A few movies make you find emotions missing in your life and you have forgotten to yearn for. They make you realize just how love, caring for those who you love, and paying it forward go a long way. When you are feeling lonely, and there’s not a soul to understand how you feel, you can binge on these movies to tell your heart beautiful emotions are beyond fiction and you are not foolish to want them to.
Sometimes its alright to be foolish looking for love but with eyes and mind open; looking deeper into ourselves about all the things we have been missing like family, friends, and all the simple joys. You can believe them watching from the list of these feel-good movies.
13 Going On 30
A sweet movie that celebrates childhood friendships, unconditional love, ambitions, and dreams all put together. Jennifer Garner plays Jenna, a fashion editor of a top fashion magazine whose miserable teen life magically transforms into a successful adult. The movie deals with the beauty of relations, love, and good human values that we forget in the long run. Mark Ruffalo plays the sweet-natured mellow best friend of Jenna who has been in love with her all his life.
It brings back nostalgia tell us how people still appreciate good values and simplicity of good-meaning relations. To all those women who missed out on something very wonderful waiting to happen, because you were focused on ‘being cool’ and ‘accepted’ in peer groups, this movie is an eye opener not to forget those who have truly loved you because you were looking for superficial happiness.
Bridesmaids
Kristen Wiig movies are fun to watch. BFFs who have individual lives, a few doing very, and a few not so well, but that does not come in the way of their bond and love for each other. The comedienne is original and gives us funny moments to laugh about. She loves baking, her customer and a cop, a fan of her baking, encourages her to reopen her bakery. Her best friend is getting closer to a manipulative lonely snob and there is a lot of chaos in Annie’s life played by Wiig.
The wedding of her best friend stirs up all kinds of emotions leaving, happy, confusing, and embarrassing moments. Sometimes, you are on crossroads in your mid ’30s and it’s not the same like being on crossroads as a teen. Lillian is her best friend played by Maya Rudolph. Do you know the screenplay was also written by Wiig and was nominated for Academy for Best Original Screenplays? A chic flick with not a single dull moment that gives you laughs and tears.
Music And Lyrics
Alex Fletcher played by Hugh Grant, is a former popular pop-star whose fame has recoiled and uses small-time gigs to keep up. He does not find his moxie unless he meets the hyper-anxious writer Sophie Fisher played by Drew Barrymore. The movie has an unhurried pace and every character sews the plot together well.
Alex is not drawn to Sophie, because of her anxiety-stricken behavior but eventually, he sees through her beautiful side and falls in love with her. The movie deals with various themes with a realistic view you can relate to through out the story. It depicts the exact emotions of a fading star, and how he feels about his glory slipping away. The contrasting personalities of Alex and Sophie brings out a warm and interesting chemistry between the two.
500 Days Of Summer
A feel-good movie does not always end in happy endings. An offbeat romcom that comes with realistic tidbits of how we shouldn’t look at relationships. Tom(Gordon-Levitt) is hopelessly in love with Summer(Zooey Deschanel) and believes in the theory of soul mates. He lives in a fantasy world thinking his true feelings are enough to make Summer fall in love with him with all his might. Summer does not believe in fairy tale romance and has no interest in Tom, she is out of his league.
He finally finds want he wants instead of being on a run of wild goose chase and understands love in real life is happiness of being loved back instead of living in a delusion of how love should be. This is a good movie for hopeless romantics who believe fairy tales could be real. Well, they could be, but isn’t everybody’s reality.
What Happens In Las Vegas
Getting married in a drunken state and realizing how much you do not want it when you wake up sane. What Happens In Las Vegas has the charm of Aston Kutcher and a good plot with reality tidbits of how difficult it is to make marriages work sometimes. It’s more of a toil than romance and sweetness. Joy(Cameroon Diaz) is a straight-laced career woman and Jack(Ashton Kutcher) is a slacker who is thrown out of his house and fired from his father’s company.
Both meet at a Las Vegas party and accidentally get married. They are compelled to make their marriage work as tons of money is locked into the accidental marriage having won a jackpot of million dollars. They eventually fall in love hating each other initially. As typical as it sounds, the movie is fun to watch and has idiosyncrasies you wouldn’t find in a romcom.
The Ugly Truth
Abby(Katherine Heigal) is an uptight television producer who learns about love and seduction from a misogynist Casanova Mike(Gerard Butler). Abby has a hard time dating men, her calls never get returned and she is almost oblivious to good-looking men.
Mike teaches her how to dress, speak, and manipulate men with charm to seduce men and eventually falls in love with her. You might think it’s a spin-off of Some Kind Of Wonderful, but it isn’t. You can’t deny Gerard Butler can get you drooling.
The Devil Wears Prada
What if you have to choose between fame, luxury, and true love? There’s more personality to the movie than it is made about haute couture, fashion, ambition, and the moolah. It’s also how you impact people at work with your individuality. Andy(Anne Hathway) does not take fashion seriously(has a hideous taste in fashion) and works at the most sought-after high-end fashion magazine with a dragon-lady editor-in-chief Miranda Prestly(Meryl Streep).
Andy has an impact on Miranda despite her shortcomings. Her insights and work ethic impresses her and she is sent to the most prestigious runway show that everyone at the magazine is vying for. The movie depicts nuances of how people change and if they make a conscious choice to stick to their values despite the glitter and glitz and find meaning in the madness.
Hangover Series
Hangover series is a spoof of fairy tale movies. It’s about weddings, hook-ups, and everything that can go wrong in a wedding. But, there’s only one thing common in Hangover series and fairy tale weddings, it’s the happy ending. The three main characters of the series have distinct personalities which adds a flavor to the risque humor in the series.
Alan(Zach Galifianakis) is a man-child who lives with his parents at 40 and has annoying habits. He is a troublemaker invited reluctantly to the bachelor’s party of Doug’s(Justin Bartha) at Las Vegas. The second time he is invited to Stu’s (Ed Helms) wedding and is the reason the plot sets off to tidbits of funny and dangerous encounters.
Phil( Bradley Cooper) is the only sensible one in the group who brings it all together in all the series swimming through chaotic and precarious situations. The movie depicts how one could be introduced to their dark side and aspects of their personalities unknown to them in the most unexpected situations.
Under The Tuscan Sun
Francis(Diane Lane) has a bad divorce, is a writer who chooses a vacation in Tuscany to get away from pain as a residue of bad relationships. A feel-good movie that lets you take a back seat on the life choices you make. Love is missing in her life post her messy divorce. She meets new people in a new land, ethnicity, and culture and is happy in her own right while still carrying the pain on the inside.
She finally realizes she has got what she wished for and to take life as it comes without looking for a negative aspect and spoiling the present.
The Proposal
Margret(Sandra Bullock) is a pushy boss who forces her assistant Andrew(Ryan Reynolds) to marry her to avoid being deported to Canada as her visa is about to expire. To convince the officer that they are married, they hatch a plan. Margert spends time with Andrew’s family keeping their plan a secret. They eventually fall in love through mishaps, confusion, and chaos.
An entertaining movie if you want to spend time with nothing much on your mind. It doesn’t have deep philosophies or life lessons like you would find in a typical Disney movie. But, yeah, its worth the time. Margret is a career-oriented, snappy woman in total contrast with the sensitive, sensible Andrew. How their love takes shape is interesting to watch.
The Sweetest Thing(2002)
Christina(Cameroon Diaz) is a commitment phobic and is usually in an uneasy situation when it comes to dating. She and her friend Courtney(Christina Applegate) are exploring the confusing cosmos of relationships and dating. Courtney sets her up with a guy, who she falls in love with secretly hoping they are together but never admits it.
Through a series situations, Christina finally comes to terms and makes up her mind to see Nick, the guy she is in love with. They decide to attend his friend’s wedding only to know it is Nick getting married. They almost ruin it. Nick and Christina get their happily ever after. The movie is an interesting watch because it gives a realistic view on how unpredictable relationships can be.
He’s Just No That Into You
A movie that is a motley of seperated stories with characters to each other in some way. Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) doesn’t understand men and is often pushed around in the dating scene. She is the hopeless romantic who is unsuccessful in finding the right guy. She doesn’t know what she wants and is a total clutz when it comes to relationships.
Beth(Jennifer Aniston) has the perfect relation with Neil(Ben Affleck) but they aren’t married yet because Neil doesn’t believe in marriage, is committed to her, and she goes with the flow without uttering the ‘M’ word though it bothers her deep within. Mary(Drew Barrymore) is open to finding love. Janine(Jennifer Connelly) is married to Ben(Bradley Cooper) and they have a toxic relation because Janine is too controlling and a perfectionist.
Beth and Jannie work in the same office discusing their relationship issues. The movie provides good insights into how relations work for different people. Anna(Scarlet Johnson) has an affair with Ben but eventually decides to find herself ending his marriage with Janine. Neil and Beth marry, Drew finds her love in Connor who was in love with Anna.
The main theme of the movie is how relationships need a breathing space at every stage to let them grow. It depicts how you have to let go your ideal fancies, break through the walls you build around yourself, and false perceptions you hold of what love must be.
27 Dresses
Jane(Katherine Heigel) is the perfect bridesmaid who has attended 27 weddings in various themes and holds the bridesmaid dresses as memoriblia from the weddings. She secretly hopes someday she marries the man she so hopelessly loves only to eventually find there is no spark.
The movie addresses the repressive nature of Jane to stand up for herself and speak up instead of letting people walk all over her. A wedding column writer Kevin(James Marsden) makes her realize she has been holding up too much and undones her uptight, repressive, pent up anger. She hates him for making her realize how she has been jeoperdizing her life being repressive but realizes he was right.
Playing marytr is so passe. A lot of people end up doing that. They do not speak and lose sight of the beautiful life waiting to happen to them. The movie speaks through symbology of 27 thematic bridesmaid dresses which are mostly ridiculous and a testimony of how much Jane has been giving in instead of thinking for herself.
Meet The Fockers Series
I love these series because it has a lot of elements and situations you can relate to. Greg(Ben Stiller) is a nurse and brought by in an uncoventional family who puts love above everything else. He is in love with Pam(Teri Byrnes) who has been raised with traditional values. Greg has a difficult time getting in the good books of Jack(Robert De Niro) who is a ex-CIA and views Greg with suspicion giving him a hard time.
The series gives a lot to ponder about when it comes to marriage, relationships, and parenting. Gregs parents insist he becomes a good human rather than focus on his grades. They celebrate even his mediocre accomplishments. Jack on the other hand is hard-to-please and focuses on scientific methods of upbringing instead of providing emotional nourishment to children.
The series brings out a complete contrast between two families with values and ideologies that match like oil and water. Jack understands he has been too hard on wanting to accept love and softens.
Kate And Leopold
Kate(Meg Ryan) and Leopold(Hugh Jackman) is a time travel you wished was real. Leopold travels through time and lands in an era where his mannerisms and ideologies are a total mismatch with Kate. She finds his elaborate antiques amusing and puts him on an advertising campaign without realizing her has developed feelings for her.
Staurt is an ex-boyfriend of Kate and a physicist working through time portals. Leopold is Staurt’s great grandfather who lands in the year 2001 through a portal discovered by Stuart. The movie has amusing situations of comedy of errors and finally Kate and Leopold reunite in the 18th century to marry again.
Motion Picture Reviews and Insights- Vaishali Adwant 