It’s our 2nd birthday!
February 14, 2012 -Today The Reel Thing turns two years old! To celebrate both our anniversary and Valentine’s Day, we decided to look back at all the couples we’ve reviewed this year and each pick our candidates for best and worst relationship.
(Who are your picks for Best and Worst Couple of 2011? Take the poll to cast your vote!)
The Best:
C’s best couple of the year is Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice.
C. says:
I’ve found Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship swoon-worthy since I first read the book when I was fourteen years old. Stories of love at first sight have their charms, but the most romantic relationships, for me, are the ones that are hard-fought for. The road to The Reel Thing for these two twists and turns, past misunderstandings and willful blindspots, from Longbourn to Rosings to Pemberley and back again, and the happily ever after is always just as satisfying.
I have no doubt that these two will do very well together, that the shades of Pemberley will be filled with laughter, and that they will be loving companions, perfectly suited to one another, all the days of their lives.
K’s choice for best couple of the year is Robbie Hart and Julia Sullivan from The Wedding Singer.
K says:
This one was close. I was equally torn between Robbie and Julia, Loretta Castorini and Ronny Cammareri (Moonstruck), and Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley (Emma). All three couples are quite clearly The Reel Thing to me and equally deserving of the best couple designation. But in the end I had to go with Robbie and Julia (incidentally our first review of 2011); there was a special sweetness there that nudged these two into the top spot. Both know they’ve met their soul mate, and there is a pureness to their love that shines through. They’ll be best friends forever and create a happy, fun-filled home. Robbie is willing to do whatever it takes to make Julia happy, but he’s learned from his disastrous experience with his first fiancé how to do so without being a doormat. Each will help the other to be their best.
But the real clincher for me came when I saw Julia, alone in her bedroom, standing before the mirror in her long white dress, pretending to greet the guests at her wedding. The way in which her face is completely transformed when she introduces herself as Mrs. Robbie Hart instead of Mrs. Glen Guglia, to me, says it all.
And The Worst:
C’s worst couple of the year came down to a battle between Jules and Michael (My Best Friend’s Wedding) and Lana and Joel (Risky Business). While the sheer hilarity of call girl meets Ivy-League-bound high school student was hard to pass up, ultimately she had to give the edge to Jules and Michael.
C. says:
This is really a vote for Jules Potter as most unlikeable character in a movie ever. Not even Julia Roberts could make this charming. I’m totally sympathetic to the weird stresses you go through in your late twenties. When I turned 27, I was convinced I was old, and my friends threw a Youth Wake to celebrate my birthday. But nothing excuses Jules’s myopic, selfish meanness, certainly not the fact that she’s still single at 28. She doesn’t even want Michael until he’s no longer available, and then she does everything in her power to ruin his happiness to try to gain her own. Forget Jules as his wife—she doesn’t even deserve to be his best friend.
My one consolation is that the movie didn’t try to sell this as a great romance, and Michael ends up with Kimmy, as he should. When even Hollywood acknowledges that a couple isn’t The Reel Thing, you know it’s bad!
K chose Annie and Officer Rhodes from Bridesmaids for her worst couple of 2011. She couldn’t find anyone less emotionally ready for a mature relationship than Annie.
K says:
This was also a tough one; there were so many perfectly ridiculous matches to choose from. I have to agree with C that Jules and Michael are up there and I had no problem putting them in my top (or is it bottom?) three. Jules is unquestionably despicable and clearly doesn’t deserve Michael at all. However there were other worthy contenders, such as Mick “Crocodile” Dundee and Sue Charlton. But ultimately I had to go with Annie and Rhodes. Mick and Sue at least have some chemistry on their side, and while Jules is crazy, she’s at least successful and employed, and shows some small signs of growth towards the end. But Annie is just plain nuts, and doesn’t appear to be on the verge of any dramatic emotional growth spurts. Like John Beckwith (Wedding Crashers) before her, when things don’t work out, rather than handle things in an adult fashion, she retreats into bitter, booze-filled reclusion. I can’t for the life of me see why Rhodes would want any part of that at all.
With the holidays upon us, we thought we’d take this opportunity to list a few of our favorite and not so favorite holiday films. Most of them have romances as well, although there’s a few sprinkled in here that don’t, at least not in the traditional sense. There are some old classics as well as some new entries, and some that aren’t technically considered holiday romances but are set during the holidays and therefore worth mentioning. Some feature couples we’ve reviewed but there are many we still have yet to cover. And there are a few we included just because we love them.
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