10 Movies for the Holidays

Our reader who couldn't be home for Thanksgiving will also miss Christmas. He e-mailed asking if we'd make a list of holiday movies to get someone in the spirit? How about eleven films. We picked ten. The eleventh pick will be a surprise to our reader who requested this feature.

Christmas in Connecticut. The original. Barbara Stanwyck stars in this film as a newspaper writer who's lied to her readers repeatedly and worries she might be found out at any moment. We like to think of it Judy Miller: Year 2002.

Stanwyck is a columnist dispensing advice and sharing warm moments from her own life that are, in fact, made up. A comedy that will make you laugh, the film has just the right amount of warm moments. (Dateline take note.) After The Lady Eve and Double Indemnity, this is our favorite Stanwyck performance. (What? You thought we'd put The Colbys on the list?) (Betty picks this as the movie to watch with a cup of hot chocolate on Christmas Eve.)

Desk Set. Playing drunk at an office Christmas party, Katharine Hepburn pours more soul into "Night and Day" then Bono's been able to muster in countless attempts. the film provides the answer to why we don't smoke in public buildings. Don't kid yourselves about public health, it's all about the computers!

Hepburn and Spencer Tracy star in this romantic comedy set in the work environment. Hepburn's in charge of research and the company's "modernizing" by bringing in computers. Eve Arden provides comic support.

Hepburn and Tracy have real chemistry in this film and there's no need to humiliate Hepburn at the end. (Nor does she give up her job in the film's final scene.) Vastly underrated, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas for some of us (C.I., Mike and Kat) without a yearly viewing of this film. By the way, Hepburn's working for a broadcast network. She heads the research department which fact checks. That's how you know it's a comedy.

Moonstruck. Cher plays a woman her own age who ends up transforming into Cher mid-movie with newly vibrant hair and younger boyfriend (Nicholas Cage).

The film features many actors giving their finest performance. That includes Cher who won her Best Actress Oscar for this film. It also includes Olympia Dukakis, Nicholas Cage, Danny Aiello and John Mahoney.

Cher's engaged with Aiello who's off to Italy to be at the bedside of his dying mother. Aiello asks her to make sure his brother (Cage) is invited to their wedding. What follows is one twist after another in this humorous look at family and romance. (Ava and Rebecca rate it as their favorite.)

Bounce. Gwyneth Paltrow never seemed less stiff and more real than while portraying a widow with young children trying to make sense of her life. The film co-stars Ben Affleck and that may be enough to turn off those suffering from a career that seems bound and determined to turn him into this generation's Burt Reynolds. But ignore the bad films and bad performances, the tabloid romances, and you'll realize he's actually effective in this film.

A great deal of credit for that goes to Johnny Galecki's performance as a character never afraid to call Affleck on his shit. (We're not sure if he's supposed to represent film critics or the poor souls who paid to see Daredevil, Gigli, Reindeer Games, et al.)

It's Paltrow's showcase and, in this film, she justifies every bit of praise she's received for other roles. If she's always left you cold and unmoved in her more lauded work, check out Don Roos' Bounce. (Cedric picks this film as the holiday movie because "it's about rebirth and redemption.")

Hanging Up. This Diane Keaton directed film features a screenplay by two Ephrons, Delia and Nora. Two Ephrons also wrote the screenplay to Desk Set (Phoebe and Henry) and happen to be the parents of Delia and Nora.

Though frequently underutilized in the film, Lisa Kudrow hits strong notes throughout as the youngest sister. Diane Keaton plays the eldest sister (a journalist endlessly fascinated by herself, we'd cast Bob Woodward or Andrea Mitchell). Meg Ryan is the middle child attempting to deal with their dying father, her business and her family and getting shafted by everyone around her.

Best throwaway moment, the reception's location (see the film). Rebecca notes that Adam Arkin plays Meg's husband and it's one of the few times Meg actually is paired with a sexy man.
(Rebecca adds In The Flesh and Proof of Life are the two other times Meg has "sex on a stick" to play opposite.) Ava and C.I. say the moral of the film is "Cooking's much more fun when drinking." (Elaine says this is the film she watches at Christmas.)

Fun With Dick & Jane. The original. If there are two themes running through our choices, it's family and the press. In this one, the focus is family. Dick is laid off and he and Jane must figure out how to keep their family afloat (it'll require more than dropping the book of the month club).

Jane Fonda and George Segal star in this comic look at life in a recession (some audience members may want to take notes since we're living in a Bully Boy economy these days). Best throwaway moment: when the wife of Dick's former boss (Mildred) eats something too spicy for her and Fonda comments, "Is it burning you? Oh that's too bad." (Watch it, you'll see what we mean.) Dona grew up watching this film and says at some point it just became her family's Christmas movie.

Meet John Doe. Capra-corn with bite. Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck star in this film. We think an argument can be made that the "everyman" so popular in Frank Capra's films is, in this film, an "everywoman."

Times are tough, Cooper's a down on his luck baseball player in the minors. Stanwyck's once again playing Judith Miller. In this film, she's fired. As her parting gift to the paper, she writes about a John Doe who will kill himself on Christmas Eve. Being a Miller, Stanwyck's made the whole thing up.

But circulation's up. They want her back. They need to find a "John Doe." Enter Gary Cooper.
As he pretends to be John Doe and Stanwyck writes flattering pieces about him, they fall in love.
(You think Ahmed Chalabi and Judith Miller will get a final onscreen kiss before Bully Boy's Vietnam ends?) While this is going on (it's all so very New York Times), another level up, people are using John Doe for their own political means.

That includes using the lie to win an election. Sometimes "reel life" and "real life" are so close it's almost a documentary. Will John Doe kill himself as promised on Christmas Eve? Will he ignore Stanwyck's pleas? Watch the film. (Jim's family watches it every Christmas.)

Nothing Sacred. This Carole Lombard starring film pretends to be just another screwball comedy but actually offers a modern criticism of today's press.

Lombard plays a small town citizen wrongly diagnosed as terminal. To boost circulation, the press plays up the story. When Lombard learns she's not dying, she plays along for the excitement of an all expense paid trip to New York. When the reporter (Dexter Filkins stand-in?) learns Lombard is not dying, his big concern isn't getting the truth out, it's making sure no one ever learns the truth.

Was a truer portrait ever offered of our modern day press? Purists will want the black & white version but Ty swears by the colorized version which his family pops into the VCR every Christmas Eve.

The Royal Tenenbaums. AKA When Dysfunction is the Norm. This film features Gwyenth Paltrow (honest, no one working on this is a devoted fan of Paltrow), Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson and his brother Owen.

Huston and Hackman are divorced. Their children's lives are messy. Hackman's trying to con the family, the entire family. There's not a bad performance in the film but we'd argue Hackman comes off best and that this film, and the underrated Heartbreakers, demand more comedic roles for Hackman.

Best throwaway moment? Any scene that mentions or shows Owen Wilson's writing career and Paltrow smoking in the bathroom.

Rebecca advice: Luke Wilson, always keep your hair short.

This has become a Christmas favorite in Jess' family.

Zoolander. Ben Stiller stars as the first male supermodel. (Sorry Marcus.) Derek Zoolander is programmed to kill a world leader.

How does this rank as holiday fare? Wally and Mike swear sometimes you just need to be silly.
Christine Taylor plays a reporter (for Time Magazine) who apologizes for the article she wrote. So it does have a basis in reality.

Best throwaway moment: the explanation of Stiller, Taylor and Owen Wilson's three way and the dance off.

Finally, our reader's sister Cathy picked Meet the Fockers. Which gives Stiller three films on our list.

She notes the chemistry between Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman as among her favorite things. She says the light hands of Streisand and Hoffman make up for the "heavy handed performance by [Robert] DeNiro." She also enjoys the fact that the "peace doves triumph over the hawks." Reason enough to include it.

Best throway moment: Rose's adult classes. (The elderly aren't doing yoga.) Hoffman and Stiller pulled over by a police officer who goes through the trunk.

To the reader that requested this list, Cathy says stay safe. That goes for everyone. Or as they say at the end of Batman Returns (which almost made the list), "Peace on our earth and good will to men. And women."