RomComOrgy – Part II

Cover via Amazon

In continuation of the last RomComOrgy post, here’s the next set of my favourite romcoms:

1. Everafter: A Cinderella Story: I love fairy tales – the magic, the romance and the happy ever-afters. While Cinderella is not my absolute favourite, this retelling of a children’s bed-time story, starring Drew Barrymore is spunky, funny and of course, romantic. Barrymore is Danielle, our poor, mistreated step-daughter of a wicked step-mother – Anjelica Houston. But, our heroine refuses to mope in despair. She can fend off lascivious villains and save the prince (Dougray Scott) from bandits with equal élan. There is the expected ball, with the midnight deadline. And there’s a fairy god-mother too in the form of an inimitable Leonardo Da Vinci. Delightful.
2.  My Best Friend’s Wedding: What do you do if your best friend is getting married? And you just realized that you are in love with him? You can either choose to be a martyr or set out to wreck his wedding plans. Julia Roberts chooses the latter. Roberts plays Julianne, who has a fling with her best friend – Dermot Mulroney as Michael. They break up soon after and continue to be best friends, their lives uncomplicated by any deeper feelings. Until the time Michael decides to get married to the lovely, classy Kimberley Wallace (Cameron Diaz). What ensues is a hilarious series of attempts by Roberts to drive a wedge between the to-be-married lovers. The first-time watchers of the movie are kept wondering till the end who wins this war of love. For me the highlight of the film is the wonderful cast rendition of I Say a Little Prayer for You at the rehearsal dinner.
3. When Harry Met Sally: I am extremely finicky about my perception of whether an actor fits a character. And in my mind Billy Crystal and a romantic hero do not quite align themselves. Yet, When Harry Met Sally features on my list because I feel there must be something very special about characters who keep meeting and parting for a long, long time before realizing that they are soul-mates. That is what happens to Harry and Sally. They meet first as college students and instantly dislike each other. They keep bumping into each other over the years – on a flight, in a bookstore before finally striking a tentative friendship, which deepens with time. They even decide to help each other find the right partners and set the other up with respective best friends. But the law of romcoms prevails and the inevitable happens – Harry and Sally fall in love. Meg Ryan as Sally is adorable and very cute. I also love the Hindi adaptation of the movie – Rani Mukherjee and Saif Ali Khan starrer Hum Tum.
4. Bend It Like Beckham: Gurinder Chaddha’s second directorial venture revolves around Indian diaspora in London. Jasminder Bhamra a.k.a. Jess – born to Sikh parents in the London – loves football and dreams of being a footballer as famous as Beckham. But her mother, Mrs. Bhamra (almost an Indian rendition of the infamous Mrs. Bennet of English Literature) is adamant that decent Indian girls do not run around in knickers, playing football with boys. They should learn how to cook alu-gobhi and be a proper wife. Jess with the help of her friend Jules (Keira Knightley in one of her earliest big-screen roles) joins a girls’ football team coached by a dishy coach. Needless to say, she succeeds in taking meaningful steps towards realizing her dream and winning the heart of the handsome coach too.
5.  Runaway Bride: This movie proves that the chemistry between Gere and Roberts seen in Pretty Woman was no fluke. Roberts plays Maggie, who falls frequently in love, gets engaged, buys the perfect white dress and even starts to walk down the aisle before bolting from the wedding. Gere plays a reporter who wants to do a story on this runaway bride, in a last ditch attempt to save his job, just as she is about to get married, yet again. They meet – he offends her and she manages to intrigue him. Eventually they fall in love but she jilts him at the altar too. Yet, all’s well that ends well and the lovers finally get hitched under the open skies in a beautiful meadow.
6. What Happens in Vegas: This Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz starrer is all set to be remade into Hindi, with Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor as the lead pair. I am not too sure how good the remake would be but the original was fun. Diaz is a workaholic, hot-shot career woman who goes to Vegas to unwind with a friend. The friends run into Kutcher and his friend, when all four of the end up in the same suite, due to a clerical mistake. One thing leads to another and our hero and heroine get married in drunken stupor and end up in bed together – all of it on the very first night. To top it all, they also manage to hit the jackpot as they quarrel with each other in the casino about whose fault the entire fiasco is. The rest of the movie is about their attempts to outdo each other, as each tries to claim the prize money all alone, even as they are ordered by a court judge to make their marriage work and stay together for at least six months. Diaz and Kutcher try all sorts of shenanigans to discredit the other before falling totally and irrevocably in love. Watch it for the antics of Kutcher and the fun equation between the lead cast.

I am still missing some that I watch at every given chance but if I were to list them all, the post would never end :-)

I would love to hear from you about your favourites – do let me know. Ciao.