Days 8-10: RC OD

Days 8-10 RC-OD

So Tuesday was my “Saturday” and I decided to slap in Day 8 while I cleaned. Feeling mildly depressed after a emotionally manipulative Christmas with my inlaws and a looming 34^th birthday I was in need of a little TLC that only RC’s can provide. But Day 8 did not succeed in bringing me out of my funk, ironically it sunk me deeper. RC’s are usually a wonderful escape, except on those rare days when all the emotions I’m currently trying to avoid are being played out on the screen. So Day 8 was Knocked Up. And instead of laughing and enjoying myself as I did the chores about the house, I stood several times in front of the tv crying and questioning my pathetic achievements so far in life. This is a film I usually love to watch, the guy flick that is really a chick flick, but today I couldn’t sink into it without inward reflection. Needless to say, I hadn’t gotten too much done and so I decided at the end, to plop in Day 9. Surely Day 9 would get me out of my funk, back into my fantasy land. Day 9 was Princess Diaries. And that was sufficient background for more of my chores. Having seen this movie a dozen times (I was practically born in Disney World – all Disney films are great to me), I could happily go about my work knowing all would be right in the world again. And then I started to think about what the movie is really saying and that is always a bad idea, to think too much about an RC. But I did, and I once again started comparing myself to this awkward teenage girl who is blossoming into a princess and I am looking at my pathetic 34-year-old-to-be self and not liking the not-so-princess I turned out to be. So… of course… like a true crack addict – it’s obviously not me, but the movies that aren’t giving me a sufficient high and so I must watch another one because surely this next one will make me feel all giddy and gooey again like the first time I saw Pretty Woman and then I can get on to the task of taking down that friggin Christmas tree! So Day 10 was plopped in as soon as the credits started to roll on Day 9. Day 10: America’s Sweethearts. Ahhhh! Somebody shoot me! I love this movie too usually but my god- it’s all about being famous actors and actresses and how you need to lose 60 pounds to get someone you love to love you back or even just notice you. And well…as you can see, by this point in the day (though never once did I stop a movie mid way through- they each had to play out in their entirety) I was a lost cause and no RC was going to help. I finished America’s Sweethearts, a sniveling, self-pitying mess and curled up on the couch to nap. I woke up, took out the majority of my frustrations on my poor husband and then took a hot bath. I had over dosed on RCs so the next day I took a break from the movies.

So, trying to not let me pathetic breakdown get in the way of my checklist, though I guarantee NOTHING… Here we are, how these 3 movies check off on my list:

Day 8: Knocked Up

• Giddy: I usually get giddy anytime I see man get happy about having a baby.
• Lie: Well, the lies aren’t really too big in this movie, there is a little sideline one going on with one my favorite actors Paul Rudd and it leads to a very honest look at the need for alone time.
• Big Emotional Outburst: There are quite a few these and they are hilarious!
• Dance Sequence: Nope. Boo. But them trying to get into a club is hysterical!
• Wedding: THAT’s what this movie is missing. There is a very sweet proposal though.
• Rewatchable: Yes… but after Tuesday’s fiasco, I may wait a bit.
• Love: This has the more real kinds of love here, that ever questioning “are they THE ONE” looming over the heads of the 4 main characters here. Bleh, real love? Bleh!
• Fantasy: Depending on my mood, I’d sometimes tell you the major fantasy here is a man getting happy and changing his life around for a baby or the fact that these two clearly opposite people could end up liking each other at all. But I know that’s coming from my bitter side, so I’ll just say no there aren’t too many fantasies here.
• Journey of the Main Character: They both go from not liking each other and not even thinking about a kid to liking each other and having one. That’s nice.
• Body Count: None. I really could have used some on Tuesday.
• Music Montages: None that I remember through the pathetic weeping I was doing. I think there might have been one showing the growth of Seth’s character from boy to man who actually reads the baby books.
• Strong Female: Yes. Both women I think are strong with the very real flaws and conflicts women generally face: Career vs. baby.

Day 9: The Princess Diaries

• Giddy: Typically I get a little giddy every time I hear that Disney sound and see Tinkerbell fly across my screen. I also get a little gooey each time she has a fantasy about being kissed and the hint at a much deeper passion between Hector and Julie.
• Lie: Well she was lied to from birth that she was a princess, and then she tried to hide it from her best friend once she found out.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Oh we have some classics with “I am throwing your charm friendship bracelet in the gutter” and the end speech where she takes the crown.
• Dance Sequence: Oh isn’t this wonderful! We have several! Yay! My favorite is the one between the chauffer and the Queen but I also enjoy the ridiculous stupid cupid song done at a beach bash that rivals some classics like Back to the Beach and One Crazy Summer.
• Wedding: Again no. Hmm. No wonder I was so angry on Tuesday. There are some really lovely ball gowns though.
• Rewatchable: Yes, yes of course. Disney has a hold on me, I can’t help it. I should hate Disney, but I can’t it’s just so fakely good and wholesome!
• Love: We have the Grandma/Daughter love, the love for country, and then the “oh you’re my best friend’s brother, I never noticed you there before but oh wait I think I love you” love.
• Fantasy: She finds out she’s a princess of a small but quaint little European country. Fantasy level is at its highest.
• Journey of the Main Character: I love this transformation from the awkward unsure girl to a lovely woman to be. And the scene with Palo the hairdresser to making her physically go through this journey is a riot. Especially because he makes her look like a whore.
• Body Count: This movie begins because the dad died… leaving the country to her… that’s 1!
• Music Montages: Yes. Lovely.
• Strong Female: This is the beginnings of a strong female with the overseeing done by a mother and grandmother who are both pretty darn strong and independent. Good role models all the way around! Yay Disney!

Day 10: America’s Sweethearts

• Giddy: This one doesn’t set off the fireworks that some of Julia’s other classics does, but maybe that’s because she’s outshone in some scenes by Catherine Zeta…but the end does it every time. There is nothing like a public profession of love to get me to do a little jig of joy.
• Lie: We’ve got Billy Crystal making a lie out of their relationships and Catherine lying to everyone so yes we have some good satisfactory lies
• Big Emotional Outburst: Yes several
• Dance Sequence: Not really, unless you count the scene of the Nazi’s dancing in the movie they all are watching the premiere of.
• Wedding: NO! Man! What does a girl have to do around here to get a little old-fashioned- symbol-of-a- woman- being- property- handed-from- one-man- to- another WEDDING?!
• Rewatchable: Oui!
• Love: Here is that perfect moral lesson to all slightly fat females like myself: If you want true love, lose 60 pounds.
• Fantasy: Well, personally being an actress who has NEVER been treated so nice, I think it’s a fantasy that actors are pampered so well but I really think that maybe the really big stars are and the real fantasy is the dream that I could ever be treated that way. Also, when you have 2 super hot women, I mean ridiculous hot, in a RC you instantly have a great Fantasy.
• Journey of the Main Character: Other than losing 60 pounds… hmmm I don’t see it. I really don’t. Pretty much everyone stays the way they are, they just switch around some partners.
• Body Count: None. And this film really could have gotten away with one too!
• Music Montages: None.
• Strong Female: I’m going to say no. Julia’s character has been up until this movie a pathetic shadow of her sister. And she never really takes her own stand until the very very end. And even that is only through the help of a man. So no. And Catherine’s character- oh hell no!

Day 7: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Adorable Isla Fisher has my heart! And she’s telling my life story (accept mine isn’t a huge debt due to clothes but experiences – which is even harder to sell back, so I’m just stuck with my debt unlike her). I heard the book is even better but I think that might be too painful for me to endure. Seriously, I started having a mild panic attack once this movie began because at the bottom of my office drawer is a huge pile of bills I can’t pay this month and like the girl in the green scarf it is ALL MY FAULT. Or maybe its not: as a friend once told me “Credit Cards aren’t REAL money!” And besides as John Goodman points out in the movie, “If the country can be billions in debt, why can’t my daughter”. Oh who am I kidding, I’m in trouble and this movie just pointed it out to me all over again!

But we’re not here to talk about my many flaws; we’re here to talk about the wonderful world of escapism through Romantic Comedies! And escape I do! In luscious colors of clothes and settings, sexy male leads with British Accents (good God I just get weak in the knees when I hear a brit man speak- my best gal friend Swoose is damn lucky she gets to wake up to that accent every morning), and something that I have debated putting on the check list: Great Embarrassing Moments. As a girl who is no stranger to embarrassing moments having inherited a foot in mouth disease from her mother, been attacked by a tree, and locked herself in her own trunk, I take a certain comfort in seeing a female lead in a film go through a few of her own. And this movie, for all its uncomfortable feelings it gives me also gives me great comfort. Here is how Confessions of a Shopaholic add up to my list:

• Giddy: We have Giddy! Yummy Hugh Dancy is enough alone, but you also have some great lines like “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s not you” and “Nothing defines me except you and your mother”. And all those lovely embarrassing moments! But the quintessential Giddy moment comes from the SLOW CLAP! Ahhhh, the slow clap, used across the board to enhance a moment of achievement in lots of great films. I didn’t put this on my check list because sometimes it really irritates me, it is not always a winner in my book. But here, in this movie, I like it – maybe because it is done with mannequins
• Lie: The big lie in this movie is that she is in the worst personal financial situation and she is working for a money magazine giving advice on finances. She is also trying to work her way up to work for a fashion magazine. Not to mention all the many lies she tells her debt collector. We have lots in this movie! Yay!
• Big Emotional Outburst: Yes, we have a bunch of those too!
• Dance Sequence: YES! YES! YES! And it is awesome! The fan is hilarious and so is her dancing.
• Wedding: We have one of the tackiest weddings here, the ugliest dresses, the made of honor doesn’t show up till the last minute and they leave right after the ceremony which means there wasn’t a reception? Wha? But we have a wedding and that’s what counts!
• Rewatchable: Yes! I will be watching this one again – perhaps after I win the lottery and can sit back and laugh laugh laugh at the days when I used to worry about money too.
• Love: Oh that wonderfully inappropriate I’m-in–love-with-my-boss kind of love. Of course I still haven’t figured out why he was bidding with himself over the green scarf.
• Fantasy: The apartment isn’t one of the fantasies in this NYC RC surprisingly… but the love life, the ease of a job, the shopping, the mannequins, the male lead, the fashion, and the great embarrassing moments are.
• Journey of the Main Character: She does what I fear to do- takes that hard look at her life, how it spun out of control and grabs the courage to set it straight. She also discovers that the relationship high far outweighs the shopping high.
• Body Count: erg… no.
• Music Montages: Yes! We have some nice ones, and I like the songs.
• Strong Female: Yes, I’d say so – see journey of the main character checked above.

Day 6: Down With Love

Day 6: Down With Love

YAY! Down With Love! I love this movie! It’s witty, it’s funny, it’s tongue and cheek, it’s feminist, and it’s cheesy romantic at its best! I don’t think you can watch a Ewan McGreggor without getting a little weak in the knees and Renee Zellwegger is delightful in almost all the RC’s she’s in (maybe I love her a bit too much, she really reminds me of myself – especially in the Bridget Jones movies)! Here is just how very much Down With Love checks off on my list:

• Giddy: Oh Yes! Ewan smarmy and adorable, Renee trying so hard to be strong, those hilarious split screen scenes and the over the top non stop sexual innuendos! I’m doing my happy dance!
• Lie: Oh hell yes – so I’ve never really got this straight but I think it turns out that Barbara Novak is really some girl named Nancy who was one of Catcher Block’s secretaries and the whole movie is an elaborate ruse to get him to fall in love with her.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Well, yes several- classic one is Barbara’s editor punching Catcher in the face.
• Dance Sequence: Oh yes! We have a lovely montage of dates and dancing is in this as well as during the credits! BONUS!
• Wedding: Hmmm.. well as that is the ONLY fashion missing from this movie, I forgive them. We have women in so many different outfits that I hardly noticed we were missing a wedding dress.
• Rewatchable: I have this movie on my dvr- I dvr’d it when I first moved in to my apartment and watch it all the time. Before that, I had it on VHS- oh yes- it’s another one of those- ones I wore out. And unlike most of my RC’s, this one I can actually get my husband to watch with me. I think it is because it’s a callback to the Cary Grant days and he (like most men) want to be Cary Grant. I’m glad to now finally have it on DVD so I can delete it on my DVR and make room for future Mad Men and Glee episodes. Thanks Jason!
• Love: Yes! Yes! And I’d also like to praise the WONDERFUL side characters of this film: Sara Paulson and David Hyde Pierce. Priceless, hysterical, and doubling the whammy of gooey love! And hilarious lines from them like “At the risk of sounding like my mother, just keep perfectly still and let him get it over with”.
• Fantasy: Again- NYC apartments, fantastic careers, beautiful costumes, endless nights out on the town, I could go on but I think you catch my drift
• Journey of the Main Character: Ah my favorite kind – they fall in love and it changes everything about them. Classic line from Catcher Block: I don’t want to have sex, I just want to be married!
• Body Count: ok- I am well aware that this is the one part of the check list I am constantly not checking but still keep on here. But when you have such great classics as Princess Bride, The Mexican, A Life Less Ordinary, and Four Weddings and a Funeral how can I not love a little death in my RC?
• Music Montage: Yes! Mmm lovely!
• Strong Female: Yes! I’m doing another feminist flip for this great comedy that is all about the battle of the sexes. This film actually makes fun of one of my main theories about why girls these days are stupidly trying to deny being feminists. They are afraid that men won’t love them if they come out and say they are feminists and deserve equality. But let me catch myself now from getting onto my soap box about the virtues of feminism, equality and the need for self love and come back to the point: This movie sweetly shows us how we can have it all- career, love and self respect. It just does so in a very funny way.

Day 5: Definitely Maybe

Day 5: Definitely Maybe

Hrmm. Definitely Maybe… Maybe I would like this one but I just can’t seem to sit all the way through it. I first heard about this movie back when I had just moved to NYC and we had free premium cable channels and I had no job. So I watched HBO and Showtime everyday. And this movie was inevitably on at some point at least twice a week. I never caught the beginning and I often didn’t stay through the end. It just didn’t have that great cheesy line or gigantic romantic gesture to make me seek it out, sit down and watch all the way through.

Now Day 5 has finally been watched in its entirety two days off of my 31 day schedule and here is why: Wednesday night, after my dear friend Connie flew in, we thought we’d see what door number 5 held for us and we sat down to watch it but ended up talking, laughing and having a lot more fun than this film can provide so we turned it off and then of course there was New Years Eve (which at work that day, I forgot to bring the movie in and was berated by my coworkers who are now all eagerly waiting the next day’s film) and New Years Day to keep me even more entertained! What a wonderful way to ring in the new year, great friends, lots of laughter and tons of alcohol! So I got back into my project today and sat down to watch this film all the way through for the first time. And though it has great actors in it, all ones I really love in other films… it still lacks something. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s telling this story to his daughter and I’m not sure it is very appropriate especially when she asks what threesomes are. Maybe it’s the fact that there really are 3 love interests and all are hot and worthy but none of them feel like the angels are singing in the background “This is the ONE”. Maybe it’s the fact that there are some very real heavy moments that never really get resolved such as the daughter wanting to hear all this in the first place to try and keep her parents together because she can’t understand why they are getting a divorce. Ultimately unsatisfied but really looking forward to tomorrow’s film here is how Definitely Maybe checks off on my list:

• Giddy: Nope, no giddy moments. They almost have me when he’s practicing his proposal and he says “You’re the first person I want to see when I wake up in the morning and the last one I want to see when I go to bed at night” until I realize those lines are stolen from When Harry Met Sally. I don’t require too much originality in a RC but I did feel ripped off.
• Lie: I don’t think there is too much lying going on in this movie. Names changed… no lies. Boo!
• Big Emotional Outburst: You know the scene in a typical RC where they suddenly realize all they want and start running towards their goal at the end of the movie… that was there but it really didn’t feel like it.
• Dance Sequence: None. Boo on that too!
• Wedding: NONE!!! This is essential folks! You can not have a Romantic Comedy with out SOMEONE in a wedding dress!
• Rewatchable: Well, I’ve had it on in the background through lots times in my life here in NYC so… I guess but not really something I’d actively put in the dvd.
• Love: There are all kinds in this film. Again – best friend kind wins out but all three loves lacked a passion. He had more passion for Clinton than he did for any of the women he dated.
• Fantasy: 2 major ones: 1. (and my friend Connie is insisting I point this one out) No man would search all over as much as he does for this book of Jane Eyre that she lost and also actually find it 2. NYC apartment sizes. Yet again, we have a film that is saying that you can have almost no job, or work in a bookstore and still have an apartment that is HUGE! Okay this is one fantasy that might have to stop for the good of all people who move to NYC with hopes and dreams (like me). Because these apartments DO NOT EXIST! Trust me! I’ve been working for a real estate company for a few months now and I’m so sick of people complaining about the size vs. the price. It is NYC folks. This is the way it is. There are just too many people here and not enough room for them all so they can have really outrageous prices on closets. It’s the way of the world. And why I live in Jersey.
• Journey of the Main Character: So Ryan Renolds goes from wanting to be President to working for an ad agency. And he goes from loving his college sweetheart to loving other women and then back to loving her and then divorcing her and realizing he has always been in love with this other girl. Yes I guess that can all count as a journey of the main character but I really didn’t see the struggle. Maybe I was distracted. This movie couldn’t hold my attention. I don’t know why.
• Body Count: And FINALLY on Day 5 WE HAVE A WINNER! Kevin Kline’s great alcoholic character bites it. It is no Vizzini keeling over after laughing about how the 2 things you should never do are start a land war in Asia or make a bet with a Sicilian when death is on the line… but its my first death in 5 movies so I’m a little happy here.
• Music Montages: No! None! Nada! Zip! Zilch! Again- that’s what this movie is missing! Also, maybe I’m too old – but the music in this film they play it like we are supposed to have a nostalgic “ah remember when” moment and I’m thinking- well I have that song on my ipod- that’s practically NEW! It’s not like the 80’s music in 2 of the best Adam Sandler films – The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. Now those movies cause major music nostalgia.
• Strong Female: I guess all 3 of the women are semi strong. They all follow their own dreams first. They are all smart. I don’t know why I’m not shaking my feminist pom pom’s but for some reason I’m not. Maybe it’s because the movie was just so so for me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’m starting it off right with all this romance to watch! I’m hoping I’ll end it by being in a few of these films myself! May we all get our dreams to come to true this year!

Day 4: 13 Going on 30

And here we are: 13 Going on 30. I feel like this most days. Awkward, unsure and quite confused how I got here so fast. But the 30s are fabulous and I wouldn't wish to go back to 13 ever! This is a perfect cleaning the house film. One you don't have to sit and watch all the way through, just stop the vacuum cleaner in time to watch the Thriller dance sequence and come back for the final kiss. Its comforting to have all those mistakes we've all made being played out by cuter, thinner people on in the background while you do the daily grind. Today I have a cold and so in between cleaning for the friend who is coming in town, sneezing, and stocking up on vitamins I watched this sweet movie.

This film isn't one I'd pay to rent, usually I catch it on TV and will watch it while I do something else. The good thing about that is, every time you see it, there is a scene you missed the time before so it is like getting to watch a slightly used, slightly new movie. Yay! And here is how Jennifer Garner in 13 going on 30 stacks up to my list:

• Giddy: The dance sequence does it for me. I'm actually jealous I never really learned that dance!
  
• Lies: She actually doesn't lie too much, she's trying to tell people she's only 13, just no one believes her.
  
• Big emotional outburst: Jennifer does try and stop a wedding and shes quite passionate on the remaking of the magazine. Those count in my book. Its no Harry telling Sally on New Years Eve that he can't live without her but it'll do for today.
  
• Dance Sequence: Oh hell yes! Best scene in the movie - THRILLER - THRILLER NIGHT. Is this even more nostalgic for me because MJ is dead? Hmmm?
  
• Wedding: We have 2 folks! His prep to marry a pretty sweet hottie and then the end him marrying his best friend. AAWWWWWWWWW! So yes- as no RC is complete without a wedding dress this one lives up nicely!
  
• Rewatchable: Now that I know I'm going to have a lovely collection of great RC's when I'm done with this project, I may have this put at the back of the pile. Something I'll pop in a couple years down the road when I've forgotten what its all about. And I will forget. Hell I forget what I ate for breakfast and have a 2nd breakfast (which explains a lot about my weight).
  
• Love: This is the best friend love kind and its slow to come in the film. Though I admire the best friend love - I always feel a little let down on the passion side.
  
• Fantasy: Well she uses wishing dust to turn herself to 30 and be everything she imagined: rich, skinny, head of a magazine and popular. So yeah, I'd say we've got one hell of a fantasy going on. I got to get me some of that dust! I want to win the lottery!
  
• Journey of the Main Character: Okay so because she is still 13 in her mind, the journey here is only of realizing she has it pretty great at 13 and realizing that the man she loves was her best friend.
  
• Body Count: None. Dammit! Somebody really should have killed that blond bitch "friend"
  
• Music Montage: Yes and the music in this film is like a warm blanket of memories. I love the music. I being a soundtrack queen will probably go buy this one on Itunes next time I get some extra cash.
  
• Strong Female: Mmm.. are any of us strong at 13? She makes some bold choices and she has spunk and passion - 2 things I wish didn't fall off as you get older but they just do. But she's not the strongest I've seen. And she took his last name! That is a check in the box of anti-strong female in my book!
  

Day 3: The Proposal

Ah lovely! The Proposal! This film, I just recently rented one day and loved it so much that the next weekend I rented it again. This is a common problem for me which is why I'd asked my best friend to make me RC's in the first place. I hate wasting money! But truth be known, isn't it worth it? Spending 6 bucks for watching a great RC?

This is a sweet film. One that I probably wouldn't say is in my top 10, but definitely a keeper. I love Sandra, she's the uptight girl next door perfection. But what really makes this movie a gem is Ryan Renolds. Now, my husband hates him. He's cocky and pretty boyish. But he has such great one liners you can't help but love him. And in the position of servitude as he is in this film...you just sort of don't see the arrogance he usually portrays. And here is how The Proposal hits my checklist:

• Giddy: Well, this movie doesn't make me all over giddy but it does have some great moments like: "Marry me, cause I'd like to date you" and "Your allergic to the full spectrum of human emotions", not to mention the kisses, the running into each other nude and the male stripper.
• Lies: Oh yes, there is the big lie that the whole movie hinges on - they are lying to the government and their family to get married just so she can stay in the country (though why she would when Canada has free health care I don't know).
  
• Big emotional outburst: We've got a couple here and they are pretty good!
• Dance Sequence: Again, not any group dancing but the male stripper and Gammy mother earth dancing are sooo great you almost want to join in (well maybe not you, but me... and I'm writing this thing darn it!).
• Wedding: YES! And it's pretty! Barns don't really look that good! Seriously! Ah the magic of movies.
• Rewatchable: Yes. Oh this is a great I'm- home -sick- lying- on- the- couch- sniffling- and- drinking- tea kind o film. And unlike some films (Something about Mary, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40 Year Old Virgin, oh I could go on) you won't need to run to vomit from some gross scene.
  
• Love: Oh the sweetest kind: The I hate you, I love you kind!
  
• Fantasy: Oh yes, cause so many great RC's have the "secretly" rich man who is humble and good looking. Yes there are so many of THOSE kind of men running around out there.
• Journey of the Main Character: Well once again I'm not sure the male lead, Mr. Reynolds had all that much of one but Sandra's character did. And they used the good ol plot devise of taking the Big City gal (or sometimes guy) out of the evil concrete jungle to a remote quaint town (this one being Alaska) where they can finally see the real virtues life has to offer: that Power and Money are not what is important but Love and Family are. Mmm.. doesn't that make you feel good?
  
• Body Count: We almost lose a cute little puppy to an eagle but no... no body count.
• Music Montage: I don't think there is one... oh my gosh! That's what this film is missing!
• Strong Female: Oh yes! Yet again- She proposes! That is awesome! AAAAANNNDDD she is HIS boss! Oh yeah! Power to the girls!
  

Day 2: Runaway Bride

Oh my god, I'm doing a little jig! The second movie in my project is Runaway Bride (which by the way I knew in the first 2 notes of the opening credits)! This is THE Romantic Comedy. I had a VHS of this and watched it so much that I wore out the tape. This is one of the ones I hold up as a standard for all other RC's to live up to! It has (almost) everything. Oh the cheesy love, oh the "I hate you, I love you, I hate you, I love you", oh the great comic side characters, oh the WEDDINGS! Not to mention, this is truly a feminist film! No wait - really - it is! This is ultimately a great lesson to women to learn about themselves and love themselves first. This film warns us not to wrap ourselves up in someone else so much that we have no identity of our own. It insists that love will wait for us to be ready for it.

I just love love LOVE this movie. That darn Julia Roberts and Richard Gere- their charm and chemistry just make a gal like me all warm and fuzzy! Mmmm mmmm that first kiss- that should be super awkward seeings how it is done in front of the man she is supposed to be marrying, is so hot you can't help but forgive them! And here's my list and how this film stacks up:

• Giddy: Oh yes! Yes Yes Yes! My heart goes all a flutter and I giggle uncontrollably every time I hear lines like: "I guarantee there are going to be hard times and I guarantee there will be a time when one or both of us want out of this thing but I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine I'll regret it for the rest of my life because I know in my heart your the only one for me". Other moments that make me giddy: Duckbill platypus, "Did I not just see you", that first kiss, "I like his tight butt - Well I do!"
  
• Lies: Well she's lying pretty darn good to herself through the majority of the movie. Oh yes, sufficient lies I'd say.
• Big emotional outburst: Oh yes - several
• Dance sequence: A bit of a slow dance at the end to Miles Davis - but that doesn't count in my book - so no... no there is no big dance number
• Wedding: Oh yes, we get not one lovely wedding but 5! Yes 5 different wedding dresses! I'm so jealous!
  
• Rewatchable: I think I've already covered that this is- yes. And I will be watching this one again - very soon- maybe next Saturday while I'm cleaning the house.
  
• Love: Oohhh Yes!
• Fantasy: Well - most of us can't afford 1 wedding let alone 5 and I don't know anyone in NYC with that incredible an apartment (especially on a writers salary)...sooo yeah I'd say there is a lot of good fantasy here.
  
• Journey of the main character: The best part is that she goes from knowing nothing about herself to discovering who she truly is!
  
• Body count: well... no, no body count - unless you count all the grooms she leaves at the alter and well that's stretching it.

* I'm adding 2 new things to the list that I think should be included from here on out:

• Music Montages: No respectable romantic comedy is without a music montage to quickly let us know of the passage of time, of growth and change. And how awesome this one is! We learn of Julia's struggle to define herself and Richard's struggle to live without the love of his life. This is not the best (the best being Notting Hill's famous montage that goes through the seasons and includes all the side characters) but its good!
  
• Strong Female: As a feminist, as a strong woman- I identify best with strong women characters and I look for them in my entertainment especially. Here, we have a great woman, cool, confident (at least on the outside) who makes the mistake of defining herself through men and learns to define herself on her own. She even proposes to him at the end (a trend I really wish would take off). One of the last lines of the movie which comes from the preacher who is marrying them is 'May your individuality strengthen your union". AND...she rides off on her own horse!