3 Sophie's Choice
Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline (1982, Universal) Almost from the instant you meet Sophie (Streep, who earned, along with an Oscar, her Queen of the Accents crown here, with mastery of three different dialects), you understand that she's a damaged, haunted heroine who's not likely to live happily ever after. But the real poignance lies in Sophie's tremulously maintained illusion of hope. Hers is a brave but fragile front that conceals the depth of her guilt and sorrow as a Holocaust survivor. You don't cry for Sophie because she dies so young, but because she has suffered so long. KLEENEX MOMENT In flashback, Sophie relives the dark night that a Nazi officer forced her to choose: Which of her two young children would she get to save, and which would be sent to a death camp?
4 An Affair to Remember
Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr (1957, Fox) Mention the top of the Empire State Building and women everywhere swoon. After all, ''it's the nearest thing to heaven.'' Romantics know it's the meeting place for Nicky (Grant) and Terry (Kerr) six months after they fall madly in love while sailing back from Europe. The catch? She's hit by a car on her way to meet him. There he stands for hours, never noticing the sirens on the street below. Terry may never walk again but she insists Nicky never know until she can stand to greet him. KLEENEX MOMENT Nicky confronts his beloved but she still refuses to share her secret. He paces and accuses, all while she remains supine on the sofa. It is only as he prepares to leave her forever that he finally grasps the truth.
5 It's a Wonderful Life
James Stewart, Donna Reed (1946, Republic) The misty awwws for Frank Capra's crisp holiday classic start as soon as the film opens with prayers for George Bailey (Stewart). Bewildered angel-in-training Clarence will get his wings if he can save a distraught salt-of-the-earth Everyman faced with losing his good name, his family, and everything he's sacrificed his dreams for. Clarence shows Bailey how different tiny Bedford Falls -- and the lives of its citizens -- would be without him, and when Bailey joyously returns home, embraces his family, and witnesses the love of his friends, tears start to swell in all of us on the other side of the screen. KLEENEX MOMENT One by one, the townsfolk chip in to help pay Bailey's bank debt. Then, war-hero brother Harry gives the emotional summation: ''To my big brother George, the richest man in town.''
6 Longtime Companion
Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott (1990, MGM) In 1981, an article in The New York Times identified the ''gay cancer'' that would ultimately ravage the homosexual population. That item's appearance opens Companion (the title refers to the newspaper-obituary euphemism for gay partners), a film that deftly injects the disease-of-the-week formula with a political agenda, providing its audience with the human face of AIDS. In a series of vignettes that take place over a decade, those faces, an appealing group of loosely connected Manhattanites of varying ages and socioeconomic and romantic status (some of whom get sick, some who don't), eloquently represent an era filled with fear and loss. KLEENEX MOMENT ''Let go,'' Davison repeats, reassuring his lover as he gives in, turning the lonely process of dying into a beautiful collaboration.
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