Those of you who know me may already know this (or at least guess) but i’m a hopeless romantic. I am. And one of my not-so-secret passions is rom-coms, or to be specific quirky rom-coms… but i’ll come back to why that’s important in a bit.
So you would imagine, would you not, that this time of year is a fun packed feast of romantic viewing… except that i’m not actual a big fan of the Christmas movie, especially not a holiday rom-com. In fact they are just the worst, especially, and I can’t stress this enough, bloody “Love Actually”, terrible, terrible film. But that’s a topic for another time. That’s not to say i don’t enjoy the occasional holiday special of something, say a TV show that I would normally watch anyway, and yes, there are a few “Christmas” movies that i enjoy watching. I put that “Christmas” in quote marks for a reason, because, on the whole the films i’m talking about aren’t necessarily seen as “true” Christmas films by some sticklers. Here are a few of the top of my head: Die Hard, Gremlins, The Night Before, Bad Santa, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, 2046, Go, Trading Places… there are loads more: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls091275819/
For me these are “proper” Christmas films, they take place at Christmas or during the “Holiday” period as it’s often known, they feature Christmassy things going on, parties, bad jumpers, carols, snow, presents etc… BUT, crucially they AREN’T about the Christmas message, the “true meaning of Christmas” whatever that happens to amount to in movieland at that particular time. No, these all contain the one mainstay of my favourite films, romance. And i’m not talking about the soppy meet-cute, will-they-won’t-they bullshit, i’m talking about real people getting together despite the odds, often overcoming those odds to get where should be, yes even Bad Santa… watch it and you’ll see what i mean.
These people aren’t the “hotties”, they aren’t the people you can’t believe are single, or that are just recovering from a long term relationship and not looking for something new, but hey, how about that, they get together, who would have thunk? They are odd, they are quirky, they are losers, or drunks, or wastoids, or geeks, they are not looking for love, but yes, they end up finding it.
That’s what I want to watch whilst stuffing my face with mince pies and Terry’s Chocolate Orange, half cut, on a sherry buzz, or slowly slipping into a food coma from too much turkey and roast potatoes, and I gonna do it again this year (perhaps mixed in with some Star Wars, granted), why not join me!
