Hello, Everyone!
I have to applaud the weather man though I’m not too happy with him. He got the forecast right and our beautiful fall vanished under a blanket of snow. The leaves were turning such beautiful shades of orange and gold and red. My husband and I like to take walks along a canal that traverses our city and the trees in the fall are always beautiful bursts of color that I can never get enough of. This time of year when summer wanes before the first snowfall is short and I always try to soak in the color before the cold withers the leaves and our beautiful autumn.
The weather keeps me indoors which is probably good because I write more, and when I’m not writing, I’m watching movies, but that’s only because I’m studying the plots. And, of course, I have to study romance. But in my quest for romance movies, I’m finding the amount limited. Romantic movies used to be prevalent, even if they weren’t very good. They were a mainstay of our entertainment and made you feel good when you walked out of the theatre. Maybe it’s because I don’t watch too many movies in the theatre, but instead sit with my laptop in my lap and stare at a 15” screen and watch something that was meant to be enjoyed in a theatre with chest pounding music and Technicolor. I don’t think that’s the reason I’m having trouble finding good romance movies. I’ve gone back a few years, like 70 years, to find a plot that’s worthy of the genre romance movie. I’ve found a few.
A week ago, I watched a movie from the 1990s called One Fine Day with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer. This had all the tropes for a romance movie, so naturally the critics panned it. The movie takes place in New York which is my favorite setting for a movie. There’s actually a New York Romance genre on Amazon. The city is a character in and of itself, but back to the movie. Michelle Pfeiffer is a single mom with custody of her son, and George Clooney is a single dad who isn’t much of a dad for his daughter, which Michelle Pfeiffer knows because she’s friends with his ex-wife. He’s a columnist and is handsome, naturally, because he’s George Clooney. She is an architect and her life runs like clockwork except that her son can throw her off track with his antics which seem to be spraying drinks on her especially just before she has important meetings, dinners, etc. Because of the main characters careers and their children, they’re forced to depend on each other to take turns watching the children while she has client meetings and then he attends the press conference of the corrupt mayor to prove that he’s been dishonest with his constituents. The time frame is one day, and watching them race around trying to fit in their jobs with child rearing is exhausting. Though he’s attracted to her, who wouldn’t be? She’s Michelle Pfeiffer. She begins the movie disgusted with him and his lack of parenting skills. Here’s a spoiler alert. The movie clearly defines how these characters grow personally and through that growth comes the attraction to each other.
If you’re like me and read books and watch movies to learn about characterization and plotting, I recommend this movie. The pace is quick, the dialog witty, and the plot has enough twists to keep it interesting. At the beginning of the movie, the reason the hero and heroine can’t be together is stated, and then through the working of the plot, the viewer sees that the changes in the characters help them to become better people and more acceptable in each other’s view.
I hope you have a wonderful week doing wonderful things even if it’s something relaxing like curling up in your favorite chair and reading a book.
Love,
Laura
