The Real Spin: Spend Valentine's Day with a movie you love
The Real Spin: Spend Valentine's Day with a movie you love
by Ron Anders - SGN A&E Writer

Wondering what to do for your sweetie on Valentine's Day? Wondering how to get a sweetie for Valentine's Day? Or perhaps you just want a little vicarious Valentine's Day romance? Just entice your Romeo or Juliet into your lair with a romantic movie. Whether you have a special someone by your side or not, you can luxuriate in the romantic spell cast by these films. Here are ten stories which will warm the heart of even the most confirmed bachelor(ette).

1. Big Eden. Neurotic New York City artist Henry Hart returns to his hometown of Big Eden, Montana to take care of his ailing grandfather. What he doesn't know is that the residents of the town have his Gay romantic interests at heart - even though Henry is not particularly interested in finding Prince Charming. Gorgeously photographed (in and around Glacier National Park), poignantly comic and ingratiatingly acted, Big Eden is sweet without being cloying and will leave you with a big grin on your face. If only small town life (or urban life, for that matter) were like it is in Big Eden.

2. Maurice. E. M. Forster's posthumous Gay love story - decades ahead of its time - gets the full Merchant/Ivory treatment in this luxuriant adaptation. Maurice (handsome James Wilby) has a clandestine affair with Clive (foppish Hugh Grant). Not willing to retreat back into the closet, Maurice falls in love with Alec, his family's gamekeeper, played by hunky Rupert Graves. (As in Lady Chatterley's Lover, there is something about a gamekeeper&) Their first love scene, where Alec climbs a ladder into Maurice's bedroom, is about the most passionate and sexy interlude imaginable. A richly satisfying (and underrated) classic.

3. Kissing Jessica Stein. This contemporary Lesbian comedy (with a neurotic, Woody Allen-esque touch) is a delight. Jessica Stein is a nice Jewish girl in her 30s who can't seem to find the right guy. When she answers a personals ad placed by a nice non-Jewish girl, everyone is surprised - no one more than Jessica herself. With a smart script that doesn't follow the usual by-the-numbers path, this movie will get you thinking as well as sighing.

4. Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss. Before achieving television immortality with his flamboyant role in Will & Grace, Sean Hayes was Billy - an unemployed, uninspired Los Angeles would-be photographer who falls for Gabriel, a straight guy. Well, at least he seems straight. While following Billy's (mis)adventures, we are treated to recreations of classic screen romances - with a Gay twist. A frothy confection with some tasty eye candy in the person of Brad Rowe (a Brad Pitt clone) as Gabriel.

5. Amélie. This French film was a huge surprise hit - a small movie that stayed in theaters forever and went on to win a raft of international awards. The whimsical tale follows our shy heroine Amélie (played by the angelic gamine Audrey Tatou) as she sets out on her mission to create happiness for others - a journey fueled by her rich fantasy life. Enhanced by exquisite camera work, this poignant story about living life to the fullest (and finding true love) will send you into a blissfully amorous trance - which you may not want to wake from.

6. The Wedding Banquet. Twelve years before he filmed Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee wrote and directed this vibrant comedy of manners - an Oscar-nominated film from Taiwan. Simon and Wei-Tung, a happy Gay couple, have their lives turned comically topsy-turvy when Wei-Tung's conservative parents come to visit. Comic complications include their "de-Gaying" their apartment and an arranged "straight" marriage. Heartfelt and wise.

7. An Affair to Remember. Get out your hankies! This lush Technicolor weepie will have you begging for more. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr meet and fall in love on an ocean liner, drink champagne cocktails and have the witty, sophisticated repartee that only a 1950s story could provide. (Yes, this is the film they're watching in Sleepless in Seattle.) I resisted seeing this movie for years, thinking it would be too saccharine. When I finally watched it, I was reduced to a blubbering mass of jelly - and replayed many scenes to re-experience their swoony splendor. Newly released in a double-disc 50th anniversary deluxe edition.

8. 84 Charing Cross Road. For those who like their love stories chaste, here is an utterly winning tale of love-from-afar - 3,000 miles afar, to be exact. Helene Hanff, a tart-tongued New York writer and Frank Doel, a reserved London bookseller, have a correspondence - chiefly about the love of books - that develops into a devoted friendship over the years. Based on a true story, it has eloquent performances by Anne Bancroft and (a pre-Hannibal Lecter) Anthony Hopkins. You've probably never heard of this film. I hereby order you to go out and get it.

9. My Best Friend's Wedding. Julia Roberts and Gay-guy-pal-and-romance-adviser Rupert Everett shine in this crowd pleaser. When Julia's best friend (Dermot Mulroney) says he's getting married, she realizes she loves him. If your best friend looked like Dermot Mulroney - wouldn't you? A surprisingly affecting screwball comedy, it shows that Hollywood can still make an intelligently humorous film that doesn't insult our intelligence. Curl up by the fire and watch this one again.

10. Falling in Love. Never heard of this one either? Well, you have now. Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep star in this savvy remake of the classic Brief Encounter. Bob and Meryl are married to other people and fall helplessly in love at Christmas in New York. How can you possibly resist? A quintessential love story - simple, classy and hopeful.