In the spirit of celebrating the day of love, I have decided to compile a list of overlooked films that have a romantic bend to them. Last week I mentioned one of those films, Love Jones, and was inspired to expand that idea to a list of my favorite films (yes some are guilty pleasures) whose theme is love but did not get much love when they were released.
Love and Basketball For a long while this title was one of my favorite films of the previous decade and it continues to resonate with me. It earned its director Gina Prince-Bythewood an Independent Spirit Award and great buzz at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. The film stars a rarely disappointing Sanaa Lathan and House‘s (TV) Omar Epps.
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A Walk in the Clouds Yes, yes, I know – it’s a Keanu Reeves romantic drama – but truth be told, I kinda like this film. The basic metric is the following: if after having seen a film in its entirety, if I can watch it again, then it is okay in my book. Blame the retro, old-movie stylizing of the piece or its lushness and beautiful photography. Whatever the reason some films click with members of the audience and this one does that with me. This is based on a 1952 film from Italy, Four Steps in the Clouds.
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Serendipity It surprises me that this film does not get shown in syndication so much or maybe it does and I am just not paying attention to it. Serendipity it is an offbeat, love story about the presence of fate. This 2001 confection stars John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.
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Kate and Leopold was a lovely, entertaining 2001 romantic comedy, which spans two centuries, starring Meg Ryan and a very dashing Hugh Jackman.
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Last but certainly not least, while not necessarily overlooked, the mind-bending valentine Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind deserves mention on this Valentine’s Day just because it is an awesome movie (and NOT the fact that it was partially shot in my hometown of Mount Vernon, NY). This is definitely in my top 2 Winslet performances.
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♥ What are some of your favorite romantically-themed films? ♥
I have only seen one on this list. But can you guess which one??
Happy Valentines my friend
Same to you Scott – to you and yours.
Hmm, I am going to say Eternal Sunshine 🙂
So, what’s the other Winslet at the summit? Happy V-day indeed…and ETERNAL is indeed both romance and anti-romance, and superb. Folks even manage to mistake Winslet here for a manic pixie dream girl as opposed to a critique of same. (And one need never be ashamed of Reeves…be ashamed, for your fellow cinephiles, instead of the unqualified praise heaped on flats-chewer Penn or king of sulk Depp…)
Top Film (for me) = Heavenly Creatures #3 would be Sense and Sensibility.
Thanks for the Keanu defense Todd 🙂
Love ETERNAL. Need to see it again.
It’s perfect for Valentine’s Day 😉
Oooh I LOVE that you mentioned ‘A Walk in the Clouds’!! I don’t care what anyone says but yes Keanu can be convincingly melodramatic. This is on my top list of favorite unconventionally-romantic flix: http://flixchatter.net/2010/02/14/favorites-unconventionally-romantic-flix/
I still need to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Checked it out earlier. Good stuff Ruth!
Btw, I’ve been meaning to ask, where did you get that image of the LOVE LOVE LOVE on the theater marquee? Did you photograph that? It’s lovely!
ruth recently posted..Valentine Special – 59 Reasons I LOVE Roman Holiday!
Nah – stock photography site 🙂
I’ve also only seen one of those movies. Although I did watch a lot of movie number 3 but never from beginning to end. I like this look at some forgotten romances.
It is funny that even though I often complain about the state of contemporary rom-coms (see tomorrow’s post) if you look hard there are some good general romance movies out there. Obviously most of my choices above are dramas but still there are some good films out there for us to ‘discover.’