Every once in a while, those of us not living alone, find ourselves with some unexpected alone time. The kids are at a friend’s house, the spouse has to work late - it doesn’t matter the reason. It’s nice to suddenly realize that you have a few hours to yourself. The house may need to be cleaned and the bills may need to be paid but you decide to say, “screw it, I’m gonna have some me time”.
Tonight, I had expected to spend the night watching either Arrested Development or Captain Scarlet. But, my ex-boyfriend (it’s a long story) surprised me by going out for coffee with friends. I don’t expect him back for at least two hours.
So, I made myself my second favorite (I don’t have any Rice Krispies so I had to settle for second best) comfort food - toast. Two slices with butter, two slices with Trappist Strawberry Rhubarb preserves. I got myself a bottle of ginger ale. I put on some comfy PJ’s and an oversize sweatshirt.
And I put The Joy Luck Club in the DVD player.
I actually have quite a bit of alone time. But, whenever I get that glorious unexpected time to myself, I always watch this movie. This is one of my favorite movies and books. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I watch it.
“How many sharps? How many flats? What key are we in?”
“Z-Major”
“What?!”
“Z-Major!!”
“Good.”
So, what is the one movie you watch when you are home alone and shirking responsibility?
Oh, I have a lot of these. Mostly involving nostalgia (on my part) or gorgeous costumes (on their part.) The best ones feature both!
Moulin Rouge! is the most frequent - it’s the pick me up when I’m feeling low and the high drama when I’m feeling low and want to stay there. It’s got fun music and gorgeous clothes and gorgeous Nicole Kidman (who is SO beautiful in this movie that I don’t feel jealous, 'cause she’s just a goddess and who can compete with that? No one, that’s who, so I don’t feel bad for not measuring up!) and gorgeous Ewan MacGregor (my gods, that moment during My Song when his grin is so wide and beautiful and then it gets even wider when he realizes she’s “hooked”…Squeeee! Turns me into a 16 year old girl again.) Man, it’s been a while. I gotta make time for that one again.
After that is Reality Bites, because my husband hates it so very, very much. I am simply not “allowed” to watch it in peace if he’s home. So it’s my “me-time” movie by default. That’s a nostalgia movie. Winona Ryder sans bra in that doily dress is NOT gorgeous. But the sex scene between her and Ethan Hawke still gets me every time. Best, sexiest non-graphic sex scene EVER.
Toss-up between The Searchers and Shane. The Searchers usually wins. A big part of it is the scenery and the music, and knowing all the lines, of course. Comfort movies.
Shane didn’t die, it was just a scratch. Ethan went to California, fell in love and started a family.
I’m not often alone, but when I need a lift and a good laugh I pop my cassette of The Quiet Man into the VCR and sit back, knowing I’m going to smile for about an hour and a half, and laugh out loud several times. It’s my favorite movie, and never gets old.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is an endearing character study of a number of individuals in a small village in Ireland. The stars:
John Wayne
Maureen O’Hara
Victor MacLaglen
Barry Fitzgerald
Arthur Shields
Mildred Natwick
Ward Bond
(I may have screwed up the order of billing . . . . sorry!)
Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. I seem to enjoy Spinal Tap more than other people I know. Not to say that they don’t like it, but I never get tired of it. So I usually end up watching it by myself
However, when I need a pick-me-up movie, I usually watch the Beatles’ magnum opus of film A Hard Day’s Night. I sometimes have a difficult time enjoying my favorite comedies if I am depressed, but A Hard Day’s Night is very bubbly and pleasant, and usually puts me in a better mood than wall-to-wall laughs. You can enjoy it without having to think too hard, but it doesn’t insult your intelligence either. The perfect “low-impact” movie to watch when you need to take your mind off your troubles.
Much of the time, I’ll hit up my favorite scenes from Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Equilibrium, or a couple episodes of Due South (Episode 1x18, “Heaven And Earth”, has one of the best car chases I’ve seen on TV, and Episode 1x17, “The Deal”, has an extended footchase sequence at a bus depot with latin choir music for the music, very very cool).
Otherwise, I’m known to put in the DVD for Flight of the Intruder or StarGate
For me, it would have to be a choice between Die Hard, The Magnificent Seven, or Detroit Rock City. A classic action picture, a classic Western, and a classic…something.
Lately, anything from the later Due South oeuvre. I like to watch television more than movies when I’m alone, actually – twenty-minute sitcom episodes are great for a brief little pick-me-up, and the breaks every forty minutes when watching DVDs of “hour-long” action/comedy/misc. are nice. I can go make a pot of tea, reheat some food or find my comfy slippers without breaking the rhythm of a narrative by pausing.
For movies, though, Animal House. I have yet to meet the bad mood that one couldn’t snap me out of! I know it backwards and forwards but I still laugh as hard as I did the first time I saw it.
The Blues Brothers! It’s my I feel sad/I feel silly/I need to clean the house movie. Soundtrack is great, plot is silly, and I’ve seen it so much I don’t need to watch to know what’s going on.
Star Wars IV or Empire are close seconds, but since I don’t have a VCR right now and don’t have them on DVD…
Musicals I can sing along to! Especially Chicago. And Moulin Rouge. And Cinderella (the Rodgers & Hammerstein version with Lesley Ann Warren, not Disney). Oh, and we taped Cinderella on the same video as Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters is another one, though I can’t sing along to much of it.
