“Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.”
Recently my mom and I were on the couch, sharing a blanket on a rainy night, when we came across one of our favorite movies: “An Affair to Remember.”
We’ve seen that movie a thousand times, but we still tuned in for the last part of the film because it’s the best part. It’s when Nickie Ferrante finally figures out why Terry McKay didn’t meet him at the top of the Empire State Building.
He realizes she was too proud to tell him she couldn’t walk and she didn’t want to be with him unless she could stand on her own two feet. Today, all he’d have to do is call her cell phone or check her Facebook status to see what really happened.
Maybe that’s why my mom and I are huge fans of movies from the 1950s. Movies like “Madame X” and “Imitation of Life” were unrealistic but they made us believe that love could conquer everything.
The late Nora Ephron must’ve grown up with the same playlist as she brought “An Affair to Remember” back as a major plot in the 1993 film “Sleepless in Seattle.”
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan play the star-crossed pair, Sam Baldwin and Annie Reed. In the movie, Annie and her friend, Becky, are obsessed with the movie. At one point, Annie and Becky mouth the dialogue along with the actors and admit they’ve watched that movie too many times.
Mom and I said the same thing as we recited, word for word, every line in the last five minutes of “An Affair to Remember.” And, just as we did 50 years ago, both of us sniffled and teared up at the end – the music swelling, Nickie hugging Terry, knowing they’d live happily ever after.
Well at least until the credits stopped rolling.
Because let’s face it – Nickie Ferrante is a painter in the movie, and we all know most artists are starving.
Terry McKay, who was hit by a car on her way to the Empire State Building resulting in her not being able to walk, somehow managed to get on that couch at the end of the movie without a wheelchair in sight.
But reality doesn’t count in the movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. They all have beautiful people, convoluted story lines and sappy endings.
Today, people say we need darker, more realistic films that reflect the current times.
As a result, someone thinks having the most wholesome character in comic-book land, Superman, fight one of the most popular good guys in the D.C. universe, Batman, is a great idea.
For this I’m going to plunk down $9.50? No thanks.
When I watch movies, I’m looking for inspiration or a few laughs.
And why?
Because we live in a world where people down the street turn out to be terrorists that kill innocent people and mothers shoot their beautiful teenage daughters in their front yards.
Where major airlines get shut down seemingly for no reason — conspiracy theorists can’t post their rantings fast enough — so we pile on the panic.
Pardon me if a little escapism is what some of us need from time to time.
So my winter won’t be cold. I’ll have memories of snuggling up on the couch with my mom, watching Terry console Nickie and the audience with the promise “If you can paint, I can walk. Anything can happen, don’t you think?”
I’d like to think that yes, in this crazy world, something good can certainly happen.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.