On Happy Movies

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NaBloPoMo 2016, Letters to Patients, Day 26

To Patients Getting Into the Spirit:

What movies do you recommend?

26 days and… writer’s block.  So duh, the obvious solution was to take a shower!  According to Shelley Carson, PhD, the defocused mindstate of showering allows for creativity and innovation.  I noticed the sullenness that envelopes me so often lately.  I wished for a mental uplift, and the gods obliged—they reminded me of “The Internship.”  Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play a couple of recently unemployed Gen-X salesmen who land coveted internships at Google.  They lead a dejected team of Millennial misfits who, of course, overcome all odds to win in the end.  It’s admittedly full of cheese.  But the endearing characters and uber-nerdiness get me every time.

Post-shower, I came down to movie night in progress:  “Music and Lyrics,” starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore.  Grant, an 80s pop ‘has-been,’ falls in love with his substitute plant waterer and incidental lyrcist, played by Barrymore.  Once again, current-event melancholy yielded to drippy-sweet romantic comedy.  You just can’t sustain a sour mood in the face of all that adorableness.

Other movies that come to mind, and that I plan to watch in the coming days:

Love, Actually

The Holiday

White Christmas

You’ve Got Mail

While You Were Sleeping

It would really be nice to get fully into the spirit again this year.  Why not aim for joy, after all?  Vacation days, family gatherings, gift exchanges and excuses to shop with abandon…  It could all be good, and I can exercise more control over my mood than I have until now.

So, the feel-good, holiday-mood-elevation movie marathon begins tomorrow, yay!  Please feel free to make your suggestions!

12 thoughts on “On Happy Movies”

  2. “The Bishop’s Wife” – the original, starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young, has been a favorite for decades. At the other end of the spectrum, our current favorite holiday movie is “The Ref,” starring Dennis Leary, Kevin Spacey, and Judy Davis–it’s the ultimate dysfunctional family holiday movie–and hilarious.

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  3. I’m an old movie buff, so these are definitely TCM offerings–It’s a Wonderful Life, who can resist Jimmy Stewart and Lionel Barrymore?; It Happened on Fifth Avenue, about a wise hobo who makes himself and a group of others at home for the holidays in a millionaires uninhabited mansion; Planes, Trains and Automobiles always gets me laughing and thinking, and Prancer, which speaks to the animal loving little girl in me.
    This is the short list for me, Catherine. Hope you get to enjoy some of them.

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  4. Ooh, lots of great suggestions here. My daughter and I try to do a holiday chick flick every weekend in December and yes, we revel in the cheesy adorableness of the oh-so-predictable plot lines!!! This year we’re adding a new thing: we’re going to see a holiday play performed at the local high school.

    Have fun watching your movies, Cathy. White Christmas is a fam fav here too! “Mutual, I’m sure.” 😀

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