Valentine’s Marathon Kicks off with…

How many of you guessed that I’d be doing a Valentine’s day marathon? Well, I think I probably talked about it here and there, but I don’t remember if I did.  So today, I finally finalized the list.  Last year, I did a Ten Faves Romantic Comedy (which you could find HERE).  No full reviews or anything since I wasn’t really doing many reviews then. So this year, seeing as I am committing myself to reviewing more and seeing that my whole (hectic, for me) Christmas marathon turned out pretty good and I had loads of fun.  I learned to lower my burden of movies and selected randomly from what I own a list for this year’s Valentine’s marathon.  Rest assured..so are new to my collection, maybe not new releases per se but I haven’t seen them so it’ll be a fresh look.  I plan on doing 10 movies for this marathon but the list won’t be revealed, you’ll just have to come back and check it out :).  It’ll have rom-coms and romantic dramas, that sort of thing.

So let’s start this off!

First movie up is FRENCH KISS (1995)! If you’re in Canada and only had bunny ears (like I did and still do), I remember my high school years having this movie come up at least 2-3 times EVERY YEAR.  You’d think I’d be sick of it but somehow it grew on me. Maybe its because I love Meg Ryan but we’ll see later…once I give you all a little plot and details.

Director: Lawrence Kasdan

Cast: Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline, Timothy Hutton, Jean Reno

Kate (Meg Ryan), a woman waiting for her Canadian citizenship in Toronto, and Charlie (Timothy Hutton), a doctor in Toronto are engaged.  Charlie has to fly to Paris for conferences and asks Kate to go with her but because of her citizenship issues and her fear of flying, she stays in Toronto until one day, Charlie calls and tells her that he wants to call off the engagement because he’s found the love of his life, Juliette. Kate picks up her courage and flies over to Paris to get back her fiance.  On plane, she meets Luc Teyssier (Kevin Kline) who is French and also puts his vine and stolen bracelet into her bag to cross customs.  Because of that, Luc eventually gets tracked down by an inspector (Jean Reno) who is also a good friend of his. With a few accidents and mishaps, they end up having to cross paths and eventually accompany each other through Kate’s journey in France.

This is a fantastic way to start my marathon because this may not be one of the best romantic comedies widely known but to me, it holds a place in the awesome.  I say that not due to the plot because it is predictable at times but to the cast and characters.   I’ve probably mentioned it before, but romantic comedies are all about the chemistry between their characters.  In this one, Meg Ryan is great at being her scared of everything self, a woman who is scared of change or feeling hurt and the negatives in life.  When she meets someone who appears to be her complete opposite, you just can’t help but to laugh.  Kevin Kline has this charisma when he talks (or maybe its his French accent).  Their debates and his reasonings for everything is plain awesomeness.

For example: When he first meets her on a plane and she panicking about it taking off.

Luc: What do you think, the plane is going to crash and we are all on the ground in a thousand pieces dead? I promise you, if it happens, you won’t feel a thing.
Kate: You’re French, aren’t you?

I grabbed that from IMDB quickly to give you an idea but its not the same with the whole scenario and acting going on.  Plus, I’m starting to notice these trivial things but the glimpse of the TV in the beginning of the movie was a NHL game of Habs/Montreal Canadians as one of the teams playing on the hockey game.  I have a thing against NHL and the team but whenever a Habs game goes on, I still want them to win…secretly.  I’ll explain that another day but back to the last thing about the movie…

The music.   It introduced me to the French version of a song that I extremely adore and not to mention lots of other great songs that went great well with this movie.  So here it is, the French version of Dream a Little Dream of Me (is that the name?) called Les Yeux Ouverts.

This may not be a strong point for a romantic comedy but I’m happy that my Valentine’s marathon started with this.  It was fun and charismatic set in the beautiful France.  Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline was fantastic. Best of all, it was just an awesome feel good movie.  I recommend it with the warning that you have to be okay with a normal story line but in it only for the chemistry.  If that’s the case, you can come out of this happy.

I feel like I watch a lot of movies that aren’t great or haven’t really been popular.

Does anyone know this rom-com? Like it or dislike it? How about a Meg Ryan fan? I know I miss her appearing on screen a lot.