As our heads clear from the New Year's Eve parties, our thoughts inevitably turn to the spirit of the season — that is, starting over. Renewal is one of the oldest themes of Hollywood movies, and here are some of the all-time best treatments of the subject on video:
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Robert Montgomery
stars as Joe Pendleton, a light heavyweight contender who meets his
end in a plane crash. But wait! It's all been a heavenly mistake:
According to the Master Plan, Joe has died 50 years too soon. And so
back down to earth he goes-in a borrowed body — to fulfill his life
dream of getting a shot at the title. Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait(1978) was a glossy update of this fast-paced and funny Hollywood
fantasy. B
The Band Wagon (1953)
This Vincente Minnelli musical
features Fred Astaire as a Hollywood has-been who finds himself stuck
in a Broadway turkey. Regaining the old magic just in time, he saves
the show — and his career. A witty show-biz spoof, the film's truly
revivifying moments are the dance numbers in which Astaire takes the
stage with stunning Cyd Charisse. A
Summertime (1955)
In this David Lean gem, Katharine
Hepburn plays a spinster whose life belatedly blooms when she falls
in love on her first trip abroad. The time is summer, the place is
Venice, and the man (Rossano Brazzi) is very married. The encounter
only lasts a few enchanted evenings. But as Hepburn's performance
exquisitely makes clear, a romantic idyll, however short-lived, is
rejuvenating. A-
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
The
Enterprise voyages to the planet Genesis, an experiment in man-made
life. The real point of this superior Trek mission is to reincarnate
Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who dies at the end of Star Trek II. So
what if that requires some superhuman leaps of faith? Anything that
brings back the series' best character is worth whatever it takes.
B
Places in the Heart (1984)
Sally Field's Edna Spaulding
is just an ordinary Texas farm wife until her husband, the local
sheriff, is killed. Left alone, she finds the true grit to weather a
drought, a tornado, and the Great Depression — all while saving the
family farm. Although the movies are full of women who find
themselves after they lose their men, few films have been as
genuinely inspiring as this realistic drama from writer-director
Robert Benton. A-
Cocoon (1985)
In Ron Howard's gentle sci-fi comedy, a
group of senior citizens receives a long-term lease on life when they
bathe in a fountain of youth. Actually, it's a swimming pool
containing some alien cocoons that exude a rejuvenating essence. To
see Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, and Hume Cronyn cavort like
schoolboys is to believe in eternal youth. B+
