My Ten Favorite Romantic Dramas

A few years ago, I posted a list of my top ten favorite romantic comedies.  You can read it here.  Today, I'm doing something a little different -- a list of my ten favorite romantic dramas!  I've excluded movies that belong to other specific genres like westerns, musicals, or film noir, simply because... those aren't in the drama section of my movie collection, okay? 

As always, if I've reviewed a film on this list, I've linked the title to my review.

1. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Three veterans (Dana Andrews, Frederic March, Harold Russell) find returning to civilian life much harder than they'd expected.  Bonus: this movie contains THREE love stories!  You get love between a husband and wife getting reacquainted, between childhood sweethearts, and between new acquaintances.

2. Jane Eyre (1983) Strong-spirited governess Jane Eyre (Zelah Clarke) falls in love with her wealthy, secretive employer (Timothy Dalton), but they cannot marry until they both deserve each other.

3. Chocolat (2000) A mysterious woman (Juliette Binoche) opens a chocolate shop in a sedate French village and teaches its inhabitants to reexamine their attitudes and customs.   Also, she falls in love with a gypsy (Johnny Depp).

4. North and South (2004)  A woman (Daniela Denby-Ashe) from the pastoral south of England moves to the industrial north and spends months ignoring the fact that a wealthy manufacturer (Richard Armitage) is in love with her. 

5. And Now Tomorrow (1944) A wealthy young woman (Loretta Young) loses her hearing in an illness. Though her family and fiance (Barry Sullivan) try to convince her she needs to accept her condition, a young doctor (Alan Ladd) with an experimental treatment holds out hope that she could regain her hearing.

6. Pride and Prejudice (2005) Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) and Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) can't fall in love with each other until they both come to understand themselves first.  Bonus: multiple love stories here too!

7. Jane Eyre (2011)  Strong-spirited governess Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska) falls in love with her wealthy, secretive employer (Michael Fassbender), but they cannot marry until they both deserve each other.

8. Moran of the Lady Letty (1922)  A wealthy young man (Rudolph Valentino) gets shanghaied onto a smuggling ship, whereupon he falls in love with the only survivor (Dorothy Dalton) of an abandoned vessel the smugglers rob.

9. Sense and Sensibility (1995)  A young woman (Emma Thompson) and her sister (Kate Winslet) both discover that their own particular personality strengths are also weaknesses when it comes to finding a smooth path to true love.  Bonus: this movie also contains three love stories.  Because why not.

10. Return to Me (2000)  A man (David Duchovny) falls in love with the woman (Minnie Driver) who was the heart donor recipient of his wife's heart after she died.

I just realized that Judi Dench is in three of these:  Chocolat, Pride and Prejudice, and the 2011 Jane Eyre.  How nifty is that?

This post is a contribution toward Cordy's Lovely Blog Party, which is in full swing and continues all month!  You can read her kick-off post here. 

The Sunshine Blogger Award

The Story Enthusiast has nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award!  I love her questions -- you're going to too, I just know it.

But first, a bit of business, in the form of the award's rules:

• List the award’s official rules (doing so now)
• Display the award somewhere on your blog (hope the above image counts)
• Thank the person who nominated you (thank you, Story Enthusiast!)
• Provide a link to your nominator’s blog (did so above)
• Answer your nominator’s questions (will do so below)
• Nominate up to 11 bloggers (I'll get there)
• Ask your nominees 11 questions (what fun!)
• Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts (of course)

On to the questions!!!  (If I've reviewed a film I mention here, I've linked the title to my review.)

1. What British or international film would you recommend to a friend who has never seen one? 

Hmmmmm.  This is a hard question because it doesn't take into account the fact that people like different genres and so on.  And I'm not sure what friends of mine have never seen an international film!  However, if you happen to be into westerns and/or like unusual retellings of Hamlet, I really dig the Italian spaghetti western The Wild and the Dirty (1968), also called Johnny Hamlet.

2. Which classic film director do you prefer and what is your favorite of their films? 

John Sturges.  I don't love all of his films, but I do love several, especially The Magnificent Seven (1960).  And The Great Escape (1963), Hour of the Gun (1967), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957).

3. Which character actor or actress do you think would have made a great lead? 

I wish Gloria Grahame had gotten to play front and center more.

4. What child actor do you believe should have had success as an adult but didn’t? 

Hmm.  Margaret O'Brien did make a lot of things as an adult, but not with nearly the success she had as a child.  (She's still alive, by the way!  So cool!)

5. What film do you love, but dislike the ending? 

Um.  I don't know if I can think of any.  Endings are super important to me.  If a movie doesn't end properly, I'm not going to love it.  I just looked through my entire list of my 100 favorite films, and I don't dislike a single ending on there.

Now, I can tell you a movie that I would like EXCEPT that the ending ruins it for me, so I can't like it, and that's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).  I much prefer the ending of the original story by Truman Capote.  And no, this isn't a case of me reading the story first and then not liking the film -- I saw and disliked the movie twice before I ever read and liked the story.

6. Whose onscreen wardrobe do you covet and would like to claim for your own? 

I want to wear basically every dress and bathrobe and pair of pajamas in White Christmas (1954).

7. Which original film do you think could be improved as a remake and who would you cast? 

Hmm.  How about Breakfast at Tiffany's?  We can restore the original ending and all will be well.  I think Alicia Vikander as Holly and James McAvoy as Paul would be interesting.

8. Which classic film actor or actress do you think would be successful in today’s film industry?

Lee Marvin.  Couldn't you see him in modern action movies, menacing and sidewinding and wonderful?

9. What film trope do you never tire of seeing?

Found families.  I eat them up with ravenous delight.

10. If you could adapt a piece of classic literature that has not yet been made into a film, what book would you choose and who would you cast in the main roles?

If I could be in charge of making a movie version of The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery so that it wouldn't get all screwed up, then that would be a very good book to adapt.  But only if it didn't get all screwed up.  I want Elizabeth Henstridge to play Valancy Stirling and Michael Fassbender as Barney Snaith.  If you can't get Fassbender to play Barney, I want no part of it whatsoever, the end.

11. Which of today’s modern actors or actresses do you think would have been successful in classic films and why?

Michael Fassbender.  He has a classical introspection and a wide range, and I think he'd have been fantastic in '60s films.

And now, my questions:

1.  What movie house would you like to live in?
2.  What movie pet would you like to own?
3.  What book do you wish your favorite actor or actress could have starred in an adaptation of?
4.  Are there any movies you like better than the book they were based on?
5.  What's your favorite movie that's set in the decade you were born in?
6.  Do you collect movie memorabilia of any sort?
7.  What actor and actress have never made a movie together, but you wish would have?
8.  What director would you like to have direct a movie based on your life?
9.  Do you ever like a remake better than the original film?
10. What's your least-favorite movie genre?
11.  Are there any movies in your least-favorite genre that you do like?

And my nominees:

Anna and Irene at Horseback to Byzantium
Cordy at Any Merry Little Thought
Eva at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness
Heidi at Along the Brandywine
Jocelyn at Classic Film Observations & Obsessions
Katie at I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read)
MovieCritic at Movies Meet Their Match
Natalie at Starry Ramblings
Olivia at Meanwhile, in Rivendell...
Paddy at Caftan Woman
Phyl at Phyllis Loves Classic Movies


Play if you want to!

A Shakespeare's Birthday Tag!

Movies Meet Their Match tagged me with this last week.  Shakespeare's birthday is past now, but you know what?  I don't care.  I'm going to do this anyway!

(Mine from my Instagramming adventures)

The Rules: 

1. Answer truthfully, and then "Thou canst not then be false to any man." (I'll try!)

2. Tag at least three people and let them know that they've been tagged. "For he today who does this tag with me shall be my brother..."  (We'll see...)

3.Link back to the person who tagged you (done!) and post a link to your post in the comments of this original post at The Tearoom blog, where the tag started.  (Will do!)

The Questions: 

1. What was the first exposure you ever had to Shakespeare?

Watching West Side Story with my mom -- does that count?

If not, then this: when I was about 16, our homeschool group went to see a presentation by some traveling theater troupe that was all about how Shakespeare affects and informs storytelling today, basically.  I discovered that afternoon that a LOT of Classic Star Trek episodes got their titles from Shakespeare, and I decided to read all his plays and figure out all the episode titles that referenced his works.  This was before Google, I couldn't just look it up -- this was the dark ages of the mid-'90s.  So I got this giant volume of his works from the library and just began at the beginning.  Which I think was Two Gentlemen from Verona.  I only got partway through that tome, maybe read 6 or 7 plays, before I got to Hamlet and sort of got stuck.  Read it twice, bought my own chunkster volume of his works when I was 17, memorized a soliloquy or two... and didn't read any others of his plays until I got to college a year or so later.  Just sort of dwelt on that one.

2. How many of Shakespeare's plays have you seen?

A lot.  No, seriously.  A lot.

(I'm including some retellings, and I've linked titles to my reviews where applicable.)

Watched live on stage:

Antony and Cleopatra
Otello (opera version of Othello)
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado About Nothing 
Hamlet (2009 -- Law)
Hamlet (2018 -- Innerst)

Watched on film:

Antony and Cleopatra (1972)
The Banquet (2006 retelling of Hamlet)
Hamlet (1948 -- Olivier)
Hamlet (1964 -- Burton)
Hamlet (1969 -- Williamson)
Hamlet (1980 -- Jacobi)
Hamlet (1990 -- Gibson)
Hamlet (1990 -- Kline)
Hamlet (1996 -- Branagh)
Hamlet (2000 -- Hawke)
Hamlet (2000 -- Scott)
Hamlet (2002 -- Lester)
Hamlet (2004 opera based on Alexandre Dumas' adaptation of the play)
Hamlet (2009 -- Tennant)
Hamlet (2011 -- Ramsey)
Hamlet (2015 -- Cumberbatch)
Henry V (1989)
Julius Caesar (1953)
Kiss Me, Kate (1953 retelling of The Taming of the Shrew)
Love's Labours Lost (2000)
Macbeth (2015)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2020 live-stream production)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Ophelia (2018 retelling of Hamlet)
Richard III (1995)
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990 sort-of retelling of Hamlet)
10 Things I Hate About You (1999 retelling of The Taming of the Shrew)
A Thousand Acres (1997 retelling of King Lear)
Titus (1999 movie version of Titus Andronicus)
West Side Story (1961 retelling of Romeo and Juliet)
The Wild and the Dirty (1968 retelling of Hamlet)

3. What is your favorite Shakespeare play?

In case you couldn't guess from the name of this blog and the lists above, it's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.


4. What is your favorite non-Shakespearean play? {musicals are permissible}

Hmm.  Probably The Odd Couple by Neil Simon.  He's my other favorite playwright.


5. What is an adaptation of one of Shakespeare's plays that you like? Why?

You think I can choose ONE?  ONE???  Hahaha.  Inconceivable.

How about my top five filmed versions:

Hamlet (2011 -- Bruce Ramsay)
Hamlet (2000 -- Ethan Hawke)
Hamlet (2015 -- Benedict Cumberbatch)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Ten Things I Hate About You (1999)

6. Who is your favorite Shakespearean character?

Take a wild guess ;-)


7. What is your favorite Shakespeare quote?

"The readiness is all." -- Hamlet

(Also mine from my Instagramming adventures)

8. If you were in a Shakespearean production, which play would you want to be in, and which character?

Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing would be really fun.

9. Have you read any of Shakespeare's sonnets and, if so, which is your favorite?

I have read quite a few, but I don't have a favorite.

10. Have you ever written/tried to write a play?

I've written several short plays and some radio dramas, none shareable ;-)  That was long ago.  I stick to novels and short stories these days.

11. Cast one of the big five {Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Richard III, or Much Ado About Nothing} with modern actors from either the stage or the screen. {you only have to do main characters.}

I will, shock of all shocks, share an ideal modern Hamlet casting:

Hamlet -- Michael Fassbender
Horatio -- Armie Hammer
Laertes -- Chris Evans
Ophelia -- Rosamund Pike
Claudius -- Brian Cox
Gertrude -- Helen Mirren
Polonius -- Ian McKellen

(They're all almost a bit old for these roles now, so probably we should have filmed this 10 years ago.)

(Oh man, now I just WANT THIS to be a real movie.)

If you're curious, I did an ideal 1940s casting for a film noir version of Hamlet a few years ago.  I've wanted to see Alan Ladd as Hamlet since a decade before I was obsessed with him, isn't that funny?  Ever since I saw him in This Gun for Hire the first time somewhere around 2005.  I still want it.  Sigh.  Where's my time machine?

Anyway, this was such a fun tag!  Thank you for nominating me, MovieCritic!

I'm not actually going to tag anyone because... I don't feel like it.  And Shakespeare's birthday is past for the year anyway.  But if you want to snurch this and do it yourself, go for it!

My Tag Answers for Legends of Western Cinema Week 2019

Boy howdy!  Legends of Western Cinema Week has been quite a ride, hasn't it?  I'm simply glowing from basking in all the love for westerns that's going around!!!

And it's time for me to complete the official tag at last.  I've been working on this all week, but my other posts kept taking precedence.  Well, not anymore!  Today is Tag Day.

1) Do you tolerate, like, or love westerns?

I'm not sure "love" is a strong enough word for how I feel about westerns.  I'm not sure there is a strong-enough word.  Maybe "cherish."  I cherish westerns.  If you go by the dictionary definition, that means I protect and care for westerns deeply, and hold them dear.  Yeah, that works.  Westerns make me happy, so I cherish them.

2) What do you enjoy about them and, more broadly, the west itself (e.g. the history, accompanying paraphernalia, etc)?

All the things.  I love the wide-open spaces, the horses, the clothes, the focus on a person's intrinsic worth, the struggle to survive in an often harsh land, the central determination to do what you set out to do.  All the trappings.  I love the history of the west so much, I write a monthly newspaper column about it for the Prairie Times.

More specifically for western movies (and books), I love the way they explore good-versus-evil.  I love the heroes in westerns.  Whether they're rich ranchers or poor farmers, drifters or pillars of the community, outlaws or gunmen-for-hire or lawmen, western movies excel at showcasing heroes.

Also, DKoren and I have a saying: Cowboys make everything better.  And it's totally true for us.  No matter how badly a day has gone, a dose of cowboys will lift our spirits and set us back on our feet for the next day.

3) What's the first western you can remember watching?

So, this one is tricky for me.  I'm pretty sure the first western I ever saw was The Man from Snowy River (1982), which we went to see in the theater when I was 2 years old.  I've loved it ever since -- it's my favorite movie.  But I don't actually remember going to see it.  The first western I have a really clear memory of watching is Giant (1956), which is kind of a western, in that it's set in Texas and all about ranchers, but kind of not because it takes place in the 1940s and '50s.  That movie really cemented my love of guys in cowboy hats riding horses, though.

4) Who are your favorite western stars, the ones whose presence in a western will make you pick it up off the shelf?

John Wayne.  Alan Ladd.  Glenn Ford.  Maureen O'Hara.  Barbara Stanwyck.  James Stewart.  Vic Morrow.  Gregory Peck.  Burt Lancaster.  Dean Martin.  Honestly, just the fact that a movie is a western will make me want to watch it, but if a favorite actor or actress is in it, it'll pop higher up on my list.

5) What's your favorite performance by an actress in a western?

Probably Maureen O'Hara in The Rare Breed (1966).  She's brave, protective, determined, strong, feminine, and feisty... which is kind of what Maureen brings to all roles, which is why she's my favorite actress.  But I especially love her in that one because she gets to portray a woman who is a mother, a widow, a businesswoman, and a romantic lead, which is neat.

6) What is your "go-to" western, the one you'll typically reach for?

Depends on my mood!  But there are some that get a lot more watching than others.  I'd say the five I watch the most often lately are The Lone Ranger (2013), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Gunfight in Abilene (1967), Branded (1950), and Slow West (2015).

7) Do your family/friends share your interest in westerns, or are you a lone ranger (pun completely intended)?

My dad loves westerns the way I do, and so does my best friend, DKoren.  My husband likes westerns pretty well, and he'll watch them with me.  My kids like westerns enough to watch them with me.  So I have lots of watching partners and sidekicks.

8) Pick one western to live inside for a week, and explain why you chose it.

Well, right now I'm on this huge Magnificent Seven (1998-2000) kick, so I choose it.  That's the short-lived TV show, not one of the movies, by the way.  And to be brutally, viciously honest, the reason I pick that is because I want to be wherever Vin Tanner (Eric Close) is, and since that's where he is, that's where I want to be.

(Can you blame me, though???)

Also, it's a really fun TV show, and I love six of the seven main characters to bits.  Plus the Judge (Robert Vaughn) is a national treasure and should be hugged.  All of them should be hugged.  Hugs all around!  (Except maybe not for JD.)  And the unnamed town where it takes place would be pretty nifty to live in, when it's not getting shot up or almost-burned-to-the-ground or terrorized by creepy serial killers.  But I'd have Vin to protect me, so it'd all be good.

(Vin carries a sawed-off rifle in homage to Josh Randall,
Steve McQueen's character on Wanted: Dead or Alive.)

9) What are some of your favorite lines from western movies? Are there any you quote regularly?

I quote movies all the time, and since a high percentage of the movies I watch are westerns, yeah, I quote westerns regularly.  Daily, probably.  Here are some much-quoted lines I use in daily life:

"All right, let's do this." -- John Reid (Armie Hammer), The Lone Ranger (2013)

"Yes, just like [tries unsuccessfully to snap fingers] like that." -- Calvera (Eli Wallach), The Magnificent Seven (1960)

"Mansfield, you're being hoggish.  Might I even say... greeeeeeeeeedy?" -- Banker Bates (John Dehner), "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" episode of Maverick (1957-62)

"Let's drift." -- Silas (Michael Fassbender), Slow West (2015)

"Boy howdy." -- Heath (Lee Majors), The Big Valley (1965-69)

"Joe, you just make me feel tired all over." -- Jason McCullough (James Garner), Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

"Our last sheriff was a good organizer.  Yellow clear through, but a good organizer." -- Mayor Perkins (Henry Morgan), Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)

"Quit shovin' me, Harv!  I'm tired of bein' shoved." -- Will Kane (Gary Cooper), High Noon (1952)

"That was an elegant meal, ma'am." -- Shane (Alan Ladd), Shane (1953)

"Okay, well, uh, let's go." -- Josh Randall (Steve McQueen), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-61)  (You have to say this one just exactly right so it sounds like him, not just a collection of syllables.)

That's all, folks!  I hope you've been having as much fun this week as I have :-)  And don't forget that today is the last day to enter my giveaway!  I'll draw the winners and announce them TOMORROW!

My Ten Favorite Western Films -- 2019 Update

The very first post I ever did in my Ten Favorites series was a list of westerns.  But that was 'way back in 2013, and my list has changed since then.  I've seen a lot of westerns in the past six years, plus I fell for Alan Ladd, and um... yeah... a lot has changed.  So I'm updating my list!  As of July, 2019, these are my ten favorite western movies.  Like always, the titles are linked to my full reviews of them where applicable.

1. The Man from Snowy River (1982)  A young man from the mountains (Tom Burlinson) must clear his name after he's accused of freeing his employer's most valuable horse in retaliation for being told he can't court the boss's daughter (Sigrid Thornton). It's about Australia, not the American West, but oh well.  My favorite movie of all time.

2. The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)  Four brothers (including John Wayne and Dean Martin) reunite at their mother's funeral and work together to find out how their parents lost their ranch. My favorite John Wayne movie.

3. The Magnificent Seven (1960)  Poor Mexican villagers hire seven gunfighters to defend them from the bandit who's been oppressing them for years. Steve McQueen, Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn... oh man, what a cast.  I consider this the finest western ever made.

4. The Lone Ranger (2013)  Lawyer John Reid (Armie Hammer) teams up with the renegade Tonto (Johnny Depp) to find out why Reid's brother and five other Texas Rangers were murdered.  This is kind of a fantasy-western hybrid, more of a tall tale than a realistic story, just fyi.

5. Rio Bravo (1959)  A sheriff (John Wayne), a recovering alcoholic (Dean Martin), an old man (Walter Brennan), and a young gunslinger (Ricky Nelson) fend off a host of bad guys bent on springing a murderer from jail.

6. Slow West (2015)  A bounty hunter (Michael Fassbender) joins a young dreamer (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on a quest to find a lovely girl with a price on her head.  Like The Lone Ranger, this has a unique vibe that feels more like a legend than a real-life story.

7. Gunfight in Abilene (1967)  A Civil War veteran (Bobby Darin) agrees to resume his job as sheriff out of guilt for accidentally killing the brother of the man (Leslie Nielson) who runs Abilene and is all set to marry the veteran's old flame (Emily Banks). My favorite Bobby Darin movie.

8. Branded (1950)  A shady loner (Alan Ladd) poses as a rich rancher's missing son to gain a hefty inheritance, only to discover himself falling in love with the family he's intent on swindling.  My favorite Alan Ladd movie.

9. Silverado (1985)  Four outcasts (Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, and Kevin Costner) set out to rid Silverado of the evildoers who sent one of them to prison unjustly, stole another's horse, and debauched another's sister.

10. Shane (1953)  A lonesome gunfighter (Alan Ladd) befriends a farmer (Van Heflin) and his family (Jean Arthur and Brandon de Wilde) and realizes he must sacrifice his newfound peace and comfort to keep them safe.  The book by Jack Schaefer is also amazing.


I had so much fun updating this, I might start going back through my other "Ten Favorites" lists and seeing if other lists have changed as significantly as this has.

This has been one of my contributions to the Legends of Western Cinema Week event that Olivia, Heidi, and I are hosting this week!  Click here for the list of other people's posts and to participate yourself.

"Dark Phoenix" (2019) -- Initial Thoughts

Michael Fassbender is absolutely the best part of this movie.  The directions they go with his character Erik/Magneto delighted me in ways I wasn't expecting.  His character arc has been the real joy of the three "young X-men" movies.  (I don't count Days of Future Past in that because it's got both the young and mature versions of the characters.)

The rest of the movie?  Was okay.

I mean, I liked that they had Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) confront his habit of meddling with people's minds and realize that he's become convinced of his own infallibility.  I liked that Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) got some very juicy interior conflict, plus a nice chunk of screen time.

And I liked the ending a lot more than I expected.  I can't tell if this is supposed to be the capstone on the series, but I kind of hope it is, because it ended in a really good place and I liked it.  I've read that now that Disney bought Fox, this is the last film from Fox with these characters, and I think that would make me happy.  Start over fresh in a few years, add them to the MCU, whatever.

Things I disliked?  I still don't dig Sophie Turner.  And I didn't like how it kind of copied/mirrored parts of Captain Marvel.  And there was an effect they used that looked an awful lot like the way people crumbled when "snapped" in the MCU.  Like, seriously?  Couldn't come up with a fresh image, like exploding into little stars or something?  And the villains... were flat.

I didn't love this, but it was ultimately satisfying, and I know I will enjoy watching this again on DVD.  If you love the series, or are a Fassbender fan, this is worth seeing in the theater.  Especially since it looks like it's the last time we'll see these versions of these characters.

But the absence of Wolverine was keenly felt.  By me, anyway.

My Ten Favorite New-to-Me Movies of 2018

Here we are again, at the end of another year.  According to my records, I watched 89 movies over the past year.  That's not 89 separate titles, as I always do a lot of rewatching.  But I watched 89 movies.  Yay!  Here are the ten that I liked best of the ones I'd never seen before.  As always, I've linked the title to my review if I've done a review of that film already.

1. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)  A young viking named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) defies tradition and saves a dragon instead of trying to kill it.  His newfound knowledge and understanding of dragons ends up saving his village and gaining his father's (voiced by Gerard Butler) respect.  Oh, wow, this movie is every bit as good as everyone says it is.  Possibly better.

2. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)  Time and again, all that stands between young street rat Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and doom are his moxie, his street smarts, and his luck.  I happen to love heist movies, and this movie has heist after heist after heist, so it pleases me from just about every angle.

3. A Bear Named Winnie (2004)  The true story of how and why a military veterinarian (Michael Fassbender) brings a Canadian bear to Europe during WWI.  Sweet and lovely movie.

4. Darkest Hour (2017)  Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) and the rest of Great Britain must decide whether to defy Adolf Hitler or make peace with him and their own consciences.  Fabulous supporting turns by Ben Mendelsohn, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Lily James.  I ran right out and bought a copy of this the day after I saw it at my parents' house.

5. Jane Eyre (1943)  Plain, humble governess Jane (Joan Fontaine) cares for the ward (Margaret O'Brien) of wealthy, unpredictable Mr. Rochester (Orson Welles).  Possibly my favorite Welles performance ever, and so good I had to add a copy to my collection of good adaptations of my favorite novel.

6. Black Panther (2018) T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) learns what it truly means to be a man, a leader, and a hero.  One of the coolest, most sophisticated MCU movies so far.

7. Murder on the Orient Express (2017) Legendary detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) solves a mystery on a train, and we all enjoy the ride because of how many cool people show up in the various roles.  I really enjoy Branagh as a director, maybe even more than I do his acting, and I'm looking forward to 2020's Death on the Nile (not least because Armie Hammer's supposed to be in it).

8. Red Mountain (1951) Near the end of the American Civil War, a Confederate officer (Alan Ladd) is sent to Colorado to aid General Quantrill, but ends up involved in a murder, a rebellion, and a love triangle.  I need to watch this again so I can review it, because it's a totally different movie than I was expecting, but not in a bad way.

9. Christopher Robin (2018) Adult Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor), his wife (Hayley Atwell), and their daughter (Bronte Carmichael) gain some much-needed assistance from Christopher Robin's childhood friends, Winnie-the-Pooh and Co.  This is sweet and whimsical and heart-warming, and McGregor is so perfectly cast that I want to hug him.

10. Along Came Jones (1945)  A slow-talking, easy-going cowpoke (Gary Cooper) gets mistaken for a vicious outlaw (Dan Duryea) and falls for the outlaw's girl (Loretta Young).  This is a charming western comedy that amuses me greatly.


If you'd like to see what my favorite movies were for the last few years, click on the year to see the list from 2017, 2016, 2015, or 2014.

What were your favorite movies this year?

Happy New Year!  I'm not a big one for resolutions, but one thing I intend to change in the coming year is how present I am in the blogosphere.  Life has been hectic this year, but I'm working on streamlining it and getting back to things I love, like blogging and reading blogs, and doing less of busybusybusy stuff.  We'll see if that happens.

"A Bear Named Winnie" (2004)

One hundred years ago today, the guns fell silent all across Europe.  The Great War, which we now call WWI, had come to an end at last.

To mark the occasion, I'm reviewing a book set during WWI on The Edge of the Precipice, and I'm reviewing a true story of WWI here.

I don't know about you, but Winnie-the-Pooh was a big part of my childhood.  Mostly, I watched the Disney movie The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (1977), but my mom also read some of the original A. A. Milne stories to us once in a while.  I didn't actually learn anything about the creation of those stories until I was an adult, and even then, I just knew that Milne based them on his son's playthings.  And that his son named his toy bear after a real bear in the London Zoo.  I never wondered where this bear came from, or why it was named Winnie.

However, my friend Eva recommended the movie A Bear Named Winnie (2004) to me one day because she knew I'm a fan of Michael Fassbender.  Even then, it took me like six months to get around to watching it after I'd added it to my Amazon Prime Instant Video watchlist.  (It's still free on Prime right now.)  Well, silly me, because this movie is so good!  It tells the true story of how a bear from Canada ends up in the London Zoo, where she is adored by multitudes of sticky-fingered children.

When a Canadian troop train stops in a small town for refreshments and fuel, Lieutenant Harry Coleburn (Michael Fassbender) hops off to stretch his legs.  A member of the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, he displays his way with animals by calming a spooked horse. 

In the process, he accidentally finds an orphaned bear cub, buys it because he can't bear the fact that its going to be killed.

Coleburn charms his superiors into accepting the bear as a mascot for the regiment.  They name her Winnipeg, Winnie for short, and off they all go to training camp.

At camp, the soldiers love Winnie and her cute-little-animal shenanigans, but Colonel Barret (Gil Bellows) disapproves. 

He's supposed to be turning these veterinarians into soldiers, you see, and he thinks that Winnie is a distraction.  He's not wrong.  But she's such a sweet distraction! 

The whole first hour of the film is full of scenes of her romping about, climbing trees, eating honey, making messes, and giving Harry Coleburn slobbery bear kisses all over his face.

In fact, the most remarkable thing about this film, I think, is how very comfortable Michael Fassbender is with having a bear cub climb all over him. 

I don't know if Fassbender is an "animal person" or not, but I think he has to be on some level, because he really does look very natural with all the animals he interacts with here. 

Especially the bears (IIRC, bear siblings play the young Winnie, and then a totally different adult bear plays her as an adult), but the horses too.

The storytelling is a little bumpy -- the first two-thirds of the film are devoted to Coleburn and his pals having fun while training in Canada, and then smuggling Winnie over to Europe.  There's also this whole thing with his commanding officer (David Suchet) having some kind of mental problems borne of dwelling on past war glory and experiences. 

The first time I watched it, I thought that was really superfluous, but now I see that it sort of predicts what Harry Coleburn himself will later experience, and shows that war can damage a person's mind as well as their body.  So I get what they're trying to say there, even though I still think it could be handled a little more deftly.

Only the last thirty minutes have much to do with the war at all, and they also feel a bit rushed.  In particular, the last section, (SPOILER ALERT) with Coleburn suffering from shell-shock and being rehabilitated by Winnie coming to visit really needed to be much longer.  I so wish they would have delved more into that, but this is somewhat aimed at kids, so I suppose the filmmakers didn't want to dwell too much on the troubles of traumatized soldiers.  (END SPOILER ALERT)

Still, it's a sweet, heart-warming story that's lovingly told, and I enjoyed it so much, I now have a DVD copy so I can keep watching it even if it stops being free on Amazon Prime sometime in the future.  So please don't think that this is not an enjoyable, watchable movie!  Because it definitely is, and I totally recommend it.  Not only is Fassbender ultra-watchable in it, the bear is adorable, and Stephen Fry pops up at the beginning and end as a zookeeper who doesn't like kids, which makes me laugh.

Is this movie family friendly?  Basically, yes.  There's no significant blood or gore in the war scenes, though dead characters are shown, and one character gets killed just off-screen.  There are also injured and dead horses.  A mentally unstable man brandishes a rifle and puts lots of people in danger.  Drinking is shown, as well as gambling.  And there are two or three minor curse words.  I would let my 8- and 11-year-olds watch it, but it's still a bit much for my 6-year-old.