Mcbeal’s Top Ten Romantic Movies

Nothing beats a great romantic movie to chase those blues away.  To those who are in love, out of love or who just can't get their love life together, grab a tub of popcorn and cans of soda and to hell with it, treat yourself to that saccharine world of romantic movies. 

I haven't seen a real good chick flick lately. Thus I decided to list my top favorites in random order. 

1. An Affair to Remember

I love old American movies. I love their nostalgic, classic feel.  A great chick flick from a half century ago would definitely be An Affair to Remember.   Starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, this movie was widely referenced in the movie Sleepless in Seattle.  It was actually a remake of a 1930s film, "Love Affair" and then remade into 1994's Love Story starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.  It tells the story of an engaged playboy (Grant) who meets a smart, lounge singer (Kerr) on a cruise. Both are romantically involved  but nevertheless fall in love by the time  the ship set  port  in New York.  They vow to meet again, six months later, on top of the Empire State Building to get married. 

Best quotes: 

Terry McKay (Kerr): Oh, it's nobody's fault but my own! I was looking up… it was the nearest thing to heaven! You were there…

Favorite scene:

It has to be the ending when Nick discovers the real reason why Terry did not make it to their meeting place.  

2. Breakfast At Tiffany's

 The movie is an unlikely love story between a complicated  party girl and  an unsuccessful writer.   Both are beautiful yet obviously flawed people.  She's a wannabe socialite who wants to marry rich, he, a writer trying to find his words while being a kept man. How they found love and redemption with each other is the heart of the film. 

 Best Quotes:

Paul Varjak: I love you.
Holly Golightly: So what.
Paul Varjak: So what? So plenty! 

Favorite Scene: That kiss in the rain.  

3. Sleepless in Seattle

Does anyone still believe in the magic of true love? Apparently Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) did. He's an architect who is recently widowed and moved to Seattle, she's an engaged reporter from Baltimore. Annie chances upon Sam when he went on air during a radio show where he described the magic he felt when he fell in love with his wife. Annie feels an attachment to this person, whom she has never met.  She falls in love with him and risks a sure future marriage to meet the man who COULD be her destiny.       

Best Quotes:

Doctor Marcia Fieldstone: Tell me what was so special about your wife?

Sam Baldwin: Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were suppose to be together… and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home… only to no home I'd ever known… I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like… magic. 

Favorite Scene:

That last scene at the top of the Empire State Building. Magic!  

4. A Walk in the Clouds

A man in search. A woman in need. A story of fate. Paul Sutton (Keanu Reeves) is a war hero and a door to door candy salesman, during his trip to Napa Valley in California, he accidentally meets Victoria Aragon (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), a Stanford student who belongs to a Mexican-descent family which owns a vineyard.. Victoria was at that time pregnant and Paul offers to masquerade himself as her husband to the very traditionalist family – especially her raging father Alberto – and leave the day after. Instead, he stays one more day – supposedly for the grape harvest – and more, until they eventually fall in love.

Favorite Scene:

When Victoria and Paul were crushing grapes and the hell of the kiss they shared after that. ^__^ 

Best Quote:

Paul Sutton: She's like the air to me.  

5.  A Walk To Remember

Based on Nicholas Sparks' novel of the same title, A Walk to Remember is my epitome of  finding love while death looms. Landon Carter (Shane West) is a very popular yet troubled senior while Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) is the quiet, unpopular, preacher's daughter. Two people who belonged to opposite sides of the spectrum but as their paths crossed, they fell for each other. Just when they found true love with each other, Jamie confesses to Landon that she is dying of leukemia. 

Best Quote:

Jamie saved my life. She taught me everything. About life, hope and the long journey ahead. I'll always miss her. But our love is like the wind. I can't see it, but I can feel it.

Favorite Scene: 

When Landon whisks Jamie away after she was mocked and jeered by the entire school. 

6.  50 First Dates

Henry Roth (Adam Sandler), a marine veterinarian meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore) in a cafe and they develop a relationship. However, it soon emerges that Lucy suffers from a kind of amnesia due to a car accident, rendering her incapable of forming new long term memories. Her condition leaves her with no memory of anything between the day of the accident and the present, due to the fact that she cannot convert short-term memories into long-term memories as she sleeps.  Thus, their love story is quite complicated as Henry finds himself starting over from square one every day. This is my favorite Sandler-Barrymore collaboration, although The Wedding Singer is a cool chick flick too.

Best Quote:

Henry: You're the woman of my dreams and apparently, I'm the man in yours.

Favorite Scene:

Not that romantic but the scene where Lucy was hitting Ula with a bat was SOOO hilarious.  

7. Notting Hill

 A love affair between a famous Hollywood actress and an obscure travel bookshop owner from Notting Hill.  You can never get any more romantic than that.  The love between Anna Scott and William Thacker is what fairy tales are made of.  This movie is pure saccharine and funny, one can't help but fall madly in love. 

Favorite Scene:

The Press Conference at The Savoy

Best Quote: (What else!) I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.  

8. While You Were Sleeping

This is by far, my most favored of all Sandra Bullock movies.  It's the story of lonely, token booth worker named Lucy and her unrequited love for a handsome yuppie (Peter Gallagher) which later blossoms into true love for the latter's brother (Bill Pullman).  The movie shows that love comes from the most unexpected places and how the love of one man and his family, can cure the loneliest heart. 

Favorite Scene:

The Wedding  of Lucy and Peter 

Best Quote:

Lucy: Peter once asked me when I fell in love with Jack. And I told him, "It was while you were sleeping."  

9. Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary provides that glimmer of hope that even if you're overweight, thirty-something and an absolute klutz, you can still find love in the arms of a dashing barrister (even if his sideburns are too long). I see myself a lot in Bridget Jones (Renee Zellwegger), a woman with her own demons and far from perfect.  You just want to root for her to find the perfect guy.  Good thing she found him, in the most unexpected person.  And by golly! Don't you just love Colin Firth as Mark Darcy!

Favorite Scene:

When Mark helped Bridget cook her birthday dinner.

Another favorite scene because I so get Bridget:

When Lara said: "I thought you said she was thin."

Best quote:

Mark Darcy: I don't think you're an idiot at all. I mean, there are elements of the ridiculous about you. Your mother's pretty interesting. And you really are an appallingly bad public speaker. And, um, you tend to let whatever's in your head come out of your mouth without much consideration of the consequences… But the thing is, um, what I'm trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um, in fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you, very much. Just as you are.  

10. City of Angels  

Just like everyone, I hated the ending of this movie.  But I list it as one of the best romantic movies because of the fact that an angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) gave up immortality for the love of a woman (Meg Ryan as Dr. Maggie Rice). This fact speaks of the enormous love he has for her.  The movie is magical with its ironic, almost poetic ending. 

Favorite Scene:

That first and last night

Best Quote:

Seth: I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.