Valentine DVD
Ah, Valentine’s Day. Romance is in the air. You’ve already picked out the flowers and candy. All that’s left is the perfect romantic movie. You could rent “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” or “Valentine,” but unless you’re planning a gangland hit or hacking up horny teenagers (okay, who isn’t?), here are some suggestions.
CURRENT ROMANCE
SWEET HOME ALABAMA (PG-13)
“Legally Blonde” Reese Witherspoon scored another bull’s-eye with this darling romantic comedy about a country girl who dumps her hick from the sticks persona, moves to the Big Apple, scores herself a rich honey who proposes marriage. Only problem is that she’s still married to a good old boy back home (Josh Lucas). Available at sell-through. (Touchstone Home Video)
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING (PG)
Nia Vardalos stars in this real-life Cinderella story (her one-woman stage show leaps to the screen and becomes one of the highest grossing films of the year), a must-see for anyone with a heart. She’s the Greek girl who brings home non-Greek boyfriend John Corbett, much to the dismay but eventual delight of her extended family. Lots of laughs. Available at sell-through. (HBO Home Video)
SEVENTIES ROMANCE
A TOUCH OF CLASS (PG)
One of my personal favorites. Glenda Jackson won her second Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a London divorcee who meets married insurance salesman George Segal while on vacation. They carry on their affair back in London, but when love enters the picture, the simple liaison becomes comically complicated. I laugh every time I watch the film. (Turner Home Video)
THE WAY WE WERE (PG)
Barbra Streisand is the nice Jewish girl, Robert Redford the all-American WASP, and together they make the screen sizzle. She’s the college revolutionary who sets her eyes on and eventually falls for the good looking man about campus Redford, but their relationship is filled with more ups and downs than a porno film. I dare you not to cry. (Columbia-TriStar Home Video)
SOMEWHERE IN TIME (PG)
Playwright Christopher Reeve goes back in time to meet and fall in love with actress Jane Seymour. Even though her handlers are against the union, the two share an intense romance whose future is decided over a simple penny. The ending proves just how far some men will go to be with the one they love. Grab the tissues. (Universal Studios Home Video)
THE GOODBYE GIRL (PG)
When earnest actor Richard Dreyfuss (Best Actor winner) sublets a New York apartment for a play, he instantly clashes with the struggling actress (Marsha Mason) and her precocious daughter who also live there. Neil Simon at his very best, a comedy filled with lots of love, heart, and romance. (MGM Home Entertainment)
CLASSIC ROMANCE
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (NR)
Audrey Hepburn is luminous as Truman Capote’s Holly Golighly, Manhattan party girl who hides her past from her friends and current suitor, writer George Peppard. Watching Hepburn finally realize that she needs and wants love (and her pet cat) is a joyous moment in a film filled with lots of them. (Paramount Home Video)
CASABLANCA (NR)
Classic romance that demands you “Play it again.” Humphrey Bogart plays the owner of a nightclub in unoccupied French territory during World War II. Bogart’s nightclub is filled with colorful characters, including Nazis, the resistance, and the lovely Ingrid Bergman, a former girlfriend now in Casablanca with her husband Paul Heinreid. The love triangle plays out to perfection, as does the rest of this perfect movie. (Warner Home Video)
MODERN ROMANCE
JERRY MAGUIRE (R)
Abrasive sports agent Tom Cruise meets and falls for adorable Renee Zellweger, who is reluctant to open up her heart or hurt her young son Jonathan Lipnicki. Watching Cruise and Zellweger together is like watching Bogart and Bergman. They’re perfect, and Jerry Maguire remains one of the best romantic comedies of the 1990s. (Columbia-TriStar Home Video)
BULL DURHAM (R)
Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins are minor league baseball players who vie for the attention of baseball groupie Susan Sarandon. There are plenty of hilarious home runs in this very adult romantic-comedy that has a big league heart. (MGM Home Entertainment)
MATURE ROMANCE
LAST TANGO IN PARIS (NC-17)
Director Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial 1973 X-rated drama stars Marlon Brando as an American hiding out in Paris after the suicide death of his wife. There, he begins a twisted affair with a very willing Maria Schneider, who appreciates the anonymous aspects of their sexual trysts. You’ll never look at butter the same way again. (MGM Home Entertainment)
HENRY AND JUNE (NC-17)
Fred Ward delivers a chameleon-like performance as American writer Henry Miller, who leaves wife June (Uma Thurman) back in the states as he carries on an affair with married, bored French writer Anais Nin (Maria de Medeiros). When June learns of her husband’s dalliance, she turns all of their lives upside down. One of the most erotic and adult movies of the early 1990s. (Universal Studios Home Video)
