Lovers of Loving Love

For Valentine's day, I would like to take you with me to a few of the greatest lovey-dovey moments in movie history. I feel that this is an important part of my own perspective on love and romance because pretty much everything that I know about either of those things has been gleaned from many hours of movie ingestion. Here goes:

10. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me: Regardless of the completely tragic and dysfunctional family themes that run rampant in this movie, there is one part that just blows me away. It's towards the end of the film right before Laura Palmer runs off into the woods to confront her twisted fate. After discovering the true identity of BOB, Laura decides that she can't go on living. So when James picks her up on his bike and they stop at the ominous traffic light at Sparkwood and 21, Laura jumps off. But right before she runs off into the darkness that will lead to her death, she hugs him and screams with the last ounce of her humanity and goodness, "I love you James!"



9. Evil Dead II: Anyone who's seen these movies knows that once you get a Deadite in you, you're pretty much screwed. But when you're Ashley "Ash" Williams, all you need is love. While possessed by a Deadite for the second time, Ash finds the necklace that he gave to his girlfriend Linda right before he had to decapitate her. Suddenly he remembers how much he loved her and it is in this moment when the Deadite releases its grasp on him, setting him free to kick some more ass.



8. Before Sunset: While I think that this movie's prequel Before Sunrise is the better flick, Sunset's ending is excellent. The film picks up after world-weary American traveler Jesse and intellectual French student Celine finally meet up (eight years later than they had promised, but hey). After another day spent rekindling those unexpected and overwhelming feelings of love towards one another, Jesse comes up to Celine's place. His plane back home to his wife is leaving in a half hour, but he insists on having a drink before leaving. The pressure builds...is he gonna leave? Is he not gonna leave? But then Celine chuckles as she sexily dances around her apartment, "You're gonna miss your plane..." to which Jesse replies, "I know."



7. Grosse Pointe Blank: Martin Blank and Debi Newberry have one of the coolest, most emotionally charged relationships in all of movie history. It all comes to a head when Grocer and his goons attack the Newberry residence because Debi's dad has a price on his head. Martin rescues Mr. Newberry and single-handedly fends off the assault himself. At one point, Debi runs into the kitchen just as Martin is beating one of Grocer's thugs to death with a frying pan. As he delivers the final blow, he looks up, blood on his face and says, "Debi, I'm in love with you, and I know we can make this relationship work."




6. The Fountain: Even though I'm still trying to completely wrap my head around this movie, it's easy to see that past, present, and future, Tommy is doing his damnedest to keep his true love Izzi from dying. In each of his three manifestations, the love that he feels for Izzi (even when she looks like a tree) fuels everything that he does. For example, he sacrifices himself to a dying star in order to breathe new life into her, fights a freaky looking Aztec chief with a flaming sword, and develops a cure for cancer.




5. 300: Amid the sustained stylized violence and Spartans clad in leather briefs, there is a pretty intense love story going on in this movie. As the movie comes to an end, and Leonidas is the only Spartan left standing after being betrayed and defeated by the vast Persian army, he gazes upwards to see a volley of hostile arrows coming his way. At this moment, facing his death he utters the four words that have been on his mind throughout his long and bloody battle, "My wife. My queen." And let's not overlook Gorgo's speech to the senate on behalf of her husband, followed by her personal execution of the conniving Theron ("You will not enjoy this.")



4. Juno: Seeing as how Paulie Bleeker is totally boss, it felt so good to finally see him and Juno officially hook it up. It starts with him running all the way to the hospital after Juno has her baby, and while still wearing his running uniform (golden shorts, cleats, and all) climbs up on the bed and holds Juno as she processes the emotional evolution that she has just gone through, and ends with the two of them sitting on the porch tackling The Moldy Peaches duet "Anyone Else But You."





3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: As the Lacuna Corp. mind-wipers zero in on Joel's last memory of Clementine (the night they first met), Joel struggles to retain this one memory that started their whole experience together. It's presented in Michel Gondry's signature style of image juxtaposition and lots of fading lights that completely illustrates what it must be like to lose one's memories. At first, it seems that all is lost, but Joel's memory of Clementine whispers "Meet me in Montauk" right before the memory altering process is over. The next day, Joel spontaneously skips work and heads to Montauk where he and Clementine meet one more time. Even after they find out that they have already dated, the end hints at the truth that love is not located in the brain.

2. Cold Mountain: I've never seen a movie in which the two main love interests manage to retain their smoldering chemistry regardless of the fact that they share about three scenes together. But, damn do those three scenes explode. The best moment has to be when Ada first sees Inman after he has made his long and arduous desertion from the Civil War. Inman, all in black set against the blinding white snow shambles down a narrow mountain pass as Ada is hunting for food. She looks up, drawing a bead on him with her shotgun. Then the gradual recognition sets in, and she shouts his name with all of this longing and passion... it's so awesome.


1. Lost In Translation: The ending of this movie is just plain brilliant. Throughout the film, the relationship between Bob and Charlotte is built with such delicacy that anything other than the film's ambiguous ending would have completely destroyed the film's overall coolness. The beauty of this scene lies in the fact that we never hear exactly what he whispers to her. Every time you watch this movie, something different could happen at the end, and that is why this movie is number one.



Happy V-Day, home-skillet.