I was reading through (and crying through) this entry on The A.V. Club, about the best scenes in movies in the '00s. It got me to thinking about some of my favorite and most touching scenes in film.
For the purposes of this thread, I’ll define ‘obscure’ as any movie that did not make it past #21 in the US Box Office during its theatrical run. I made this rule only so some smaller movies could get their moment in the spotlight, instead of this being three pages of scenes from Harry Potter or LOTR. Obviously, made-for-TV movies are exempt from this rule.
My nomination is from Last Night, and was the first example I thought of when I read A.V. Club’s article. Last Night is a 1998 Canadian movie about… the end of the world, or rather, how a group of individuals reacts to it. Patrick, played by Don McKellar, refuses to spend the last night on Earth with his family, preferring to die alone for reasons he won’t reveal. His best friend Craig, played by Callum Keith Rennie, on the other hand, comes up with a list of sexual fantasies to fulfill before the end (ie deflower a virgin, bang his hot French teacher, etc.). My moment comes when Craig approaches Patrick shortly before the end, and tells him that one of his fantasies is to have sex with a man – and that he only wants that to be Patrick. Patrick says that he can’t go that far, but he can give Craig one last kiss. What breaks my heart about this scene is that after Craig spends the whole movie seeking physical gratification, this poignant and sad kiss is the only moment of true *intimacy *that he experiences. It’s his last kiss at the end of the world; might as well be with someone he loves.
“Smoke” came out about 15 years ago. It starred William Hurt and Harvey Keitel. Hurt played a writer who had lost his wife years ago to random violence. Ketiel played a cigar shop owner and amateur photographer. One of Keitel’s photography projects was to take a snapshot of the same street corner, at the same time of day, every day. He had been at it for years and kept the photos in bound journals. One evening Hurt was over at Keitel’s, and was absent-mindedly flipping through one of his journals, and then suddenly stopped. One of the pictures captured his wife – not doing anything important or interesting, just walking down the street. But just seeing her there, when he wasn’t expecting it, made him break down in tears, as feelings that he wasn’t prepared to hold back all came rushing loose.
A movie from 1969 called Run Wild Run Free spoke to me particularly at that time; I haven’t seen it since, and I rather doubt it would have the same effect on me now as then.
The scene is at the end when the boy has to break his psychological muteness in order to save the horse he loves, to make it pull itself out of the mud, and both his parents were there to help him. Before this, his parents had been clueless about his life or what was important to him. Heavy-handed symbolism, to be sure, but at the time it cut me to the heart.
Apparently, based on comments on imdb.com, it is not available any more. Too bad.
Roddy
In America was nominated for a slew of awards, including 3 Academy Awards. It got Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Djimon Hounsou, lost to Tim Robbins in Mystic River), Best Actress (Samantha Morton, lost to Charlize Theron in Monster), and Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Jim Sheridan and his daughters Naomi Sheridan and Kirsten Sheridan…it’s not a straight autobiography, but the three incorporated many scenes and details from their own life. They lost to Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation).
It certainly is underrated, I’m with you there, it’s a great movie, but I wouldn’t call it “criminally” underrated. It got a lot of attention when it counted. You’re right about that scene, but the whole movie is full of scenes like that. Such a good movie!
One of my top 10 favorite movies, Wilby Wonderful has one of the tenderest scenes between two lovers I’ve ever seen. Plus, throughout the whole movie you get to see Christina Yang from Grey’s Anatomy if she were a realtor. Funny stuff.
Years ago I saw a movie on TV featuring Haley Joel Osment. It must have been after Sixth Sense because I recognized him, although in the movie he seemed slightly younger than his Sixth Sense role. Actually I didn’t see the movie just the last little bit so I have no idea what it was. His character is dumped by his mother who leaves during the night leaving a note to explain why she can’t stay with him.
In the scene where he reads the letter a voice over reads us the contents. Osment’s face falls, he begins to tear up and by the end of the letter he is crying with snot running down his face. It is all done with no histrionics, he hardly makes a noise and it is heart rending.
A little bit. But in AI, didn’t his very-upset mom dump him in the woods? I don’t recall anything about a note, and this definitely wasn’t “the last little bit”, more like in the middle 1/3rd of the movie.
There’s a french movie called Ponette that is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen. It’s about a four year old dealing with her mother’s death.
Here is a scene from it. It is the greatest child acting I’ve ever seen. It blows Haley Joel out of the water in my opinion. How can a 4 year old emote like that. The real power kicks in at 5:40 in but the whole scene is a heartbreaker.
