Romantic movies

These are my picks for romantic movies, that make you think a little bit too or just make you smile and want to hug a sweetie or a friend.
Out of Africa - this 1985 Oscar winner stars the incomparable Meryl Streep and Robert Redford at his most ruggedly sexy. Streep is real-life Karen Blixen, a woman who arrived in Kenya to marry and escape her European background. She figures out the boys network of colonial Kenya is incredibly difficult for women to navigate, and that colonizing the local people, Kikuyu in her case, isn't always possible or necessary. She meets Redford's Denis Finch-Hatten and he sees that daring in her, but the constraints her background put upon her. He has no constraints and they have an amazing affair, that of course ends tragically, but appropriately - especially given they're real people. Definitely an escape - plus you can wash your sweetie's hair afterward.


50 First Dates - Another Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore movie, where he plays a bit of scum and she helps him figure out how to be a better guy. But it's so much better than that. Drew had a head injury and can't retain memories beyond what she had the day of the accident. Then she meets and hits it off with Sandler, but can't really remember him the next day. So they work on things that help her relearn new things every day - a video, a diary, etc. Where's the romance you might ask - how about getting the girl of your dreams to fall in love with you every day, and then being the girl who gets to live every day with that sense of new love.
Sense and Sensibility - This is just one of those old fashioned love stories. Boy meets girl, can't be with girl, they try to move on, life conspires to eventually bring them back together. Oh yeah, and Kate Winslet plays the girl's sister who falls for the wrong guy before finding the right guy. Not so much with the guys, but girls will love it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - This one covers most of the stages of a relationship, ups downs, highs, lows, happy, rage, and then the wonderful nostalgia that hits right after you've ended a relationship and can't really remember why it had to be over. Plus, there's the added fun of fate forcing you to fall in love with the same person over and over. Most people do that by dating lots of different people who are really variations on a theme, but our heros, Joel and Clementine, do it by falling for each other after their memories are erased.