Romance Is in the Air

I am obviously a sucker for a romantic film. I watched two movies today and both of them were romantic and both of them made me cry.

Actually, I just finished re-watching the 1939 Leo McCarey film Love Affair with the delightful Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. I quite honestly sat curled up on my sofa clutching a pillow and sobbed at this movie. I'd seen it before, of course (there aren't many films from 1939 that I haven't seen), but I didn't remember it as quite this good of a film. Love Affair is really wonderful. It's tightly scripted, very romantic, and the ending is really powerful and beautiful. Both of the lead actors are fabulous. It's a classic.

...And I watched a little gay romance by Jonah Markowitz called Shelter, too. It's about a surfer boy in San Pedro, CA who falls in love with his best friend's brother but is pulled away from his new-found love by the fact that he is the sole care-giver to his five-year-old nephew. I am all about gay romances. Most of them suck, as you probably know. So, when one comes along where the acting is not totally wooden and the plot is not completely, utterly predictable, I am happy. Shelter is (surprisingly) well acted and I found it sweet. It's also well shot and the script is intriguing and introspective if slightly predictable. It's not Love Affair or The English Patient, but it's cute and gay and heartwarming, so I liked it.