‘It Was Just Like Out Of A Movie’ | Why Love Matters In Film

Movies give us the ability to dream ourselves into them; what we would want to be like in that scene, how we would react if we were proposed to in front of thousands of people at a baseball stadium. The fact is, you’re in love before you set foot into the theatre and the more your imagination is taken by the characters, the scenery, the music, as you watch – the easier it is to feel like you are part of it all. Movies allow us to create our own romance and to believe that somehow, ‘that could happen to me.’

Personally, I don’t think we need Valentine’s Day to sit in front of a sappy love story and get lost in it.  It’s important to note of course that Valentine’s Day, like so many other “Hallmark holidays”, was in fact invented to make single people feel like crap and married people fight about whether they felt loved enough on that one day out of the year.  But, we all eat it up. We buy the cards, the flowers, the chocolates – we rent a movie, or these days “Netflix and Chill,” and we get lost in the one night where you look forward to, and it is okay to cry at a sappy love film. When you wake up the next day, a good movie – whether it be romantic or any other genre – is still in your head, and hopefully a good song from that film sings in your heart. For me, the soundtrack and the song ripens the experience. A great song attached to even an okay movie works, it just makes it better and perfects the film.  

There’s one film in the history of love stories that does it for every woman (and men can reap the benefit of) on this planet – and if anyone tells you otherwise they just haven’t seen the movie – and if they haven’t seen Leo and Kate in ‘Titanic’, then maybe they should give up on love all together.  ‘Titanic’ – Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Celine Dion. It is the perfectly tragic love story with the perfect song. It’s hard to imagine your heart going on after watching the love of your life sink to the bottom of the Atlantic, but with Celine’s help we are not only laying on that wooden board waiting to be saved, we still hold out hope that Jack won’t die every time were hear it.  We are all standing right next to Rose when she throws that damn necklace into the ocean, and we are all screaming, “no girl, don’t throw…ugh.” ‘Titanic’ is the perfect example of a film fulfilling a fantasy. And Men, if you don’t get it, you really should figure out how this movie can benefit you. Don’t write it off as just another early, lusty Leo performance. Learn from it and take advantage of it. Ask your wife, girlfriend, domestic partner, etc., she’d love to watch it again and especially with you.

What movies do for us, they allow us to think of the “What If” about our own lives. I wouldn’t have let go of Jack, I couldn’t watch the person I love sink away from me, but Rose did. The fantasy we fulfill through film teaches us a lot about ourselves. Who our perfect mate would be, what our first kiss will be like and what our last one might be like. When Robby (Adam Sandler) proposes on the plane to Julia (Drew Barrymore) as ‘The Wedding Singer’ is singing, “I want to grow old with you…”, we all yearn for an original musical proposal with Billy Idol right there and getting to shout “Yes, I’ll marry you!”

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible,” and with that Harry, (Billy Crystal) declared his love, the clock struck midnight and Sally (Meg Ryan) helped give us the best romantic comedy ending of all time. “You see, that is just like you Harry. You say things like that and you make it impossible for me to hate you. And I hate you Harry. I really hate you.” And the kiss, all set to the majestic “Auld Lang Syne.” It’s a movie that’s left generations in love, you watch and hope there’s a match out there like that, just for you. It’s okay, it’s what romantic movies do to us.

“Wise men say, only fools rush in…but I can’t help falling in love with you…” Flashing back to 1997 when Matthew Perry was at the height of his film career and Salma Hayek’s accent was as good as it ever was going to get.  There’s just something about the movie ‘Fools Rush In’, and that song that make our hearts ache with love. Thank you Elvis, fools do rush in, and the cat and mouse game Isabel and Alex play throughout the film tugs on our hearts. Maybe it’s because we’ve looked for the signs in our own lives, signs like those that are scattered throughout the film for Alex. Signs as to what our future holds, what we should do in a trying situation. A real life fantasy almost, which leaves us looking for signs of our own destiny. Or maybe it’s just Perry’s infectious character play, thinking about it now I realize, he was pretty much Chandler Bing in the film, but with a different job – I digress, but ask this: At the end of the movie, who didn’t want to give birth in the rain on the side of the road?

Since we are on the subject of semi-bad, yet still tear-jerking films, enter ‘Jerry McGuire’. Come on, we cannot talk about romance at the movies unless Tom Cruise at least gets a mention. ‘Jerry McGuire’ was pre-Scientology Tom Cruise, so we did still enjoy him – okay, okay, women still enjoyed him. “Show me the Money,” and remember it wasn’t just Jerry McGuire who stole our hearts, Bruce Springsteen could lead any one of us into the “Secret Garden.” The sappiness factor of ‘Jerry McGuire’ is no doubt higher than most. Laurel (Bonnie Hunt) the rational and responsible older sister, Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) and her annoying innocence and passionate love for Jerry – who in the end deserved none of it, but without a doubt, had all of us “at hello.”

Whether they make you mock them, laugh at them or cry with them, romantic movies do something to us. Some people hate (my husband) sappy, predictable love stories. But some people (myself) love the fantasy that comes with them and sometimes a good cry to boot. So we’ll end this little Valentine’s Day special Elizabeth Berry extraordinaire exclusive with an all time, forever, classic, cry-your-face-off love story. Yes, it’s time we brought in a ‘Ghost’.

I’ll begin this ending by admitting that I can no longer allow myself to watch “Ghost,” because I literally cry so hard every time, it’s embarrassing. “Oh, my darling, I’ve hungered for your touch. A long, lonely time,” and the thing is, you can’t imagine that feeling – or maybe you can – and maybe it hurts just thinking about wanting to touch that one person one more time. This movie stirs the pot of emotions at every turn and can make you cry so hard you gasp for air. What if our greatest love left the earth too soon and at that, what if we had unfinished business? Why do we watch this movie over and over again? This question has two simple answers, because Patrick Swayze and because we are human. Movies like ‘Ghost’ remind us, it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Love stories – much like love itself – makes our hearts flutter, our stomachs ache, palms sweat and experience the naughty innocence of a love we might never know in our real lives. Movies set us free, let our hearts feel things we love, things we hate, and – if the director does his job – leaves us with a love story we’ll never forget. Through a movie and its characters, we get to know the story– then have our own experiences which ultimately tell our own stories and, if we’re lucky, finally get to say, “It was just like out of a movie.”