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Romantic DVDs
DVDs and movies with a romantic flavor.
A Fine Romance - The Complete Collection
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A Fine Romance - The Complete Collection
As the Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields standard goes, this is A Fine Romance, a smart and low-key 1981 British series starring Oscar-winning Judi Dench and her real-life husband, Michael Williams, as a mismatched couple. In the first nine episodes, a comedy of errors keeps linguist Laura (currently translating a German textbook on urinary infections) and struggling landscape gardener Michael from hooking up romantically. It is, to again quote the song, a fine romance with no kisses (at least not until episode 6). Like Glenda Jackson, Dench excels at portraying prickly women of fierce intelligence who possess a quick wit and a sharp tongue, and who do not suffer fools. "I don't have any small talk," she complains to her matchmaking sister at a party. "Or any medium talk." Williams has a rumpled Dudley Moore quality as sad-sack Michael, "the odd single chap for the odd single girl." He is, as one character notes, "second division": quiet, nervous, short, and shy. His desperate attempts to find common ground with Laura--witness their ill-fated excursion to an ethnic mask museum exhibit in episode 2--make up much of the humor of these initial episodes. In the nine episodes that comprise the second season. the mismatched couple moves in together, deal with jealousy, throw an ill-fated dinner party, fret over Mike's struggling business, meet Laura's parents, and in the poignant cliffhanger, contemplate parenthood (she wants a baby, he does not). You don't have to be British to enjoy this intimately observed human comedy (there is nothing like it on American television). But in the case of one episode's running joke, in which Mike is mistaken for some obscure (in this country, at any rate) celebrity, it no doubt helps. Do Mike and Laura appear to be in shambles in the final eight episodes? Laura is much more sympathetic and vulnerable in these poignant episodes (she won Britain's equivalent of the Emmy) as she contends with Mike's reluctance to become a parent, his new girlfriend, and ultimately, his shouted marriage proposal. A final crisis involving their dream farmhouse seems to be "the final reckoning" for the luckless couple. Not to worry: A Fine Romance ends on a welcome and satisfyingly graceful note. --Donald Liebenson
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Murphy's Romance
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Murphy's Romance
Director Martin Ritt (Norma Rae) helmed this offbeat romance that earned costar James Garner an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a widowed druggist who befriends a confused divorcee (Sally Field) and her son, who move to a small rural town to start over. The laid-back performance of Garner as a man finding love "for the last time in his life" contrasts wonderfully with Field's portrayal of a woman scared and unsure of what the future may hold for her, and the two of them together exhibit great comic timing. As well written and as deftly performed as any movie of its type, Murphy's Romance will rope you in with its winning style. --Robert Lane
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True Romance (Unrated Director's Cut) (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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True Romance (Unrated Director's Cut) (Two-Disc Special Edition)
It was directed with energetic skill by Top Gun Tony Scott, but this breathtaking 1993 thriller (think of it as an adolescent crime fantasy on steroids) has Quentin Tarantino written all over it. True Romance is really part of a loose trilogy that includes Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, with a crackling Tarantino screenplay that rides a fine line between raucous comedy and violent excess. Christian Slater plays Clarence, the comic-book lover who meets a beguiling prostitute named Alabama (Patricia Arquette), confronts her vicious pimp (Gary Oldman), and embarks on a cross-country odyssey with $5 million worth of Mafia cocaine. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a favorite Tarantino climax--the "Mexican standoff"--in which a roomful of guys are pointing guns at each other, waiting to see who shoots first. Brutal, profane, and totally outrageous, True Romance is not for everyone, but with a supporting cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, and Val Kilmer (as the ghost of Elvis!), you can be sure this movie will never be boring. --Jeff Shannon
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True Romance (Unrated Director's Cut)
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True Romance (Unrated Director's Cut)
It was directed with energetic skill by Top Gun Tony Scott, but this breathtaking 1993 thriller (think of it as an adolescent crime fantasy on steroids) has Quentin Tarantino written all over it. True Romance is really part of a loose trilogy that includes Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, with a crackling Tarantino screenplay that rides a fine line between raucous comedy and violent excess. Christian Slater plays Clarence, the comic-book lover who meets a beguiling prostitute named Alabama (Patricia Arquette), confronts her vicious pimp (Gary Oldman), and embarks on a cross-country odyssey with $5 million worth of Mafia cocaine. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a favorite Tarantino climax--the "Mexican standoff"--in which a roomful of guys are pointing guns at each other, waiting to see who shoots first. Brutal, profane, and totally outrageous, True Romance is not for everyone, but with a supporting cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, and Val Kilmer (as the ghost of Elvis!), you can be sure this movie will never be boring. --Jeff Shannon
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True Romance
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True Romance
It was directed with energetic skill by Top Gun Tony Scott, but this breathtaking 1993 thriller (think of it as an adolescent crime fantasy on steroids) has Quentin Tarantino written all over it. True Romance is really part of a loose trilogy that includes Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, with a crackling Tarantino screenplay that rides a fine line between raucous comedy and violent excess. Christian Slater plays Clarence, the comic-book lover who meets a beguiling prostitute named Alabama (Patricia Arquette), confronts her vicious pimp (Gary Oldman), and embarks on a cross-country odyssey with $5 million worth of Mafia cocaine. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a favorite Tarantino climax--the "Mexican standoff"--in which a roomful of guys are pointing guns at each other, waiting to see who shoots first. Brutal, profane, and totally outrageous, True Romance is not for everyone, but with a supporting cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, and Val Kilmer (as the ghost of Elvis!), you can be sure this movie will never be boring. --Jeff Shannon
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Love & Romance
Let Romance Motivate Us
All of us need motivation. We eat because we feel hungry.
We drink water because we are thirsty. We do everything
in life for a reason. [ continued
]
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