Romance Movie Date

This Means War (2012)

tagline   It’s Spy Against Spy

subgenre   Spy Lovers

director   McG (Chuck)

who is in it    Reece Witherspoon (Legally Blonde) as Lauren, Chris Pine (Star Trek) as FDR Foster, and Tom Hardy (Warriors) as Tuck

what is it about   Two spies and best friends (Foster & Tuck) fall for the same woman Lauren and woo her with espionage tactics.

best scene   The scenes in which they use espionage tactics to forestall each other’s foreplay are great.

how romantic is it   The comedy/action is really more important and better than the the romance.  The romance leans toward the lusty and shallow, which adds to the comedy.  The characters are mistrustful of romance - or flat out don’t acknowledge it till late in the game.

Flirting (1991)

Tagline: Here’s To Risks

Subgenre: First Love

Who’s In it? Noah Taylor (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as Danny, Thandie Newton (Pursuit of Happyness) as Thandiewe Adjewa, Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge) as Nicola.

What’s It About? Set in 1960s Australia, Danny goes to an all boys school and manages to woo a girl from the neighboring all girls school. 

How romantic is it?  It’s a quintessential first love story: painful, rapturous awkward, lusty.  Quietly but skillfully done.

John Carter (2012)

Tagline: Lost in Our World, Found in Another

Subgenre:  interplanetary romance

Who’s In It? Taylor Kitsch (Battleship) as John Carter and Lynn Collins (Number 23) as Dejah Thoris

What’s It About?  A Civil War vet, John Carter, teleports to a fantastic Mars, which is populated by alien beings, including a lovely princess named Dejah.

It’s based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s novel A Princess of Mars.  The book is a classic pulp novel and the film opens it up beautifully.

Best Line: John Carter (being all macho) Stand behind me, this might get dangerous. (but when he is ignominiously defeated and Dejah saves his carcass—-)  Or maybe I ought to get behind you…

How romantic is it?  Even though it’s an adventure story, the romance of the warrior and the princess is the core of the movie.  Their relationship develops from antagonism to the slow realization that the other is attractive to a life-altering devotion.

Anna Karenina

In theaters: November 9th

Quotation:  Anna says, “I was eighteen when I got married but it was not love.

Cast: Keira Knightly (The Duchess) as Anna, Jude Law (The Holiday) as Alexei Karenin, Aaron Johnson (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) as Count Vronsky

Directed by: Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice 2005)

Screenplay by:  Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love)

Story:  Anna is married.  She’s not happy.  Here comes the dashing Count Vronsky.  The affair ends as cheerfully as most do in 19th century Russian novels.

Based on: Leo Tolstoy’s novel.

Worth Seeing? Keira Knightly again takes up the mantle of the period film. *shivers*

On the other hand, Tom Stoppard is writing the screenplay and Joe Wright is directing, so it’s likely to be witty and robustly paced.