Movie Monday

Can I just say how much I am looooooving U-Verse? We just switched to it and got the big package for the first six months-- the one that gives you every station known to man. I'm not a huge TV person but I love movies (in case you couldn't tell) and I am having a blast being able to switch on the premium channels at midnight and find a movie that I haven't seen in a while as a wind down and get ready for bed.

So this week's movie is Apollo 13. I know, I know, it's an old one, and I didn't even like it that much when it first came out. But watching it fifteen years or so later really sent goosebumps up and down my spine. The relationship between Tom Hanks and his wife was fascinating to me-- the familiarity, the comfort, the angst, the passion, the unshakable belief in one another. As a romance writer, I loved it, because it is that kind of relationship that drove me to write my first book, A Christmas Wedding. The whole concept that Happily Ever After is just the beginning.

In my book, the hero's and heroine's relationship is falling apart after twenty-seven years of marriage-- it actually opens when the hero asks the heroine for a divorce. The rest of the book is made up of flashbacks that show snippets of them falling in love and how they got to the state they are in and scenes that show how much they still love each other despite their differences. Writing the HEA for that book was one of the most satisfying I've ever written.

Anyway, back to Apollo 13. There's one line that just sends shivers down my back. When the NASA PR guy is asking Marilyn Lovell (Tom Hank's wife) to let the news people put a tower on her lawn, despite the fact that they hadn't been interested in the flight before the explosion, her answer is something along the lines of: "Those people aren't putting one piece of equipment on my lawn. If they don't like it, they can take it up with my husband. He will be home ... on Friday."

You've just got to love that kind of unfettered faith and optimism, even as her husband is spinning off into space. And, of course, the best part is: he does make it home by Friday. I love me a happily ever after ...

So, what about you? What old/older movies have you recently seen that you like?