Ten Movies I Love: Smart and Quirky

Gattaca (1997) is by far my favorite sci fi flick and the only one you will find on this list. It has star power (Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law), but it's really not about that. There are no aliens, no warp drive chases, no intergalactic battles. It is a character-driven psychological thriller. The central character, Vincent, (Ethan Hawke) is a genetically flawed janitor working in a space station full of perfect, genetically engineered potential astronauts. Vincent does not accept his fate. He aspires to be an astronaut. Through a black market deal, he assumes the DNA identity of a "perfect" specimen (Jude Law) who has been paralyzed in an accident. Will a relentless detective (Alan Arkin) uncover the scheme before Vincent can realize his dream? Uma Thurman provides romantic interest, but Jude Law's character is much more compelling and memorable.

To quote Roger Ebert: "This is one of the smartest and most provocative of science fiction films, a thriller with ideas." I couldn't say it any better.

The Rainmaker (not The Rainman) is based on a John Grisham novel and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Matt Damon and Danny DeVito costar in this 1997 legal drama. I was not a fan of DeVito's character in the popular 80's TV show Taxi. However, it is DeVito's character role performance in The Rainmaker that really makes the movie for me. Damon plays a young, just graduated lawyer who starts a shoestring practice with ambulance chaser, never-passed-the-bar "Deck" (DeVito). Despite his street-wise, rough around the edges personna, Deck, we learn, actually has a big heart to match his big personality. The fledgling practice represents a family whose son, stricken with cancer, is denied treatment by his insurance company. Interesting that the scenario of sick patient versus insurance company, chosen by Grisham in the 1990's, is so familiar and relevant to the mammoth struggle over health care reform today.

In researching this one, I learned that DeVito and I share a birthday (same date, not year). But more to the point, DeVito should have gotten Best Supporting Actor for this movie. He was robbed.

This 1957 classic stars Joanne Woodward as a housewife with multiple personality disorder. (In recent years, the mental disorder formerly known as multiple personality has been reclassified by the psychiatric community as Dissociative Identity Disorder, more akin to amnesia than a personality disorder.) Whatever you call it, who doesn't find this psychological phenomenon fascinating?

In the movie, the timid homemaker, Eve White, lives a secret life as the sexy seductress Eve Black. Her psychiatrist gradually peels back all the layers of Eve and uncovers the childhood trauma at the heart of it all. Woodward got the Academy Award for Best Actress for this one. Wikipedia states that Woodward, longtime spouse of Paul Newman, also got the very first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame back in 1960. Who knew.

Sally Field earned her second Academy Award (1984) in this moving Depression era story. In the film, Field plays a Southern widow with two children, struggling to hold on to her farm with the help of a blind boarder (John Malkovich) and a vagabond "colored" man (Danny Glover). This movie is of the same genre as the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird, another favorite of mine. Both films portray courageous characters attempting to bridge the racial divide during the Great Depression. Both films portray a person with a disability with sensitivity and human dignity. This movie is a heart-rending treasure for the compassionate soul. If you are not touched by this movie, you have no heart.

Office Space is a 1999 comedy cult classic with no big name actors except Jennifer Aniston. The film was written and produced by Mike Judge of King of the Hill fame. It's the story of three young computer geeks working for an IT firm during the pre-Y2K computer crash scare. This all too realistic workplace satire is relatable to anyone who has had a cubicle for an office, but especially to anyone who has worked as a grunt in the IT field. Peter and his programmer buddies are burnt out by Initech's management style with its inane rules, arbitrary overtime requirements, and characteristic profit-enhancing lay-offs. When Peter learns that his two best buds are about to be downsized, the three concoct a scheme to embezzle from Initech by means of a computer virus. Aniston plays Peter's quirky waitress girlfriend who hates her job which requires her to wear at least 15 "flair" buttons on her uniform daily. I own exactly three VHS movies (one DVD), and Office Space is my faithful fallback companion whenever the cable goes out. It never fails to make me laugh out loud.

Must Love Dogs (2005) is my current favorite romantic comedy. That's providing you don't include Jane Austen titles in the genre. Yeah, it's a chick flick. So what? It stars Diane Lane, John Cusack and Dermot Mulroney. Sarah, played by Lane, is a divorced preschool operator. The dreamy Dermot Mulroney plays Bob, the single dad of one of her charges. Jake (Cusack) is an awkward, disillusioned rival for Lane's affections.

Sarah's pushy sister secretly puts Sarah's profile on an online dating site. She includes the qualifier "must love dogs" even though Sarah has no dog. Jake's pushy friend Charley interferes in a similar manner, and Sarah and Jake wind up on a blind date accompanied by dogs neither of them actually own. The relationship gets off to a rocky start due to Jake's social awkwardness and tendency to blurt things out when he shouldn't. Meanwhile, the ridiculously handsome Bob is sweetly romantic, an irresistibly "nice" guy. Who will win the hand of our fair heroine in the end? Can you guess? It really doesn't matter. The story itself is irresistibly romantic, in my view. What woman wouldn't want to be in Sarah's shoes, at least in theory, with two attractive men vying for her favor?

To my surprise, this movie was dissed by a majority of critics. However, Rolling Stone gave it 3 of 5 stars, a mildly favorable review. Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic, but I stand behind my endorsement. Who will stand with me?

 This sentimental favorite is based on the memoir of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of the children's/youth classic The Yearling.  Cross Creek, released in 1983, stars Mary Steenburgen as Rawlings.  Set in 1928, Rawlings, already a writer, leaves New York and her marriage to start a new life in rural Florida.  She moves into a rundown cabin in a languishing orange grove that she has purchased.  She has her work cut out for her trying to make a go of the overgrown orange grove.  But the locals prove to be friendly and helpful.  She finds friendship and even romantic love as she confronts the challenges of building a new life for herself.  Colorful local characters, played by Alfre Woodard and Rip Torn, enhance this touching story.  Peter Coyote costars.  Rawlings' experiences at Cross Creek, including a neighbor with a pet deer, were the inspiration for her beloved novel The Yearling.

The Secret Life of Bees (2008) is based on the bestselling novel by Sue Monk KIdd. It is set in 1964, the same year the Civil Rights bill was passed. There are many remarkable things about this movie. Two of them involve the talented "actors" who appear in it. In addition to the brilliant child-star Dakota Fanning, the cast includes Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Hudson. With three extremely talented singers in the film, I assumed there would be lots of singing. I thought it might be in the context of a church choir, for instance. To my surprise, there was virtually no singing in the movie. However, all three singer/actors give very convincing performances, proving their talents extend beyond the music genre.

Dakota Fanning stars as 14-year-old Lily, who is raised by an alcoholic father after her mother is accidentally shot in a domestic scuffle. Lily escapes her abusive father with nanny/housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), after Rosaleen is beaten up by racist men. They flee to a little South Carolina town where Lily's mother once lived. There they are taken in by the three Boatwright sisters, who live in a large pink house and make a respectable living as beekeepers. Queen Latifah plays August, the eldest sister and a strong matriarchal figure in the family. The other sisters are May (Sophie Okonedo) and June (Alicia Keys). Lily assimilates into the family and helps with the bees. She befriends a Negro boy who works on the bee farm. This doesn't sit well with the local racists, who then target the boy.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith co-produced this engrossing and moving story.

I want to get this thing posted tonight, and it's taking longer than I expected. So I will post the rest of my top 10, or maybe 12, at a later time. And if I don't, I can always change the title to Eight Movies I Love. Hope you like 'em too.