Before Sunrise

...You never know who you’re going to meet when you’re traveling, and that’s one of purest and simplest reasons why we travel—for connection. As a backpacker, I used to watch this movie before every big jaunt and hope for my very own Before Sunrise moment: I would meet someone a train and we would have this intense, immutable connection that would keep us up all night talking. But I never was as lucky as main characters Celine and Jessie, whose chance meeting on a train leads them to a sleepless night roaming the streets of a glowing Vienna. Nothing much happens—but that’s part of the film’s charm. It’s a quiet ode to a one of Europe’s most remarkable cities, as well as a testament to the magic of human connection. Also check out the follow-up flicks, After Sunset and Before Sunrise.

Stealing Beauty

...The plot of this coming-of-age 90s drama is uncomplicated and beautiful, not unlike the rustic Tuscan farmland used as its locale. Follow an ethereal American teenager (Liv Tyler) as she daydreams though the Italian countryside looking for (what else?) love—or at least sex. Even if you don’t fall in lust with the moody characters, there are always dreamy villas and breath-catching countryside to steal your heart. It’s so easy to fall in love in Italy—and with Italy.

This beautiful if ponderous soufflé of a film from director Bernardo Bertolucci serves more as an Italian travelogue than a drama. Liv Tyler stars as Lucy Harmon, an American teenager arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to visit family friends residing there. Lucy visited four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with a handsome boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted. Lucy's mother has committed suicide since then, and the teenager also hopes to discover the identity of her father, whom her mother hinted was a resident of the villa. Once she arrives, Lucy meets a variety of eccentric visitors, including a dying gay playwright (Jeremy Irons), a sculptor (Donal McCann), an entertainment lawyer (D.W. Moffet), and several others. Lucy has decided to lose her virginity and becomes an object of intense interest to the men of the household, but the suitor she finally selects is not the initial object of her affection. Stealing Beauty boasted an intriguing parallel between actress Tyler's role and her real life. The daughter of a famed rock and roll star, she was brought up believing that her father was someone else, a fact that Bertolucci may have had in mind when writing the story. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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• Rating:
• R (adult situations/language, nudity)
• Genre:
• Drama, Romance

Eat Pray Love

...This is a story of personal redemption with love as a bonus. Liz ditches her old, gray world for something far more vibrant in Italy, India, and Indonesia, and the world rewards her risk with not only self-acceptance, but also with a handsome Brazilian man. The romance sounds like fairy tale, but the fact that it’s a true story will have expelling wistful sighs and musing, “Maybe I’ll try that.”

Under The Tuscan Sun

...Like we said, it’s easy to fall in love in Italy. Follow a down-and-out divorcee as she rebuilds her heart and home on a picturesque Tuscan hillside. The film bounces between lovers and locations, but it’s a journey that will encourage you to be equally spontaneous, in life and in love.

Frances Mayes is a 35-year-old San Francisco writer whose perfect life has just taken an unexpected detour. Her recent divorce has left her with terminal writer's block and extremely depressed. Her best friend, Patti, is beginning to think that she might never recover. "Dr. Patti's" prescription: 10 days in Tuscany. It's there, on a whim, that Frances purchases a villa named Bramasole--literally, "something that yearns for the sun." The home needs much restoration, but what better place for a new beginning than the home of the Renaissance? As she flings herself into her new life at the villa in the lush Italian countryside, Frances makes new friends among her neighbors; but in the quiet moments, she is fearful that her ambitions for her new life--and new family--may not be realized, until a chance encounter in Rome throws Frances into the arms of an intriguing Portobello antiques dealer named Marcello. Even as she stumbles forward on her uncertain journey, one thing becomes clear: in life, there are second chances.

• Genre:
• Comedy, Drama, Romance
• Directed By:
• Audrey Wells
• Written By:
• Audrey Wells

Lost In Translation

...This stylized Sofia Coppola flick set in sleek and cool Tokyo is more about unexpected bonds than traditional romance. The film is a soft, doped-up love letter to the tourist-version of Tokyo, and the shiny cityscapes and odd connection between characters will stay with you like a dream you just can’t shake.

After making a striking directorial debut with her screen adaptation of The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola offers a story of love and friendship blooming under unlikely circumstances in this comedy drama. Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is a well-known American actor whose career has gone into a tailspin; needing work, he takes a very large fee to appear in a commercial for Japanese whiskey to be shot in Tokyo. Feeling no small degree of culture shock in Japan, Bob spends most of his non-working hours at his hotel, where he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) at the bar. Twentysomething Charlotte is married to John (Giovanni Ribisi), a successful photographer who is in Tokyo on an assignment, leaving her to while away her time while he works. Beyond their shared bemusement and confusion with the sights and sounds of contemporary Tokyo, Bob and Charlotte share a similar dissatisfaction with their lives; the spark has gone out of Bob's marriage, and he's become disillusioned with his career. Meanwhile, Charlotte is puzzled with how much John has changed in their two years of marriage, while she's been unable to launch a creative career of her own. Bob and Charlotte become fast friends, and as they explore Tokyo, they begin to wonder if their sudden friendship might be growing into something more. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Holiday

...It may just be me, but I tune out the LA parts of this movie to focus solely on that adorable English cottage and Jude Law in a left-side Range Rover. Swoon. Practicality and predictability be damned, this romance is sheer escapism—and we love it for it.

Parents need to know that this holiday-themed chick flick will probably appeal to older tween and teen girls, who could get mixed messages from some of the characters' behavior. Several scenes focus on drinking and drunkenness; two of them lead to sexual encounters. This unsafe behavior is presented as cute comedy.

Georgia Byrd lives a small life tucked inside big dreams. A shy cookware salesperson for a New Orleans retail outlet, she handles knives and skillets with the flair of a master chef. But when Georgia learns her days are numbered, she throws caution to the wind and embarks on a dream holiday vacation to a grand resort in Europe. There, thinking she has nothing to lose, Georgia undergoes a metamorphosis - and her transformation affects everyone around her. Georgia's newly uninhibited personality shakes up staff and guests alike, including a venerate chef as well as a retail magnate who becomes convinced she's a rival intent on sabotaging his business plans. From snowy slopes to spectacular spas, delectable dinners to midnight balls, Georgia is going to live a lifetime of fun in just a few weeks.

• Genre:
• Action & Adventure, Comedy, Drama
• Directed By:
• Wayne Wang
• Written By:
• Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman

Forrest Gump

...Stupid is as stupid does," says Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks in an Oscar-winning performance) as he discusses his relative level of intelligence with a stranger while waiting for a bus. Despite his sub-normal IQ, Gump leads a truly charmed life, with a ringside seat for many of the most memorable events of the second half of the 20th century. Entirely without trying, Forrest teaches Elvis Presley to dance, becomes a football star, meets John F. Kennedy, serves with honor in Vietnam, meets Lyndon Johnson, speaks at an anti-war rally at the Washington Monument, hangs out with the Yippies, defeats the Chinese national team in table tennis, meets Richard Nixon, discovers the break-in at the Watergate, opens a profitable shrimping business, becomes an original investor in Apple Computers, and decides to run back and forth across the country for several years. Meanwhile, as the remarkable parade of his life goes by, Forrest never forgets Jenny (Robin Wright Penn), the girl he loved as a boy, who makes her own journey through the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s that is far more troubled than the path Forrest happens upon. Featured alongside Tom Hanks are Sally Field as Forrest's mother; Gary Sinise as his commanding officer in Vietnam; Mykelti Williamson as his ill-fated Army buddy who is familiar with every recipe that involves shrimp; and the special effects artists whose digital magic place Forrest amidst a remarkable array of historical events and people.

Call Me By Your Name

...CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It's the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian, spends his days in his family's 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio's sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio's father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.