness is probably out of the question as you never got over your best mate who you claim not to be in love with though even as you read this you have one eye on their Facebook praying that it’s their cousin telling them “can’t wait to see you, I’ll bring the vodka XD !”. Though for the other thirty percent, yes it is, it’s blooming fantastic. Apart from all the butterflies, hand-holding and that first moment the lady doesn’t ask you to leave after you ask could she do the adorable laugh from ‘Flight from the Navigator’, love is blooming brilliant. Of course, probably the main reason why love is pretty damm good, is because without it, movies would kind of suck. Yes, being one of millions of people who had their little Zig and Zag-loving heart stamped on by the antics of Dex and Em in ‘One Day’, I got thinking about the whole romance and movies thing.
Without hopefully sounding too obvious, or like a guest segment on BBC’s ‘The One Show’, romance in films has the power to get to you like none other. While a scene where Will Smith punches an alien in the face may kick ass, a romantic scene can make you feel like you have been ‘Welcomed to earth’ in the way that only his royal freshness could. The reason for this is that everyone has been both happy in love and had their arse kicked by it a million times, while only a small handful has ever punched an alien. If you are having a rather crap time of it romantically you can stick on a million of your own DVD’s just to fool yourself that you were probably right in that argument, however being bitter isn’t what that this post is about, that’s too easy. Romantic movies, be it a frankly awful American rom-com or a classic love epic, all work on the basic level of hope. If you’re feeling shit then a romance can drop some hope that things will get it better, and if you’re head over heels and happy (yiz jammy gits) they can give a rather smug feeling of ‘Yeah we’re like that’. So with the current love tsunami that is ‘One Day’ currently on screens and making, what I can only assume is my ovaries, hurt, I thought I would bring you my, rather brilliantly titled, chart of ‘Top Five Lovely Scenes of Lovely People Acting Lovely (Which To Be Fair Won’t Include Any Scenes From ‘One Day’)’
Before we start though, remember that its purely my opinion, the ‘really bitter list’ is coming, but it’s for a different mood on a different day, there of course will be some spoilers here, and finally, this is just films, if we were bringing TV into it, the Doctor burning up a sun just to say goodbye, always wins. Always. Anyway enjoy, and feel free to tell me how wrong I am.
‘Top Five Lovely Scenes of Lovely People Acting Lovely’ (Which To Be Fair Won’t Include Any Scenes From ‘One Day’)’5. The Ending of ‘Ghost Town’
Ricky Gervais has a lovely habit of leaving the viewer with hope. Instead of the hero hoping on the lady for a very unnecessary sex scene, the characters manage to show a lot more intimacy without even sharing a finale kiss. If Ghost Town didn’t exist, Cemetery Junction would be in this slot however the story for Gervais’s once completely cut off dentist telling the girl whose tooth ache means it hurts when she laughs that ‘I can help you with that’ would melt the heart of an FBI agent whose son went mad in ‘Nam (reference there…)
4. The Proposal in ‘High Fidelity’
Now High Fidelity is a tricky one, because while its very romantic, the bread and butter of the story is pretty much ‘Men be crazy and ladies be trippin’’. However its with this knowledge that John Cusack’s Rob and Iben Hjejle’s Laura share the finest wedding proposal in modern movie history. Yes she shoots him down, because let’s face it, he’s a bit of an arsehole, however there is something incredibly true and heartbreaking in his need to stop thinking about dating and all its complications to move on to thinking about something new.
3. The Final Scene in ‘Vanilla Sky’
Right, I love this film. Now, a lot of people would probably choose watching an endless loop of Jason Donovan being a feeder to junkies on Iceland Christmas ads than watch this film again, but I really do think it’s great. Oh, and while I’m about to move into spoiler city here, please do watch it as it’s so complicated it would be easier to explain the complete ‘Lost’ using a flick book than explain in a timely fashion the story so far. At the finale of the film, we find Tom Cruise’s David Aimes coming to terms with how his lucid dream that had promised him a life, albeit a fake one, with the woman he loved and what ever else he wished turn into a nightmare. Armed with this knowledge Aimes chooses to wake up and face the real world, not before a final wish of seeing his beloved Sofia one last time. What follows is an exchange that sees Aimes realise the importance of how the little things matter and that in a life time of regret, as Sofia puts it “Every passing moment is another chance to turn it all around”. Yes that may make no sense or you may hate the film, but that scene (complete with Sigur Ros soundtrack) will forever, to me, feel like a punch in the stomach.
2. Party Scene from Hitch Hikers Guide to The GalaxyAn easy one here, Martin Freeman’s Arthur Dent is at costume party he dislikes with people he dislikes, when Zooey Deschanel’s Trillian pops up dressed as Darwin and simply wants to talk to him. Yes, chances are, the reason why this scene is so high is because it’s the scene that introduced me to the world of Zooey but mainly because it’s the idea behind it, that you could be out being unhappy and then someone beautiful, barmy and completely daft drops into your life, and who wouldn’t want that? Of course he then messes it up, but hey there is always hope he might pull it out in the third act. He does.
1. The corridor fight in ‘Empire Strikes Back’So here we go, and yes, it was always going to be ‘Empire’, though not the scene I thought I would have here. The meeting between Han and Leia where all one of them needs to do is tell the other person how they feel turns into a full blown slagging match, while it could have been so easy. Where even though you like this person they make you so frustrated you want to pull your own face off to concentrate on something else for a second but doesn’t that just sum up this whole thing? Also, bow to the coolness of the ‘You could use a good kiss’ reply from Han. While ‘I know’ will always be, to me, the greatest scene of all time, it doesn’t really fit into this chart, but the scene that gets Han and Leia up to that point, is perfect. Why does blooming everything gotta be so hard.
Andy Gaffney will return in ‘Top 5 Shouting At The Screen “Ah ya fucked it up ya fool!” and “Top 5 Scenes Where Love Kicks You in The Balls”
