Eat Pray Love (2010)

Most of us don't need to travel to three exotic locations to learn how to eat, pray, or love. This movie is the story of a real person who did however. And, as odd as it seems, all the characters in this story are very easy to relate to.

While it is not a cinematic masterpiece, it is also like a little mini-vacation. And isn't that really what we want from a movie?

Julia Roberts plays a travel writer from New York who questions her identity. After a painful divorce she goes to Italy to learn to enjoy doing nothing, to India to learn to pray and forgive, and to Bali to love.

Along the way, she meets some wonderful people played by Richard Jenkins and Javier Bardem. Viola Davis plays the long-suffering best friend and Billy Crudup the husband.

The music and scenery alone are worth the watch in this movie. Then you get the subtle lessons, little gems really, punctuating the entire story. All combined it is a good movie to watch with people you are close to.

Watch this with someone who needs to learn at least one of these lessons.

Erin Brockovich

Julia Roberts may have won the Oscar for her work here in 2001, but the rest of the cast is outstanding. Albert Finney was nominated, and maybe should have won given the competition that year. Everyone else from Aaron Eckhart to Peter Coyote to Marg Helgenberger is wonderful. Real California High Desert residents.

Even the real Erin Brockovich has a small role - can you spot her? Interestingly, her character is named Julia. The real Ed Masry is in the same scene. Mr. Tracey Walter, a veteran of big and small screen that all of us know by sight if not by name, has a pivotal role.

Can anyone however explain why this movie is so yellow? Agfa film maybe??

This is a good movie for older girls and young women to watch. Yes, it has an R-rating for language but the less to be learned is important. If you have not seen this movie since it came out, it's worth a watch again to see the familiar faces. If you have not, it's good to learn who this SoCal heroine is about.

Watch this with a single parent who is struggling.

Charlie Wilson's War

Where were you for the 10 years between 1979 and 1989. Do you remember what was going on in the world? Do you remember Iran-Contra and Oliver North? Do you remember that the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan? Do you remember what the United States did about that invasion?

This movie will only answer the last question. It brings to light what was known in only a few small circles during that period of time. And, rather than a typical history lesson, this movie teaches without letting you know a lesson is going on. That is high craft indeed.

Director Mike Nichols who has been the brains behind such varied greats as The Graduate, Catch-22, Working Girl, and The Birdcage, brings what I believe is another classic story to cinema.

It helps that he had such a powerful cast. Tom Hanks is his usual brilliant self. Julia Roberts shows that she really can act. And Philip Seymour Hoffman shows us again what playing a role is supposed to look like.

What is this movie about? It's about how a hand full of people brought about the beginning of the downfall of the old Soviet Union. And a less likely bunch is hard to conceive. Fact truly is stranger than fiction.

Watch this movie with someone who "gets" how things happen despite themselves in DC.

Notting Hill

It is not often that a big budget romantic comedy exceeds expectations. Notting Hill is one such example. But it is NOT the big stars who have all the sparkle here, it is the supporting cast which is brilliant. I'm convinced this movie would have been just as good without two of the most recognizable people in the world playing lead roles. I'd love to see a movie with just the supporting cast.

I mean this of course, not as a slam against either mega-star, but as a compliment to South African Director Roger Michell (Changing Lanes and Venus). He has done outstanding work with this group of gifted funny people. His brainchild of having one main character walk from one end of the street to the other, while four seasons come and go, is great Hollywood eye candy.

Julia Roberts (Steel Magnolias, Sleeping With The Enemy, and Erin Brokovich) basically plays herself here, but does it so well, you can't help but love her. The scene with her leading man's family at a sister's birthday should ring true with all of us.

Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sense and Sensibility, and About a Boy) lives the fantasy of almost every man. A movie star walks into his little bookstore and over the course of the movie falls in love with him. We should all have such a bookstore.

Rhys Ifans (Vanity Fair and Hannibal Rising) plays Grant's doofus roommate, and make Seinfeld's Kramar seem like the perfect neighbor. He sets the stage of strange and wonderful characters all part of the bookstore owner's small world.

Despite this movie being credited with having delivering the stupidest line in movie history, the film is a smart as it is funny.

Watch it with someone who still says "Whoopsie daisy" if you can find one.

Hook

I am amazed at how many people I talk to who have never seen this movie. Talk about star power? Spielberg directs Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Phil Collins (yes, of Genesis), Maggie Smith (Prof. McGonagall for you Potter fans), and a very young Gwyneth Paltrow.

Even if you are not a fan of the Pan, you should see this movie just for the theatrical one-liners. There are several which, once they have entered your psyche, may remain part of your personal vernacular forever.

"I think I just had an apostrophe"

"Bad form"

"Your brains been junktified"

And so on. How many more will you adopt? Who knows.

If you do however love the Pan story and have not seen this movie, please see it before you grow up. Your path to grown-up status should be significantly corrected.

If it has been some time since you've seen it, get it and watch it with people you like to have fun with. Kids love this movie for the story and near constant action. Oh, and there is a great food fight. Adults who used to be kids love this movie for the reminders is sends.

We all age chronologically, that is a law of nature. There is no law however, that says we must extinguish the inner child. Let yours out for a little while and see this movie.

Conspiracy Theory

If you are tired of the holiday genre, and want something different, please consider the 1997 thriller "Conspiracy Theory" starring Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, and Patrick Stewart. Directed by Richard Donner (Superman and Lethal Weapon sequels), this story is worthy of the most paranoid Oliver Stone followers.

Complete with twists and a surprise ending, this is not a lazy person's movie. It makes you think. You have to think about the subplots, but you also need to understand a little about how government works. It helps if you've visited or spent any time in DC and New York.

Even if you have never been to the locations, the movie is worth the watch just to see Gibson's neurotic performance.