(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.

Read the original review.

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.

Read the original review.

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!

Read the original review.

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.

Read the original review.

Maggie Carpenter has a lot going for her. She has a close family, work she loves, and she looks just like Julia Roberts. When it comes to commitment, though, Maggie’s got problems. She’s already left three guys at the altar–earning herself tabloid infamy and the nickname “The Runaway Bride”–and she’s currently working on number four. When a reporter shows up in town intent on doing an in-depth article on her, this is the last thing she needs.

For Ike Graham, veteran New York City reporter, it’s personal even before he meets Maggie. After penning a column filled with errors, fueled by the vitriol of one of Maggie’s jilted exes, he’s fired from his job at the paper. He comes to Maggie’s hometown to prove that he was right about her all along.

Naturally the two do not hit it off. Ike finds Maggie to be a living affront to men everywhere, and Maggie does not appreciate the invasion of her privacy. However, as the two spend more time together, they come to understand one another better, and an attraction begins to grow. On the day of Maggie’s wedding rehearsal, a somewhat contrived turn of events has Ike standing in for the intended groom. It quickly becomes clear to everyone–including the intended groom–that Maggie and Ike have fallen for each other. Ike gets punched in the face, and Maggie gets herself a new fiance, and they live happily ever after.

NOT!

Come the actual day of the wedding, Maggie once again flees to freedom–this time on a handy FedEX delivery truck.

If this were not a Hollywood romantic comedy, no doubt this is where the storyline would begin to wonder if marriage is actually right for Maggie. When you’ve left four different men at the altar, it really is the institution, not the individual. Maybe this isn’t the right time in Maggie’s life for marriage. Maybe it never will be. And what’s wrong with that? There are a lot of ways to be happy in life. Marriage is only one of them.

But this is a Hollywood romantic comedy, so Maggie moves to the big city to pursue her career and eventually to pursue Ike. She shows up at his apartment, makes friends with his cat, turns in her running shoes, and proposes. Ike, who should run as fast and as far as he can go, says yes for some unfathomable reason. The two tie the knot and ride off into the sunset on horseback. Everyone celebrates the fact that Maggie finally got married.

We suspect there will soon be yet another wedding dress to donate to the Salvation Army. We can only hope that post-divorce Maggie will listen to what her subconscious has been trying to tell her and do men everywhere a favor by remaining blissfully single.

Arthur Bach is a mega-millionaire, the sole heir to a long-established family fortune. While that single feature would be enough to attract a fair number of potential wives, he is not without baggage. He’s a small child trapped in the body of a not much bigger man. Not only has he never worked a day in his life, he’s never done anything for himself in his life. Between his manservant Hobson, his driver Bitterman, and his stern but doting grandmother Martha, there’s always someone to take care of his every need. And the only thing he has to do to guarantee that he keeps getting money for the rest of his life is to marry Susan Johnson, the woman his family has hand-picked for him.

And then there’s the drinking. Most likely feeling unworthy due to his complete lack of usefulness, Arthur is a raging alcoholic. He gets drunk daily and shows up for every event in his life completely hammered; he can’t even get through his morning bath without a pitcher of martinis. And with unlimited funds behind him he can afford to drink the best every day and not have to worry about driving himself home.

Arthur does have an endearing innocence about him, and an entertaining sense of humor, although no one seems to find him as funny as he does. He loves to play and has a child’s capacity for fun. Yet there are clearly issues of insecurity lurking beneath the surface; no one drinks that much because they’re happy and fulfilled. Or asks a prostitute he just met 10 minutes before if she likes him in such earnest. As Arthur himself says, “Everyone who drinks is not a poet. Maybe some of us drink because we’re not poets.”

Into all this madness comes Linda Marolla, a tough-talking Italian girl from the outer boroughs that Arthur rescues from a shoplifting charge one day at Bergdorf Goodman. She’s poor, she’s hardworking, she’s kooky. She lies and steals. She’s different, and Arthur is immediately smitten. And of course for Linda’s part, meeting a rich and charming prince must seem like a fairytale.

But while we can understand the initial attraction between these two, we have serious doubts about their potential for longevity. And ironically we think it’s Linda that will throw in the towel first. It’s not that Arthur isn’t lovable. He’s cute, he’s caring and he’s decent. He’s got piles of money. But watching your husband drink himself into a stupor every night, standing by as he pisses away his health and his fortune, wondering if he’s going to back the car one of your kids one day, could make the price of even the largest of fortunes too high to pay.

Even if Arthur were to spend a year at Betty Ford, he’s still got a tremendous amount of growing up to do. He has no sense of self-sufficiency – he’s never had a job; he’s never even turned on the water for his own bath. And while this little quirk might be acceptable in a friend, it would wear thin fast in a spouse. We also have to seriously question his capability as a father. Yes he’d be a fun one, but would he truly be able to raise children, to teach them anything of value besides how to drink Scotch?

Arthur’s ex-fiance Susan tells him “A real woman could stop you from drinking,” to which he replies “She’d have to be a real big woman.” Unless Linda plans to start eating heavily, we don’t think she’ll be up to the task.

Side note: Yes we know there’s a remake. But much as we like Helen Mirren and Jennifer Garner, nothing could induce us to go see a movie with Russell Brand, whose career we find even more inexplicable than Adam Sandler’s.

Not according to Mavis Gary. Mavis has come back to her hometown of Mercury, MN, to try and win back Buddy Slade, her boyfriend of 13 years ago. Now in her thirties, single, about to be out of work, and with a fairly well-developed alcohol addiction, Mavis has convinced herself that Buddy is the one she is meant to be with. And upon learning that he and his wife have just become parents for the first time, she convinces herself that he must be secretly miserable and that she’s the one that can change that. After first squeezing in one last drunken one-night-stand she wakes up, throws some things (including Dolce, her long-suffering pomeranian) into a bag and hits the road for home. She checks into a hotel and tells no one except Buddy of her arrival; her mom only discovers Mavis is home when she happens to drive by her in town.

Mavis immediately calls Buddy to see when they can meet and he suggests a place for the following evening. Even before they’ve met their differences are evident: Mavis is envisioning romantic, late night cocktails at a dark sultry bar; Buddy suggests a 6PM meeting at Champion McCoy’s, a brightly lit family-style restaurant. Convinced it won’t take much to get their relationship back on track, Mavis slips on her sluttiest dress and a lot of concealer and heads out to meet her destiny.

But Mavis is in for a rude awakening. Buddy moved on from their relationship years ago, and is in a completely different place now. His thoughts are clearly with his wife and new baby, and he sees Mavis as nothing more than an old friend. Undaunted, Mavis pulls out every trick she has to try and seduce him back into her bleak, boozy life, but Buddy is not only uninterested, he’s barely even aware of what she’s up to.

It is clear to everyone from the start that Mavis has no chance with Buddy. She’s not remotely his type, and he is completely besotted with his beautiful family. What’s also clear is that even if Mavis were to succeed in seducing her former lover, she still wouldn’t be happy. Just as Scarlett pined for Ashley, Mavis has spent years pining for someone that she can’t have and that is completely wrong for her. Buddy is sweet, simple and totally without guile, while Mavis is all jagged edges and bitter sarcasm.Buddy has responsibilities; he’s not interested in a lifestyle that involves drinking every night. Most of all Buddy is truly happy, while Mavis is simmering with repressed anger which frequently boils over. The two are completely incompatible, but while Buddy knows it, Mavis does not.

She does eventually have a small awakening, but it’s going to take at least 12 steps and a lot of therapy before Mavis is ready for a relationship with anyone. Right now she can’t even take care of Dolce, or herself, for that matter.

Cher’s a high school senior that spends her free time to matchmaking, usually with disastrous results. She’s convinced that she knows what’s best for everyone around her, when in fact she doesn’t even know what’s best for herself, and manages to miss even the most obvious clues. She is unaware that her best friend Elton likes her, or that Christian, the guy she likes, is gay. When new girl Tai arrives at the school, she immediately takes her on as her new “project”. She remakes her wardrobe and then spends her time throwing Tai at every guy except the one that Tai really likes, lovable stoner Travis.

Her ex-stepbrother Josh is the polar opposite. He’s honest, hard-working, and interested in politics and current events. He would never fake a broken heart to appeal to a teacher for a better grade. Yet he is somehow inexplicably interested in Cher. Cher is quite the hottie, and we can understand him having a purely physical attraction for her. But we can’t see him seriously considering a relationship with his former stepsister, who knows nothing about life beyond her own small little world and clearly doesn’t care to. As for Cher, she thinks Josh is just a book-loving nerd, but when he comes to the rescue of her friend Tai, and Cher begins to suspect that Tai’s crush on Josh is reciprocated, she suddenly decides that Josh is the one for her.

When Cher finally gets out of her own way, and everyone else’s, things do actually work out. Tai and Travis finally get together, and somehow Cher and Josh connect as well. Yet we can’t see these two lasting too long. True, Cher and Josh are not related, or even step-related any longer. Yes Cher is trying to become a better person, to learn more about the world outside of Beverly Hills, and to get more involved. And yes, the two both have a clever, sarcastic streak that provides for some interesting banter. But they still feel more like brother and sister than boyfriend and girlfriend, which makes them becoming boyfriend and girlfriend a bit icky. Cher’s interest in Josh simply feels like a case of wanting what she thinks she can’t have. And we think it won’t be long before Cher’s foolishness starts to wear on Josh’s nerves. Pretty soon he’ll head back to the library and she’ll head back to the mall.

We think we’d have to be pretty clueless to think that Cher and Josh are The Reel Thing.

Waking up one spring morning he sees it’s too beautiful a day to waste it listening to his economics teacher drone on about the Hawley-Smoot Tariff. He decides to skip school and take both his best friend Cameron and girlfriend Sloane along for the ride, and the three spend an amazing day together enjoying the sights and attractions of Chicago. What we loved about this movie was that it didn’t take Ferris & Friends completely out of their realm or have them do anything death-defying or physically impossible. They simply enjoyed the best things available to them within their own hometown: a drive in a classic Ferrari, fine dining, great art, a baseball game, an illicit dip in a pool, and of course the gleeful satisfaction that comes from outwitting both your parents and school officials. Somehow these three miraculously manage to do it all without getting into trouble; Ferris is an artist when it comes to wriggling his way out of a tricky situation and this day is no exception.

Several times during their day together Ferris declares his love for Sloane, both to her and to the camera, and his desire to marry her. Is he for real or is this just another tricky situation that Ferris will have to wriggle out of later? We have no doubt that he cares deeply for Sloane and she clearly feels the same for him. But can it last? We’re not sure. Both are still in high school and not even of legal age. There’s a good chance that they will remain together until graduation and the subsequent summer break, but start to drift apart once they go off to their respective colleges.

And yet…there is something about these two that we can’t write off completely. It’s most likely the first love for both of them which is something you never forget. Adventurous as he is Ferris also has a serious side, and we think once he finds something he loves and commits to it – be it a friend, a woman, a home, a career – that’s it for him. He may get distracted (let’s not forget the two bikini-clad sunbathers that he meets on his way home), but we don’t see him as the type to date around. We think he genuinely appreciates women, and people. Sloane is a bit more cautious but also shares his sense of adventure, and we think if these two do manage to stick it out they will have an amazing life together. They’ll both be successful at their chosen careers, and be wonderful, loving parents that will instill in their children qualities of love, laughter, and fearlessness.

So despite their youth we think they have a shot. But even if they don’t one thing is for certain. Whether Ferris becomes a fry cook on Venus or the next Sausage King of Chicago, whoever he marries will be in for one hell of a ride.

Quirky, self-conscious Katie Morosky meets Hubbell Gardner at college and is publicly offended by but secretly attracted to him. He is everything she isn’t – graceful, confident, waspy to the extreme – the quintessential golden boy. Katie spends her time supporting political causes; Hubbell spends his studying, rowing, and laughing with his friends. Katie is convinced that, like his friends, he is laughing at her expense. But in fact Hubbell is decent, and deep – he’s a writer – and if he doesn’t share her beliefs he does admire her for them. And so she quickly starts to fall for him.

Several years later they meet again; Hubbell is on leave from the Navy and Katie is working at a local radio station. Stranded in the city, Hubbell accepts Katie’s invitation to stay at her place, and the two strike up a friendship, which turns into the unlikeliest of romances. Katie has never gotten over her crush and she does whatever she can to win Hubbell over. Their relationship blossoms in the city and eventually continues on the west coast when Hubbell sells his book and is invited out to Hollywood.

Frankly we just can’t see how these two ever make it as far as they do. If we were Hubbell we would have thrown in the towel after the first cocktail party with his friends. Katie is sulky, resentful, and determined to be angry, and she has an entire bag of chips on her shoulder. She has no friends other than Hubbell, which is telling. She prepares for each of these social gatherings by stockpiling every ounce of rage she possesses and then detonating it once they’ve arrived. She expects to have a bad time and so she does; she expects his friends to dislike her and so they do. Hubbell just wants to be happy and enjoy life; Katie just wants to fight. As Hubbell tells her, “you push too hard. Every damn minute. There’s no time ever to relax and enjoy living.”

Hubbell does in fact end things that night, a decision we applauded. But he is moved by Katie’s despair and rushes back to comfort her, and the two stay together. Is it callous of us to say we found her teary pleas for his affection pathetic and disingenuous? At that point we were just waiting for Cher to storm in, slap Hubbell across the face and yell “Snap out of it!”

We read once that the most successful couples are the same philosophically and opposite emotionally. Katie and Hubbell are on completely different planets not just emotionally but philosophically as well, and if the relationship had continued things would have only gotten worse. Raising children together would have further underlined their differences. There is simply no way they are ever going to live compatibly, and like so many couples they each enter into the relationship loving things about the other person but also expecting them to change. Hubbell wants Katie to be happier; she wants him to be angrier. But as we all know, none of us ever really changes our true nature.

We’ve included the IMDB links for each along with the links to our reviews if they apply.

And now here they are, in no particular order. Enjoy and happy holidays!

The Movie: The Holiday, The Couple: Iris & Miles, Amanda & Graham
The Movie: Love Actually, The Couple: Too many to list
The Movie: The Family Stone, The Couple: Everett Stone & Meredith Morton, Ben Stone & Julie Morton
The Movie: Four Christmases, The Couple: Brad & Kate
The Movie: Nothing Like the Holidays, The Couple: Mauricio & Sarah, Edy & Anna, Jesse & Marissa
The Movie: Serendipity, The Couple: Jonathan Trager & Sara Thomas
The Movie: The Family Man, The Couple: Jack Campbell & Kate Reynolds
The Movie: Last Holiday, The Couple: Georgia Byrd & Sean Matthews
The Movie: The Perfect Holiday, The Couple: Nancy & Benjamin
The Movie: The Bishop’s Wife, The Couple: Dudley & Julia, and Henry & Julia
The Movie: While You Were Sleeping, The Couple: Lucy Moderatz & Jack Callaghan
The Movie: White Christmas, The Couple: Bob Wallace & Betty Haynes, Phil Davis & Judy Haynes
The Movie: It’s A Wonderful Life, The Couple: George Bailey & Mary Hatch Bailey
The Movie: Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Couple: Bridget Jones & Mark Darcy
The Movie: Holiday Inn, The Couple: Jim Hardy & Linda Mason
The Movie: Miracle on 34th Street, The Couple: Doris Walker & Fred Gailey
The Movie: Beyond Christmas, The Couple: James & Jean
The Movie: Holiday Affair, The Couple: Steve Mason & Connie Ennis
The Movie: All I Want For Christmas, The Couple: Catherine O’Fallon & Michael O’Fallon
The Movie: Home For the Holidays, The Couple: Claudia Larson & Leo Fish, Tommy Larson & Jack Gordon
The Movie: Surviving Christmas, The Couple: Drew Latham & Alicia Valco
The Movie: The Christmas Blessing, The Couple: Nathan & Meghan
The Movie: Christmas in the Clouds, The Couple: Joe Clouds on Fire & Tina Littlehawk
The Movie: This Christmas, The Couple: Gerald & Kelli, Regina & Laz, Mel & Devean
The Movie: Lovely, Still, The Couple: Robert & Mary
The Movie: Just Friends, The Couple: Chris Brander & Jamie Palamino
The Movie: When Harry Met Sally, The Couple: Harry Burns & Sally Albright
The Movie: Edward Scissorhands, The Couple: Edward Scissorhands & Kim
The Movie: Scrooged, The Couple: Frank Cross & Claire Phillps
The Movie: Bad Santa, The Couple: Willie & Sue
The Movie: Trading Places, The Couple: Louis Winthorpe III & Ophelia
The Movie: Die Hard, The Couple: John McClane & Holly McClane
The Movie: Elf, The Couple: Buddy & Jovie
The Movie: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Couple: Clark Griswold & Ellen Griswold
The Movie: How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Couple: The Grinch & the Whos
The Movie: Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Couple: Rudolph & Clarice
The Movie: Desk Set, The Couple: Richard Sumner & Bunny Watson

k & c

PS – Who’s your favorite holiday couple? Leave a comment below to let us know. And please feel free to contact us at info@thereelthing.co if we left yours off the list!

Thanks for your patience!
k&c