Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well
and staying safe!
So, my favorite thing to do on Saturday mornings
(because I get up so blasted early and really, it isn’t fair to start running
the vacuum at 5 in the morning) is to sit myself down (in the dark) and watch a
movie. I try to find one I haven’t seen before and this past Saturday, I hit
the jackpot. I watched Return to Me. It’s an older movie with Minnie
Driver and David Duchovny but I had never seen it (which is a bit unusual,
because I am such a movie buff). Anyway, the storyline was sweet and charming
and surprising (Carroll O’Connor, he of Archie Bunker fame, played a loving
Irish grandpa, which just tickled me) but the most remarkable thing of all was
that the movie made me cry. Oh, not ugly cry, where I’m sobbing big tears, but some
sniffles, throat constriction (you know what I’m talking about) and a few tears
that made my vision blurry.
It made me think of other movies that do that
to me (I am not a crier by nature—something has to really touch me) so without
further ado, here is Marie’s List of movies that will make you cry (in no particular
order):
It’s a Wonderful Life. I’ve watched this
movie on Christmas Eve (yes, it’s a tradition) for the past thirty years and
every year, I say I’m not going to cry at the end and every year, I lie to myself.
The Other Side of the Mountain. The story of skier
Jill Kinmont. Sat in a movie theatre with a bunch of friends and bawled like a
baby. I was inconsolable though no one else seemed to be.
Steel Magnolias. The funeral scene.
Need I say more?
A Star Is Born. Doesn’t matter which
version (though my favorite is the Barbra Streisand one).
Forrest Gump. The scene where Forest meets his son
for the very first time and asks if he’s like me. Gets me every time.
Homeward Bound, The Incredible Journey. You know the movie I’m
talking about. The two dogs and a cat (voiced by Don Ameche, Michael J Fox, and
Sally Field) who have to find their way home. Yeah, that one. My son was
embarrassed (because we were in a movie theatre and I sobbed like a two-year
old).
It also got me to wondering about books that
make me cry (as an adult. When I was young, any book that was about an animal—dog,
cat, horse—could make me lose it). There have been only two that come to mind.
The first is Paint the Wind by Cathy Cash Spellman. I’ve read that book
at least ten times and every time I cry. I know the scene that gets me is
coming up and I mentally prepare myself, but that doesn’t work. I end up in
tears anyway. The second is Jodi Thomas’s The Texan’s Reward. The ending
was so sweet and so love- and life-affirming (even though I expected a happy
ending), I burst into tears.
What movie or book has made you cry?
Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread
kindness wherever you go!
Marie
