Pop in the DVD and grab a box of tissue
P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler
People watch movies for a lot of different reasons. We watch
them because we are bored, or because we want a low-key way to
socialize with a new friend. We watch them to get out of the heat
or to learn about places we’ve never been. We watch them as a
distraction from all the mundane things going on in our own lives,
and sometimes we watch them because we need a good laugh. But
rarely ever do we sit down and think,
”
Gee, I’d really like to watch a movie that will make me cry for
a good, solid hour.
”
Pop in the DVD and grab a box of tissue
P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler
People watch movies for a lot of different reasons. We watch them because we are bored, or because we want a low-key way to socialize with a new friend. We watch them to get out of the heat or to learn about places we’ve never been. We watch them as a distraction from all the mundane things going on in our own lives, and sometimes we watch them because we need a good laugh. But rarely ever do we sit down and think, “Gee, I’d really like to watch a movie that will make me cry for a good, solid hour.”
But that’s just what we get out of tearjerkers. So here are some rules of how to spot one so you don’t spend a Friday night with a box of Kleenex on your lap and tears streaming down your face.
5.) You know someone dies in the first 10 minutes
“P.S. I Love You” is the latest movie I’ve seen that started non-stop water works. A friend of mine saw it when it was in theaters and she told me I would just love the Irish guy in the movie. I probably would have if he weren’t dead for most fo the movie. So okay, I knew what the movie was about before I popped it in the DVD player after a stressful day at work so really I got what I deserved.
In the film Holly (Hilary Swank) and Gerry (Gerard Butler) are madly in love even 10 years after meeting. They live in a tiny apartment in New York and they both seem to be floundering in the career department so really all they have is each other. The first scene with the two of them seems to go on just a tad too long, but for anyone who read the summary on the back, there is a reason for that. By the next scene Gerry is dead of an unexpected brain tumor and Holly is left as a widow before her 30th birthday.
But Gerry is still around, as he made arrangments before his death for Holly to receive a letter every few weeks at first, and then every few months. With each letter, we get some insight into Gerry and Holly’s relationship – how they met, what they fought about, the ways they made each other crazy and how much they loved each other. Each letter brings with it a painful reminder of a love that was cut short, for both Holly and the viewers.
4.) The movie is based on a true story without a happy ending
“Angela’s Ashes” is another movie where I knew what I was getting into before I watched the movie. I’d read the memoir by Frank McCourt about his miserable Irish childhood so I knew what the death count was in this movie. But I went to see it anyway. I even came prepared with Kleenex in my bag.
Frank McCourt (played by three actors) is born in New York, but his poverty-stricken family moves back to his mother Angela’s native Limerick. Emily Watson plays Angela who tries to keep her family together while her Northern Irish husband (Robert Carlyle) bounces from job to job and spends most of the family’s money on alcohol. Though the movie is mixed with funny tales, its hard to stop crying when babies keep dying.
3.) The movie is about a breakup
So you’d think it would be safe to assume a movie starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston would be a pretty funny comedy. But that is definitely not the case with “The Breakup.”
After Gary (Vaughn) and Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) purchase a luxury condo, they start to have relationship problems. Neither of them wants to lose the investment on the condo so they decide to remain living together in this battle of the sexes. While there are a few funny moments in the film, this movie feels too much like what happens in real life when people stay together past the expiration date of a relationship. And who wants to watch a movie where two people are breaking each other’s hearts when we’ve all lived through that ourselves?
2.) You know someone is diagnosed with cancer in the movie
I never knew what “Terms of Endearment” was about until I happened to catch it on TV one day when I was home alone. I’m sure it was on the Lifetime channel, or something like that, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Emma (Debra Winger) and Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) are a daughter-and-mother pair who have never really gotten along. The tension between them is escalated when Emma runs off and marries a man her mother can’t stand, Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels). Three kids and a divorce later, the mother and daughter are still bickering, and only a diagnosis of cancer can bring them together.
1.) The title of the movie is “Cold Mountain”
Jude Law and Nicole Kidman play the parts of Inman and Ada Monroe perfectly, and that’s probably the reason this movie is so damn sad. It is easy to believe that the two fell in love and were pulled about by war. The whole movie is about Inman’s journey back home to Ada after he is wounded on the battlefields of the civil war. Ada has been waiting for him for years. And just when they are reunited and it seems that all the tears were worth the wait, something goes horribly wrong.
