The happiest of holidays to you Dear Reader and welcome back for Part 2 of my TOP 10 FAVOURITE FESTIVE FILMS OF ALL TIME List. Now that we’ve finally flipped the calendar to December my level of merriment has shifted into the highest of all gears. Baking, making, wrapping, decorating ~ all the good stuff that goes along with making the season bright. And just so you know, while I’m busy getting ready for the big day, I always a have movie playing in the background. I share this fact with you so you’ll know the movies I have included in this list are tried and true favourites, complete with stellar stories and the most incredible soundtracks. Could I begin to count how many times I’ve watched the movies in this list? No. Could I repeat every word of dialogue from the movies in this list? Maybe, but I promise not to if we ever get a chance to watch them together. Look, here’s something I will tell you with certainty – this list has something for everyone: great love, big laughs, life lessons, tender tears and a healthy heaping of holiday high-jinx. If you haven’t read Part 1 please do. Now, on with Part 2.
Which brings us to the movie in 5th position on my TOP 10 FAVOURITE FESTIVE FILMS OF ALL TIME list. Truth be told, it’s a movie that ticks every box on what I look for in a movie, no matter the season. Starting with the fact that it was written and directed by Nancy Meyers! So hello ~ full-on rom/com right?! Then there’s the delightful cast that includes Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black, along with the legendary Elis Wallach too! Heck even the ‘bad guys,’ Edward Burns and Rufus Sewell are the best. And let’s not forget the locations! A mansion in San Marino and cottage in the Cotswalds – yes, please! Serious shout-out to the production design team and set decorators. It’s all phenomenal, but the thread that ties it all together into a heartstrings-pulling, crowd-pleasing picture is the brilliant score crafted by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer. Meyers and Zimmer had already collaborated on SOMETHINGS GOTTA GIVE so she knew having Hans at the helm meant the music would be marvellous. Nancy had so much faith in fact that she had Hans compose the opening score of this picture blindly. THE HOLIDAY opens on a scene in which a film composer named Miles (Jack Black) is working on music for movie. We see Jack Black at a keyboard watching a monitor and matching the music. But when Meyers asked Zimmer to come up with that piece of music Jack Black had yet to be cast and the film within this film that he was scoring, well hadn’t been filmed yet either. Then again, if anyone could compose a heart swelling score it’s Hans Zimmer. On the DVD commentary Meyers admits this piece became so much more than she’d first envisioned. As it weaves its way through the opening montage we hear the voice of Iris (Kate Winslet) describing the effects of love as a means of introducing all the characters. It’s soundtrack perfection and sets the tone for all the wistful heartbreak and lovely love-filled moments yet to come. That piece is called “Maestro” and have mercy, is it magical. But wait! There’s more than scrumptious score to this soundtrack, with nicely placed needle drops that include everyone from Aretha Franklin and James Taylor to Darlene Love and The Killers. Watch THE HOLIDAY this holiday season and take it all in for the first time or the fifth (or the five hundredth – no judgment.)
Alright, let’s keep this countdown going with the movie I’ve placed in the #4 position on my TOP 10 FAVOURITE FESTIVE FILMS OF ALL TIME. Released all the way back in 1985, this family film never really found it’s footing as a ‘mainstream’ Christmas classic, but it’s one that will always hold a special place in my heart for it’s nostalgic nod to the period of my youth: the clothes, the setting, the fact that it was filmed right here in Canada and most importantly how it brings the Christmas spirit back to a lady who had all but lost it. That lady is Ginnie Granger, played by Mary Steenburgen who, with the help of an angel named Giddeon, played by Harry Dean Stanton, discovers the true meaning of Christmas. Ginnie’s husband Jack (played by Edmonton’s own Gary Basaraba) is a BIG BELIEVER in Santa Claus and the Christmas spirit, and yes – he’s a lot like me in way! I had the chance to interview Mr. Basaraba back in my entertainment anchor days and I was thrilled to have had the chance to tell him in person just how much his movie meant to me. Ginnie and Jack’s children Abby (Elizabeth Harnois) and Cal (Robbie Magwood) are perfect in their portrayal. As for their little pal Molly Monaghan, well she was played by Oscar winner Sarah Polley (marking her big screen debut.) You need only look at the 1985 Christmas box office to see how this little gem might have gotten buried in theatres, what with blockbusters like Rocky IV and SANTA CLAUS to compete with. But here’s the thing all those moviegoers missed – ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS is one of those sweet quiet stories, with a simple message and a wonderfully happy ending. The approach to the soundtrack is on the simple side too, with Christmas songs playing on the car radio, over store speakers, and even hummed or sung by the characters themselves. Whether that decision was made through cinematic direction or budgetary limitations the result is the same ~ an authenticity and charm you just can’t beat. I adore ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS and I hope you will too.
We’re down to the top three films on my list and how’s this for holiday happenstance? They all have a plot comprised of three key components: family, fate and of course the festive season. My pick for #3 comes complete with an all-star cast that includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes and the late great Diane Keaton. The script is the perfect combination of laughter, tears and Christmas sentiments. It’s THE FAMILY STONE and it’s sooooooo my kind of movie! The picture takes place over the course of three days, when one son Everett Stone (Mulroney) brings his uptight girlfriend Meredith (SJP) home for the holidays. Keaton plays the mother, Sybil Stoneand let’s just say she’s far from impressed with her son’s companion. Truth be told, no one in the liberal New England family likes her really. That is except for brother Ben, played so amazingly well by Wilson. With all of their faults and flaws, head slaps and quick comebacks there is lots and lots of love, and you’re left wishing you were part of this big Stone family. I know I sure was, and then there’s that house. I mean WOW! Right?! It’s a real one that exists in Connecticut. I’ve let go of the fact that all the interiors were constructed on an LA soundstage so that my dream of one day living there seems real. The soundtrack sure is a dream too. A medley of holiday standards by the likes of Dean Martin and Johnny Mercer combined with pop rock/hits from Jefferson Starship and Maxine Nightingale. But the real dream-come-true track is the Christmas classic around which the movie was built. In fact writer/director Tom Bazooka says he envisioned this song as the centrepiece of the movie even before he started writing. He could picture how it would play over the montage that features each of his characters in what he calls the “truth telling scene.” All I know is you best have a firm grip on your Kleenex when Judy Garland’s“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” plays in THE FAMILY STONE. For the record (pun intended) that song that was originally introduced when Judy Garland sang it onscreen in the 1944 MGM holiday musical MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS. That’s the movie that Sybil’s daughter Susannah (played by Elizabeth Reaser) is watching when we hear the song begin to play.
Time for #2 on my TOP 10 FAVOURITE FESTIVE FILMS OF ALL TIME list. For this one I want you to imagine getting a glimpse of what your life would have been… could have been, if only you’d chosen differently. And not just a look at that life, but the chance to actually live it. That’s the premise of THE FAMILY MAN (2000) starring Nicolas Cage as Jack Campbell – a beyond wealthy Wall Street broker who, after 13 years apart, gets a Christmas eve message from his college sweetheart Kate Reynolds, played by Téa Leoni. Campbell goes to sleep that night and wakes up in this ‘could-have-been other world’ – with a wife, two kids and a house in New Jersey. Quite the opposite of all that he’s known and valued. The rest of the movie Jack spends navigating his way thru bowling leagues, tire sales and drives to daycare only to realize just how truly rich a man he would have been had he given up “the plan” all those years ago and just stayed with Kate. I love, love, love everything about this movie and naturally that includes the soundtrack. Packed with plenty of holiday hits by everyone from Johnny Mathis to Burl Ives, plus chart toppers the include The Rolling Stones, Chris Isaak and U2. For me, however, the one that stands out is a song we experience as Jack views a VHS tape of himself singing The Delfonics classic“La La Means I Love You” to Kate on her birthday. This is the moment in the movie when Jack is confronted by the man he could have been; a man so completely in love with his wife and his life. This is the pivotal moment in the film when he truly realizes all that he’s been missing. Cool to note the footage on the VHS tape was all shot by co-star Jeremy Piven who plays Jack’s best friend Arnie. In early edits of the scene Cage completely breaks down watching it. I know I cry everytime I watch it, that’s for sure. If you’ve yet to see THE FAMILY MAN, please make this the Christmas the time you do and if you have, well give it another view – you’ll be oh so glad you did!
And with that we’ve arrived at my #1. Now there are Christmas movies and then there are CHRISTMAS movies. Not just films to be enjoyed around the holiday season, but motion pictures that have become a part of the festive fabric of this special time of year. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is one of those films. In fact, its not only my favourite Christmas movie of all time – it’s my favourite movie period. Jimmy Stewart stars in this story of George Bailey on one fateful Christmas Eve and all that came before it – both with him and without. Every time I watch this movie I see something different to appreciate, and after every viewing I take a moment to take stock. When I stop to realize just how many lives a person can touch in the course of a day, a year, a lifetime – it’s really is incredible. It makes me want to do better. In the movie George has always dreamed of leaving Bedford Falls and never does – how ironic that the greatest trip and biggest discovery George ever makes happens in very own his hometown. George’s journey towards realizing just how successful he is, well that’s a trip I take as many times as I can over the Christmas holidays. As for the soundtrack’s score it comes courtesy of the legendary Dimitri Tiomkin and I adore how he wove in George and Mary’s ‘song’ “Buffalo Gal” into the movie’s prologue, but the soundtrack song I love the most is the one sung by two of its characters – Bert the cop (Ward Bond) and Ernie the cab driver (Frank Faylen). The rain soaked duo serenade the just married Mr & Mrs. Bailey (Donna Reed) after a very harrowing wedding day. You’d have to see it to know what I mean. And I’ve got to believe, now nearly 80 years since it’s 1946 release, you’ve found the time to take it in, but just in case… if you can only make the space amidst all your merriment for one movie this Christmas then please make it my #1 pick – IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
And that’s all folks! Thanks for taking this time out of your busy schedule to read my TOP 10 FAVOURITE FESTIVE FILMS OF ALL TIME list. I would love to know the movies you’d put on YOUR LIST of Christmas flicks, so if there are any majors I’ve missed or lesser-knowns in need of attention PLEASE LET ME KNOW with a comment on my Instagram post here. I do hope to be back before too long with more soundtrack stuff and merry musings too. In the meantime, be sure to make the most of this holiday season ~ on the streamers or at the cinema ~ make a little time for movies!
PS – Before all you DIE HARD holiday hooligans come at me – I love it too, but once and for all – it’s not a Christmas movie!
