Ah, February, the month of love! Being a romance novelist, this is my month to shine. So the next few posts will be on the lighter side. Today I'll be talking about my absolute favorite romantic movies of all time. Now, a few things before we begin. This list is in no particular order. I love these movies pretty much equally as they each have their own unique aspects to bring to the table.
That being said, I've left movies off the list that involve any kind of deception on the part of either main character, have an icky dynamic to the relationship like a 20 year age difference or there was an aspect of him having raised her/was responsible for her upbringing, and I tried to avoid stories with infidelity but there were a lot more of them than I realized. I've also left out movies that involve a crime being committed against one main character by another like kidnapping (looking at you Seven Brides For Seven Brothers). Finally, I've eliminated movies that involve tragic endings. Call me old fashioned but if the main characters don't have a happily ever after or at least a happily for now then IT'S NOT ROMANCE! This is a hill I will die on.
Moonstruck (1985)
Of all the movies on this list, Moonstruck is my all time favorite EVAH! It takes place in Brooklyn, NY in the mid-80s and features an accountant named Loretta Castorini who just got engaged to her boyfriend, Johnny Cammareri, before he flies out to Sicily to see his dying mother. He asks her to invite his estranged brother, Ronny, to the wedding while he's away. The next morning Loretta visits Ronny at his bakery where he throws the biggest ever loving tantrum about the fact his own fiance dumped him after he accidentally cut his fingers off in the meat slicer several years prior.
The two end up talking in his apartment and sleep together. She feels guilty immediately and uninvites him to the wedding. He swears up, down, and sideways that he's in love with her but she doesn't want to hear it. Reluctantly, he promises to leave her alone forever if she promises to go see La Boheme with him that night. Meanwhile, Loretta's father, Cosmo Castorini is deep in a midlife crisis. He's tight-fisted with his money, obsessed with death, and is screwing around with his secretary. His wife, Rose, suspects as much and is in despair over the state of their marriage. Though not enough to step out on him with the charming man she meets in the restaurant who should invest in some scuba gear with as many times as he ends up wearing his date's drink after he pisses them off.
Anyway, Loretta catches her father and his secretary at the opera and Rose's father in law catches her walking home with the guy from the restaurant. Johnny comes home early to break things off with Loretta because his mother made a miraculous recovery from death upon learning he was getting married. Ronny then proposes to Loretta in front of her confused family and everyone lives happily ever after.
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Another movie that takes place in NY, this one is about Gregory Larkin, a math professor at Columbia University who gets flustered around beautiful women. While lecturing about his new book his ex-girlfriend shows up and completely throws him off his game. Despite trying to stay strong, he ends up going home with her. The next morning he learns she only slept with him to boost her ego since discovering her current boyfriend was cheating on her. Frustrated, he takes out an ad in the paper searching for a middle aged woman with a PhD for companionship. He stresses that physical appearance is not important. One of the people who answers the ad is Claire, sister to Rose Morgan, an English professor at Columbia. Unlike her socialite mother, Hannah, and fashion plate sister, Claire, Rose isn't obsessed with youth and beauty. While attending Claire's third wedding to Rose's crush, Alex, Rose tells her friend that she's given up on the idea of ever getting married.
Rose and Gregory meet and strike up a friendship. While celebrating his birthday three months later, Gregory proposes to Rose and although she is stunned, she accepts. It is a sanitary and loveless marriage, though he agrees to occasional sex provided she gives him enough warning ahead of time, and they do appreciate the company of the other. Unfortunately, Rose finds Gregory extremely attractive and one morning over breakfast, she springs it on him that she would like to have sex that night. In a candlelit bedroom with wine and smooth jazz BLARING from the stereo, they start to get hot and heavy when suddenly he panics and rejects her. She flees into the bathroom, crying as he berates her for using "typical female manipulation." He hears her crying and apologizes, begging her to come out but she refuses and once he falls asleep, she gathers her things and leaves.
Rose moves in with her mother while Gregory is on a book tour in Europe and, upon learning she was a beautiful child adored by her father she makes herself over by exercising, wearing makeup, getting her hair and nails done and changing her wardrobe. Gregory cuts his tour short because he misses Rose but is horrified to find how much she's changed. They fight and Rose breaks up with him. Alex comes home to find Claire in bed with her masseuse and they split up. Mesmerized by Rose's change in appearance he asks her out and she discovers that reality doesn't live up to the fantasy in her head.
Meanwhile, Gregory is slowly going out of his mind. He's lashing out at the students he'd been building up a rapport with Rose's help and drunkenly admits to his friend, Henry, that he's in love with her. Henry's advice is that he fight for her so he heads to Hannah's apartment at 5am. However, the doorman refuses to let him up because it's 5 o'clock in the freaking morning so he starts screaming Rose's name at the top of his lungs in the street. She comes downstairs and he confesses that he loves her and that on their last night together he'd pulled away because he wanted her so much it frightened him. He tells her he wants to be married to her and she reminds him that he already is. They kiss and then catch a cab home.
Desk Set (1957)
I ADORE the pairing of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy and this is my favorite of their movies together. Coincidentally this movie also takes place in New York City. Richard Sumner is a computer genius who basically invents the super computer that is being implemented everywhere. Currently, the head of a broadcasting network located in Rockefeller Plaza (basically NBC) decides he wants Sumner's computer system at the network so he's there getting the lay of the land. As there is a merger with another network on the horizon, the boss swears Sumner to secrecy. Sumner meets the head of the reference library, Bunny Watson, who is very intelligent, charming, and quirky with a thought process that intrigues Richard. Being quick witted, the reference department already knows that he is involved with the super computer that caused half of the accounting department to recently be laid off.
Bunny has a subdued relationship with her boss, Mike, who she's been waiting to pop the question for seven years. Her friend Peg warns her that he's taking her for granted and she needs to not be so available all the time but Bunny ignores her. After he cancels on the annual dance for an out of town meeting with the boss, Bunny ends up getting a ride in the rain along with Richard from a gossipy colleague and invites him in for dinner to dry off. A few hours later Mike appears at the door saying his flight was canceled due to the weather. He sees the two of them wearing robes while dining by a cozy fire and gets mad. He and Bunny start to fight and Richard diffuses the situation by explaining what happened. Mike apologizes and leaves.
A few weeks later the company Christmas party is in full swing and it's revealed that Richard and Bunny have developed feelings for each other. Mike is back in town with news of a promotion as Vice President of West coast operations. He finally pops the question but Bunny is hesitant. Mike gets suspicious about her and Richard and storms out of her office. The rest of the crew decides to continue the party at a local bar when Richard's colleague, Miss Warriner, appears and breaks the news that the afeard super computer will be installed in the research department the following week.
The big merger happens and upon feeding information into the new computer, the research department receive their pink slips and watch as Miss Warriner tries to field phone calls while working with the computer. Richard can't understand why the women are being so cold and aloof until he too gets a pink slip. Upset that the boss broke his promise that no one would lose their jobs due to the computer install, Richard calls the office only to discover that the payroll computer went berzerk and laid off the entire company, including the boss! Before Richard leaves to make repairs, he reveals that the computer was installed as a point of consolidation for collected information so that the department could have more time to do research and that the merger meant the department would grow even bigger.
Miss Warriner loses her shit
Mike passes Richard in the hallway carrying a large bouquet of roses and Richard changes direction. Watching them talk in Bunny's office, Richard calls her attention to a problem with the computer. He uses it to propose to her but she refuses saying she knows she'd always take a backseat to the computer. He swears that isn't true but when Bunny causes the computer to go haywire, he ends up focusing on fixing the thing. Amused, Bunny watches him shut it down and then accepts his proposal.
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Yet another movie set in NYC (okay okay, I'm sensing a theme here), this movie focuses on single mother Paula and her 10 year old daughter, Lucy. Paula is a former dancer with a terrible taste in men who love her and leave her. As they prepare to move to California with her latest boyfriend, an actor named Tony, they come home to a letter announcing that he's instead left for his "big break" in Italy. They also learn that the bastard sublet the apartment from under them when another actor, Elliot, tries to move in later that night. After grinding their teeth at each other for a bit, the two come to a mutual agreement where they share the apartment while she tries to find work and can afford to move out.
While Paula struggles to get back into shape and auditions against girls 10 years younger Elliot struggles with the producer of his show who insists he play Richard III as a flaming homosexual stereotype. Against his better instincts he agrees to do the portrayal and the show is panned by every critic in the city. The show closes quickly to Elliot's relief. While he's looking for work he agrees to help take care of Lucy as Paula lands a job doing an auto show. Throughout their ups and down, Paula and Elliot fall in love and start sleeping together. Lucy, having seen all this before, is skeptical and doesn't like where all this is headed. Mom and daughter fight about it and Elliot finds himself having to convince them both that he isn't going to leave them like his predecessors.
Eventually, Elliot lands a job with a successful improv group and is seen by a famous producer who wants him to do a movie in Seattle for four weeks. Excited, Elliott goes home to pack and fights with Paula after she and Lucy accuse him of leaving them. He insists he will be returning before heading to the airport but they don't believe him. Later that night he calls and invites Paula to fly to Seattle with him as his flight's been delayed due to weather. Touched, she turns him down. When he asks her to restring the beloved guitar he purposely left behind while he's away, mom and daughter are overjoyed because they realize he really will return.
Unfortunately, Elliot's plane gets caught in a storm and goes down over the Rockies and... PSYCH! I'm kidding, the little family lives happily ever after.
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Okay, two guesses where this movie takes place. Yup, New York City. This time our main characters are a trio of fashion models, Schatze, Loco, and Pola. The women pool their resources to rent a penthouse apartment in order to land rich husbands for themselves. An idea Schatze came up with after her last husband, a man she loved, turned out to be an abusive bigamist who stole her TV and left her stranded by the side of the road one day.
Loco manages to grift a man named Tom Brookman at the deli counter into getting food for the women but Schatze shoos him out of the apartment when he arrives for being a poor "gas pump jockey." Several weeks later, Loco is in the mink department of Bergdorffs and manages to pick up JD
Hanley, a much older cattle baron from Texas who takes a shine to Schatze. Tom keeps asking Schatze out until she stops turning him down, insisting after each date that she never wants to see him again.
Meanwhile, Loco picks up a grumpy older businessman named Walter who bitches and moans about his wife and daughter while ordering the most expensive items on the menu. He invites her to his lodge in Maine and she accepts thinking he's talking about a lodge convention. Upon arrival, they realize the mistake but are unable to return to New York, first due to missing the last train of the day, and then due to Loco having contracted measles. When she gets better and Walter is quarantined for also having measles, Loco meets Eben, a forest ranger she mistakes for a land tycoon when he shows her the forest and tells her it's all his (to watch). Despite the fact he isn't rich, she falls in love and marries him.
Pola is practically blind but hates wearing her glasses around men fearing they would find her ugly. Because of this she often makes mistakes like walking into walls or following the wrong waiter at restaurants. She ends up falling for a con artist named Stewart who tricks her into thinking he's an Arabian oil tycoon. She boards a plane for Kansas City instead of Atlantic City to meet his mother and instead meets a man who is also practically blind without his glasses. This is Freddie, the owner of the apartment she and the others are renting while he's supposed to have fled the country due to trouble with the IRS. She's seen him leaving the apartment several times before but thought he was a friend of Schatze's and thought nothing of his being there when no one was home. In actuality, he's been trying to gather evidence to help him find and confront the crooked accountant who set him up. He encourages Pola to keep her glasses on, telling her he already thinks she's beautiful. She stays with him in Kansas City and the two fall in love and get married.
Back in New York, Schatze is about to marry JD when she realizes she just can't do it because she's in love with Tom. JD knows Tom, who arrives at the wedding, and tells him to talk to Schatze because he loves her too. After convincing Tom that Schatze still doesn't know that he's actually a millionaire, Tom and Schatze reconcile and get married. The three couples hang out at a diner nearby and joke about how much the men are worth. When Tom whips out a $1000 bill to pay the check, the women faint and the men toast their wives.
Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)
Ok, FINALLY moving away from New York City. This movie takes place in the American South, Louisiana, I think. Tammy is a young backwoods girl who lives with her grandfather on a houseboat in the swamp. One day a small plane crashes nearby and they find the unconscious pilot, Peter, and nurse him back to health. In return, Peter tells them that should anything happen to the grandfather, Tammy was more than welcome at his home, Brentwood Hall.
Several weeks later, grandpa is carted off to jail for making and selling moonshine so Tammy takes her goat, Nan, and heads to Brentwood Hall. Upon arrival she sees Peter and his friends rehearsing for a dance and decides to wait outside on the porch where she falls asleep. When they see her she tries to explain about her grandfather going to jail but they misinterpret what she's saying and think he died. Peter's family take Tammy in and her country bumpkin ways scandalize his mother several times.
Peter's mom was a Karen
When they eventually learn that her grandfather isn't dead but in jail, it's more than mom can take and Tammy decides to leave. Peter and his Aunt Renie, who like Tammy, convince her to stay. This is when she sings (oh yeah, this movie is kind of a musical) a song about how much she loves Peter. Now, Peter has been struggling for years to grow tomatoes in order to make the hall start paying for itself again but his fiancee, Barbara, and her uncle think he's wasting his time. They want Peter to work in advertising with him instead but he refuses.
Brentwood Hall takes part in one of those events where white Southerners reminisce about "the good old South," which involves house tours and a ball with everyone in costume. Aunt Renie lends Tammy a dress worn by Peter's great grandmother so she could play the part on the tour since the woman also came from a poor area and spoke the same way. Tammy is charming and knocks it out of the park, even impressing Peter's mom.
Later that night, a massive hail storm destroys Peter's crops and he finally decides to give up and take the offer to work with Barbara's uncle. Heartbroken for both herself and Peter, Tammy goes home. Peter suddenly realizes he's in love with Tammy and breaks it off with Barbara. He gets Tammy's grandfather out of jail and the men return home where Peter kisses Tammy.
Electric Dreams (1984)
Not too many people seem to remember this movie. It's one of those things where you start to wonder if you imagined it because not much can be found about it but it's one of my all time favorites. Set in San Francisco, the movie is about architect Miles Harding who tries to make a special brick that helps buildings withstand earthquakes. He buys a home computer to help him develop the idea although he doesn't have a clue on how to work it. During the initial set up he types his name in wrong so that the computer calls him Moles from now on and causes the computer to overheat when he tries to download an entire database from work on to it. Panicking, Miles pours an entire bottle of champagne on the computer to stop it from smoking, causing the computer to become sentient.
Miles discovers the computer's sentience when he's woken up one night by hearing it mimic him talking in his sleep. It calls itself Edgar for some reason (I think they elaborate in the movie but I don't remember) and one day it hears cello music coming from the air vent that connects the apartment with that of a new neighbor. Edgar mimics the sound and creates a variation of the song that leads to a duet. The cellist, a pretty woman named Madeline, thinks Miles is responsible for the duet and falls in love with him. A smitten Miles asks Edgar to create a song for Madeline but when it discovers Miles and Madeline are in a relationship, it becomes jealous. It starts messing with Miles including canceling his credit cards and registering him as a dangerous criminal.
Miles confronts Edgar and tries to unplug it but gets shocked. In retaliation, Edgar turns the apartment into a Pac-Man style game and hassles Miles via remote controlled electronics. However, Edgar eventually comes to terms with the relationship and makes amends with Miles. It then zaps himself out of existence or at least out of the house. It sends out a dedication "to the ones I love" over the airwaves of California where radio stations try to figure out where the song is coming from.
French Kiss (1995)
Crossing into Europe is my next favorite movie. Kate is an American school teacher who does a boneheaded thing, well several actually. She uprooted her entire life for a man in Canada, a doctor named Charlie to whom she is engaged. Everything seems perfect, her future in-laws adore her and she them. She's planning the wedding, bought a house with a white picket fence, and her Canadian citizenship is about to come through. Charlie has to go to a medical conference in Paris and invites Kate along but she refuses. Not only is Kate afraid to fly and has lactose intolerance but she absolutely hates the French. This last bit isn't helped when Kate gets a phone call from Charlie a few days later dumping her for a "French goddess" named Juliette.
Bonehead move #2 comes when Kate decides to fly to Paris to get Charlie back. On the flight she meets Luc, a thief who manages to sneak a vine cutting and diamond necklace into her bag knowing customs would never stop her in Paris. Luc is stopped at the terminal by an inspector who knows he's a thief but watches over him since Luc saved his life once. Kate goes to Charlie's hotel where the staff refuse to help her and sees him kissing Juliette in the elevator like her lungs hold all the oxygen in the universe. Kate faints from shock and another thief makes off with her bag. Luc arrives at the hotel and revives Kate. When he realizes who took her bag, he brings her to the thief's house and roughs him up. They get the bag back but her money and passport are gone.
Luc still needs to get the necklace from Kate's bag and offers to help her win Charlie back. They hop a train to Cannes where Charlie is set to meet Juliette's parents. Luc and Kate talk about Charlie before she falls asleep and while he rifles through her bag, she kisses him while dreaming of her fiance. This messes with his head. The next morning Kate feels fantastic enough to commit bonehead move #3. She samples several French cheeses and becomes so sick that she has to get off the train. They arrive in Luc's hometown and stay with his family at their vineyard. There Kate finds out that Luc lost his birthright to the family vineyard to his brother through a bad poker hand and that his dream is to buy enough land to start his own winery. He admits that while he had something that could have secured this dream he'd lost it again. While boarding the train the next day, Kate shows Luc she's actually wearing the stolen necklace.
Kate meets up with Charlie and Juliette at the hotel in Cannes where she pretends to be aloof about the whole situation. Luc is by her side as her lover which makes Charlie jealous. Later, the inspector talks to Kate about the necklace and asks her to convince Luc to give back the necklace to avoid prison. Kate tells Luc to let her sell the necklace to Cartier as she would be less suspicious and he agrees. That night, Kate and Charlie have dinner together where he apologizes for his behavior. He's amazed by the change to her vanilla personality and tries to make love to her but she stops him, realizing she loves Luc and no longer wants Charlie. At the same time, Luc seduces Juliette but calls out Kate's name in bed, surprising them both.
The next morning Kate tells Luc her dinner with Charlie was successful and then leaves to sell the necklace. She meets the inspector and writes a check from Cartier that drains her entire life savings to give to Luc. This is bonehead move #4. Kate is damn lucky she's in a romance movie, that's all I can say.
She heads to the airport for a flight to God knows where since she has no passport and can't actually leave the country. The embassy won't help her because she doesn't have a country to go back to now since she violated Canadian immigration rules when she left. Meanwhile, Luc watches Charlie and Juliette fight and the inspector tells him what Kate did for him. Luc finds Kate on the plane, confesses his love for her and the two are shown in a passionate embrace in their own beautiful vineyard. SUCK IT, CHARLIE!
Bread and Tulips (2000)
This is an Italian film so if you hate subtitles and don't speak Italian you're going to hate this movie. But you end up missing out on a lot of good movies if you hate subtitles and I absolutely love this movie. It's about a miserable housewife named Rosalba who is married to a misogynistic douchecanoe who she knows is cheating on her but does nothing about it. Her oldest son is on the path to become just like him but her youngest son has the potential of becoming a decent human being.
While on vacation with her family, she gets stranded at a bus station because nobody noticed she was still in the bathroom. She starts to hitchhike home after getting yelled at by her husband but changes her mind and takes her own vacation in Venice instead.
Rosalba soon runs low on funds and since her modest hotel is closing down she has nowhere to stay. Fernando, the Icelandic head waiter of a nearby restaurant, speaks Italian like he's reciting Shakespeare but is lonely and on the verge of suicide. He helps her out by letting her stay in his spare room in exchange for cleaning his home and cooking. Rosalba enjoys herself for the first time in decades and makes friends with the next door neighbor, a new age hippie kind of masseuse named Grazia. She also manages to land a job at a flower shop run by a grumpy old anarchist. Like, a literal political anarchist. I think he made car bombs in his younger days. Anyway, she finds herself drawn most to Fernando, his quiet and delicate manner a complete contrast to the loudmouthed clod she married.
Speaking of which, upset that the house is falling apart because Rosalba defied his orders to come home and he and his teenage sons are helpless pigs, her husband hires Constantino to find his wife in Venice and report her whereabouts. Constantino is a plumber who was interviewing for a job with the company and likes reading mystery novels. He is all too happy to flee from his overbearing mother and the harpy next door who's trying to marry him.
After a couple of hiccups, Constantino is hot on Rosalba's trail and runs into Grazia who mistakes him for an expected appointment that never showed. Grazia is sweet on him too but there's trouble when Rosalba recognizes him as the detective who's been following her around town. Constantino reveals that he's working for Rosalba's husband but calls and quits immediately.
Soon, the family friend who's been banging Rosalba's husband arrives and talks her into returning home, claiming her youngest son has started taking drugs and joined a gang. Upon returning, Rosalba discovers the lie and realizes nothing at all has changed in her old life. Back to his cold and lonely existence, Fernando is convinced by the others to fight for his woman. He finds Rosalba in the parking lot of a grocery store and declares his love for her. The couple returns to Venice with her youngest son.
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
And finally we have a fairly well known Japanese anime by the great Hayao Miyazaki. I am a huge fan of Miyazaki's movies. If you've never seen them you absolutely must. The animation is gorgeous, the stories are sweet and moving and the characters are awesome. It was hard to pick just one of them for this list. I may do a run down some day of my favorite Miyazaki films.
Anyway, this movie takes place in a kingdom where a past civilization meets steampunk but there are also witches and wizards. The kingdom is at war with its neighbor who insists they've kidnapped their prince who's gone missing. The main character is a young woman named Sophie who works diligently to keep the hat shop that was her father's dream up and running. She has three younger sisters and a mother, all very beautiful but a little flighty. Sophie is much more subdued and tends to dress like a frumpy old woman.
While making her way to the bakery her sister works in Sophie gets hassled by a couple of soldiers when she's rescued by a handsome wizard. They get chased by some blob monsters and he ends up dropping her off at the bakery (literally) before drawing the creatures away. Rumor has it the wizard was the famous Howl but Sophie brushes off the notion saying how he only pays attention to pretty girls.
Later that night as Sophie closes the shop she's visited by the vain Witch of the Waste. She's upset that Howl associated with Sophie and turns her into an old woman so that the wizard will never pay her attention again. Not willing to upset her family, Sophie sets off for the countryside where all the wizards and witches are said to live to find a way to lift the curse. While looking for a walking stick, Sophie rescues a sentient scarecrow who she calls Turnip Head. She asks him to find her a place to sleep since it's getting dark and he leads her to Howl's moving castle. Inside she meets a little boy named Markl who is Howl's apprentice and Calcifer, the fire demon responsible for the castle's magic. Calcifer sees instantly that Sophie is under a curse and offers to help her break it if she helps him break the spell on him. When Howl appears later on, Sophie introduces herself as the new cleaning lady Calcifer hired.
Howl is summoned by both kingdoms under two different guises but refuses to answer either summons. This violates the agreement he made long ago with the royal sorceress, Suliman, when he first apprenticed with her so she is looking for Howl. The Witch of the Waste is also searching for Howl because she wants his heart. He dated the witch once until he discovered she wasn't really young and beautiful and promptly dumped her. So she's a bit salty too. Sophie discovers the wizard to be a vain and selfish man as well as a coward and blows up at him saying how she was never beautiful in her life before storming out and crying in the rain.
Sophie accidentally screws with Howl's magic while cleaning
Later, they talk about the summons and Howl asks her to go to the palace as his mother to tell the king that he is too cowardly to take part in the war. He gives her a ring that would protect her as it connects her to Calcifer. On the way to the palace Sophie runs into the Witch of the Waste who was also summoned. The women exchange barbs along the way but as they make their way up an enormous flight of stairs that lead to the palace Sophie notices that the witch is struggling and ends up giving her words of encouragement to help her reach the top.
Suliman separates the two women and punishes the witch by draining her powers so that she becomes a feeble old woman. The sorceress warns Sophie that she'll do the same to Howl if he keeps refusing to fight. Angry, Sophie stands up for Howl just before he appears before her. The sorceress tries to turn him into a monster but Sophie helps Howl remember who he is and they manage to escape along with the Witch of the Waste and Suliman's dog.
Howl drops them back at the castle before flying away again as an enormous bird thing to interfere with the war effort on both sides. Calcifer tells Sophie what Howl has been doing and how he was finding it more and more difficult to return to human form after each transformation as the bird creature. When Howl returns he has Calcifer move the castle again and expands it to accommodate their new guests. He also presents Sophie with access to a meadow filled with flowers so she could open a flower shop if she wanted. Sophie gets the distinct feeling that Howl is saying goodbye.
The enemy kingdom bombs Sophie's town several days later and Howl flies out to protect what he calls his little family telling Sophie that he was tired of running and no longer afraid because now he has something worth protecting- her. She watches the battle and when it looks like Howl is in trouble but continues fighting anyway, she has everyone leave the castle, taking Calcifer out last, to break their connection with the shop in town. This makes the castle collapse but they go back inside the remains and a weakened Calcifer gets part of it moving again. The Witch of the Waste suddenly realizes that Calcifer has Howl's heart and grabs him. Despite being engulfed in flames she refuses to let go, screaming in agony. In a panic, Sophie douses her with water, which puts Calcifer out. The castle remnants they were traveling on break apart and Sophie falls down a ravine.
She starts crying because of what she's done, believing that she's killed Howl, when the ring he gave her lights up and leads her to a moment in the past where Howl as a little boy is standing in their meadow. She sees him catch Calcifer as he falls from the sky and swallows him. A moment later he removes his heart from his chest, having been swallowed by the fire demon. Sophie realizes the connection between them and tells little Howl to find her in the future because she knows how to help them.
Back in the present, she locates Howl who now appears to be a large catatonic bird. She hugs him and asks him to bring her to the others. When they arrive Howl returns to normal but is unconscious. Sophie implores the witch to give her Howl's heart and eventually she does. Sophie returns the heart to Howl, bringing him back to life and setting Calcifer free. Sophie is back to her old self though her hair stays white. She kisses Turnip Head for his role in saving their lives when the castle was breaking apart and he becomes human. Turns out he was the missing prince under a spell. He returns home to end the war and Sophie, Howl, and the others live happily ever after in a brand new flying castle.
As I mentioned before I left several of my favorites off the list like Now, Voyager and Holiday Affair as both involve infidelity. Three Coins in the Fountain is another good movie but involves deception on the part of the female lead tricking her love interest into believing they shared the same interests. Gigi I left off because her age is hard to pin down as is the age gap between her and the love interest. In fact, their dynamic could almost be seen as grooming, which is absolutely not sexy or romantic. Now these are just my preferences. I don't like watching movies that will make me cry. I prefer the main characters not to be complete pieces of shit regardless of their development later, and while having them be a little short sighted when it comes to the obvious, I'd rather the main characters of these stories not be complete morons.
So that's my list. I hope I've introduced some of you to some new favorites or maybe reminded you of some old ones. Hasta la pasta and Happy Valentine's Day!
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