To celebrate my friend Alisa Bowman’s upcoming book, ‘Project Happily Ever After,’ I’ve put together a list of five of my favorite movies about marriage.
‘Project Happily Ever After’ is scheduled for release on Dec. 28, 2010, and you can pre-order a copy on Amazon. The subheading is “Saving Your Marriage When the Fairytale Falters,’ and Alisa is absolutely fearless about the topic of marriage. She covers everything from bikini waxes to erotica, romance instruction manuals to second honeymoons, the silent treatment to power struggles.
Until the book comes out, tide yourself over with some of my favorite movies about marriage:
1. ‘Green Card’ (1990). Georges Faure (Gerard Depardieu) needs a green card. Bronte Parrish (Andie MacDowell) wants to rent an apartment with a greenhouse. They need one another to accomplish their individual goals, so they enter a marriage of convenience. But, of course, everything changes when they really DO fall in love. They’re as surprised as anyone to realize they bring out the best in each other.
2. ‘I Was a Male War Bride’ (1949). Captain Henri Rochard (Cary Grant) of the French army, and Lieutenant Catherine Gates (Ann Sheridan), of the American forces, fall in love while on assignment. They discover that the only way they can stay together is to utilize the War Bride’s act. This is classic Cary Grant, with lots of wacky stunts and comic lines.
3. ‘Meet the Parents’ (2000). Ben Stiller and Teri Polo are about to get married. All they have to do is survive a few days with her parents (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner), mischievous cats, grandma’s ashes, hidden video cameras, lost luggage, and a disastrous volleyball game.
4. ‘While You Were Sleeping’ (1995). Sandra Bullock plays lonely Lucy, spending the Christmas holidays with her cat. Oh, she has a fantasy romance, but it’s with a guy named Peter (Peter Gallagher) who doesn’t know she exists. While he’s in a coma, through a strange turn of events, his family believes that she’s his fiancé. It’s sort of perfect, until she meets his brother Jack (Bill Pullman).
5. ‘When Harry Met Sally’ (1989). This romantic comedy follows the decades-old friendship of Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan), best friends who believe that men and women can’t be friends, and that friends can’t be lovers. It takes ten years, various other relationships, heartbreak, fights and missteps before they finally figure out there’s no better basis for a marriage than a close friendship ignited by mutual sexual attraction.
What are your favorite movies about marriage, engagements, relationships and romance? Images: Amazon
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