Though it is not universally acknowledged, a wealthy young man – one with a British accent and from a good family – is not always in search of a level-headed Elizabeth Bennett. (However, it does appear movies are always looking for that guy with the accent to succeed Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. This time it's Hugh Dancy.)

According to “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” (2009) the handsome Brit may be looking for a young woman who’s a chronic liar, impecunious to a pathological degree and careering unpredictably from airhead to accidental genius. i.e., Rebecca Bloomwood, the character played by Isla Fisher in this film.

Poor Isla. Poor me. Not everyone loves this sort of cute, but exaggeratedly lost city girl and I certainly don’t. I much prefer Fisher’s character April in the wonderful “Definitely, Maybe.” April was a woman – clearly a woman, not a girl – who’s smart, witty, perhaps slightly dangerous, but definitely genuine. Did I say prefer? I love that character. Not Becky Bloomwood, alas.

Becky is a would-be fashion journalist in the middle of a credit meltdown. And so she becomes a finance columnist. Within 10 minutes, I knew I was watching a film beneath even my standards. It’s one filled with incidents that are wholly implausible and yet wholly predictable. And sometimes unnecessary. It goes too far to demonstrate Rebecca’s shopaholic credentials, right down to her propensity to succumb to the enticements of talking mannequins. 

It does feature one cliché I like (but only because it means I may be able to build a blog post on it): the imperious older fashion dictatrix, played by Kristin Scott Thomas here. Bottom line: The movie is not awful. It’s just less enjoyable than the average rom com. When the intended couple unites in the end it feels more relief that it's over than romantic catharsis.

Or, to put it in the movie's fashion terms, it's more J.C. Penney's than Alexander McQueen. 

Like most clichés, the tale of the tortured artist has a bit of truth to it. When a person with an artistic mind is troubled, he or she often brings that emotion to the piano, easel or paper, where those inner conflicts can make for great art. Of course, a would-be artist's sadness sometimes leads to paintings of sad clowns on velvet instead. Pain does not always make for art.

But the cliché also leads to a movie trope that I'm sure goes beyond the five examples I've got for you today. In these movies, we have an artistically talented woman who's talents are locked inside by her lack of confidence or her urge to practicality. Locked, of course, until love frees her up. Often, though, it only takes off after her creativity is loosened by heartbreak.  I'm not sure why writers like this, but it works for me. Here are my five, and one film that flips the guy and gal roles.

"A Lot Like Love" (2005) -- Emily (Amanda Peet) is first an angry punk, and later an untalented desperate actress. It's only Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) who can free her up with his openness and willingness to take chances. And its only when she sees that he appreciated her photographic talent and he gives her his camera that she turns into a photographer. It includes one of the common sub-versions of this theme: The estranged lover accidentally happens upon the gallery showing her work.

"What's Your Number?" (2011) -- Ally (Anna Faris) is one of those people who dabbles in creative things, but doesn't consider herself an artist. It's only when her obnoxious neighbor Colin (Chris Evans) notices her little tableaux, that she realizes that she's done something creative. And once she falls for him and then has a falling out, she goes at it in earnest.

"Shopgirl" (2005) -- Claire Danes is Mirabelle, the title shopgirl. Steve Martin's Ray encourages her, but he's almost literally patronizing, because he sees her as a romantic interlude, not a love. It is only after she's had enough, because she wants more (paradox), that she breaks up with Ray and throws herself into more artistic pursuits, ending with a gallery show where she gives him one of her works.

"Kissing Jessica Stein" (2001) -- Jessica (Jennifer Westfeldt) left painting behind in college, but picks it up again thanks to praise and emotional stimulation from her new lesbian lover and her old college boyfriend. It's a symbol, once again, of the character learning to open herself up to who she really is.

"Runaway Bride" (1999) -- Who is Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) really? She's a chameleon taking on the personalities of her would-be husbands. But it's Ike (Richard Gere) who shows her the way to become herself. It's only after their big blow-up that he sees she's left the hardware world in favor of creating far out lamp designs in New York. Time for them to get together.

"Sweet Home Alabama" (2002) -- This is the one with the sex-roles reversed. Viewers come into this movie long after Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) breaks the heart of Jake (Josh Lucas) so we don't know the secret he's been hiding. Stimulated by the wish to get her back, he's turned to producing beautiful glassware and sculpture. Once again, Melanie comes upon the artwork accidentally and it helps to bring her back to Jake.

You've got your Kristen Wiig, your Maya Rudolph and your Chris O'Dowd, but make no mistake: This is no "Bridesmaids." For that, I am thankful. In "Friends With Kids," director/writer/actress Jennifer Westfeldt uses many of the same key actors as the 2011 smash hit by Wiig, but leaves out most of the gross, juvenile, humiliation yucks that "Bridesmaids" depended on.

Each of those actors gets a fresh and more intelligent face in this film about how young New York professionals turn into families. It's based on a silly premise: Westfeldt as Julie and Adam Scott at Jason are such good friends, that they think they can have and raise a child together as friends and avoid the couple-uncouple strife they see in friends who are romantically tied to their co-parents. Westfeldt's writing makes it work.

I spent most of the first 45 minutes cracking up. (Though sometimes I may have been the only one in the theater doing so.) Westfeldt, as she did in "Kissing Jessica Stein," produces some sharply observed comedy, based on sympathetic views of human weaknesses, not on ridicule. Even when there is bathroom humor, the comedy is not about the poop, it's about the subtle behaviors people show in reaction to the poop. 

After the mostly funny set-up, we move into a largely serious segment of the movie where shifting boundaries between Julie and Jason are negotiated and, occasionally, crashed into. The development of characters is subtle, and the funny movie and the serious movie feel like just two parts of the same story -- just as someone we love is the same person when we laugh with them and when we yell at them. Someone I love said she cried twice.

I hope Westfeldt makes a lot more movies as a writer and director, because I love the way she sets her characters in motion and watches what happens. "Kissing Jessica Stein" -- about a woman exploring her lesbian side -- was an entertaining revelation.  Though it's more commercial, "Friends With Kids"  still feels fresh, even though we know from the beginning where Jason and Julie's friendship is headed.

The only fresh face I didn't care for in the film was, sad and sexist to say, Westfeldt's. It looks like she's had some work done since she was Jessica Stein, and the new taut skin and lips were much less appealing than the looser natural attractiveness she brought to the earlier film. Still, she made it a nice film with her presence, along with the writing and directing.

One final oddity: In the past month, Google Analytics says my review of "Kissing Jessica Stein" has been the most accessed page on my blog, other than the home page. I have to guess part of that is people looking it up in light of the publicity for "Friends With Kids." It was getting a lot of hits before that, though, and if I understand the analytics right there's a sad reason for that: people (i.e. guys, probably) googling for movies with "two girls kissing." Ick.

There are lots of films that feature Ireland, but it's hard to get romance out of a lot of them. Here are three that I really liked and one I like to make fun of.

Once (2006) -- The title invites me to say that I just can't see "Once" once. It's such a fun film and remarkable for its backstory that includes a real love that developed between the two leads despite their age difference. Glen Hansard is the Guy -- so billed in the credits -- and Marketa Irglova is the Girl. He's a busker who comes to meet this talented immigrant musician on the streets of Dublin. She encourages his songwriting, but won't get involved because she's already married, though her husband if far away. Some wonderful tunes and ecstatic scenes amid some otherwise depressing lives.
The Commitments (1991) -- Another film about Irish musicians. This time, young Jimmy Rabbitte dreams of being a star playing covers of the great Americans of an earlier time. He idolizes, among others, Wilson Pickett. He puts together a band that really rocks and appears ready to rocket upward, but then falls apart as romances and egos split the mates. More wonderful tunes and ecstatic scenes amid otherwise dreary lives. And this, that I just discovered: It also includes Glen Hansard, 15 years before "Once."
Circle of Friends (1995) -- The first film I remember seeing with Minnie Driver. Er, I mean the first I saw that had Minnie Driver in it. This one is a sober account of loyalty, love, class and sexism. Irish teens grow up and go to college, but the real lessons, it seems, must be learned elsewhere. Driver is the plain Jane in this film, but makes the more-than-suitable catch.
Leap Year (2010) -- This one is the one that's fun to ridicule. It's full of cliches -- livestock on the rural roads, colorful locals, Irish superstitions, etc. -- and ridiculous scenes -- destroyed inn rooms, runaway cars and the like. I think Amy Adams is adorable, but her character here is barely tolerable. I would probably vote this the worst film of 2010 but I have to admit I've seen it twice. Just to make sure. Adams plays an American who flies to Ireland to surprise her beau with a marriage proposal, but winds up falling in love with the guy who, of course, she starts out hating. Classic (not in a good sense) rom com.

"Heartbreaker" (2010) is just one of those films that float across your Netflix suggestion list. Well, maybe not yours, but it floated across *MY* list because I like that sort of thing. Sometimes the suggestions are good, more often they're not. In this case, I really enjoyed the film and these factoids are some of the reasons why:

1. It's kind of a genre-buster, or perhaps more a genre mixer. I've written before about the films where people fall in love amid violence. This is one of those except for one key twist. Unlike films like "Ocean's Eleven" or "The Italian Job," where the caper is the point and the love is in the background, here it's reversed. The international man of mystery here, Alex (Romain Duris), isn't a crook or a spy for his country, he's a spy in the service of romance. Although he's paid to break up couples, he only sees it as breaking up couples who aren't in love. He is abetted by his sister and brother-in-law, two great supporting characters who perform the usual caper roles of fake hotel jobs and electronic snooping.
   
2. A few little details link this film to a film to which it otherwise bears no relation: "Love Actually." In both films, a guy falls for a woman who is about to get married. In "Love Actually," her name is Juliet. In "Heartbreaker," it's Juliette. The actor Andrew Lincoln figures in both, though in "Love Actually" he's the one smitten with Juliet, and she marries his best friend. In this film, he's the one engaged to Juliette, and Alex tries to break them up.
   
3. The French model and actress Vanessa Paradis plays Juliette. I didn't know anything about this woman until my good friend started talking about Johnny Depp and gap-toothed attraction. A few minutes into this film, I checked IMDB to see who this gap-toothed lady was and sure enough, it was Johnny's beloved. Even if he's nowhere to be seen, that may be reason enough for some Deppophiles to see this film. She does a great job of moving slowly, not precipitously, from hostility to love.
   
4. A Paradis' presence suggests, this is a French film. (Though much of it takes place in Morocco and Monte Carlo.) Despite that, pretty much every song in it is in English, from the opening - "Son of a Preacher Man" - to the end.
   
5. A recurring theme is Juliette's love of the film "Dirty Dancing," and how Alex learns it to get at her heart. I want to do a post on films that play on "Dirty Dancing," but so far all I have is this and "Crazy, Stupid, Love." Know any others?
   
6. There is a short scene during the credits involving Juliette's father, the man who hired Alex to break up his daughter's engagement. This is suppose to clarify some things, but it only confused me.
   
7. For a French film, this has a rather commercial American feel and, if you don't mind the subtitles, should feel comfortable to most people who find romantic comedy cozy. It even glosses over constant improbablities, like an American rom com. The main difference, I'd say, is that all the characters exhibit what seems to me as a classic French "bored with life" attitude.
   
8. IMDB reports that writer Laurent Zeitoun got the idea when he suggested that his family hire someone to break up a bad impending marriage. No connection to the film, but "Zeitoun" is the title figure of Dave Eggers great non-fiction book on the New Orleans hurricane aftermath.
   

I mean it. It isn't that far (in concept) from this Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds vehicle ("The Proposal" 2009) to the ostensibly more elevated works of Jane Austen -- the classics writer most in favor with moviegoers of today. I say this because both have a lot to do with the conflicts of family duty and convention when mixed with the travails of love under the demands of economics.

In "The Proposal," we have the unlikely situation where Andrew (Reynolds) is compelled to engage himself to his driven and self-centered (though highly attractive) boss Margaret (Bullock) so that she can beat immigration and he can climb the ladder of the publishing world from his lowly assistant status.

Even in Austen's day (judging by Darcy and Elizabeth) it was a truth universally acknowledged that two people as transparently ill-suited for one another as Andrew and Margaret would wind up in love in the end. The novelty in "The Proposal" is that it nearly flips the Austen concept on its head. Whereas people of Elizabeth Bennet's time took the marriage of financial convenience for granted, the modern American world takes the marriage for love as the given. While Elizabeth shocked her time by passing over the eligible Mr. Collins, Andrew shocks us by picking career over love. 

Any dismay at this arrangement is heightened after meeting the delightful (except in name) Gertrude, Andrew's ex-girlfriend, played by Malin Akerman. They seem obviously well suited and you almost hope they can still get together, even though you know the movie is headed elsewhere. As an aside, let me put in a plug for making Akerman more of a star. She was terrific in "Happythankyoumoreplease," where her character had more inner beauty than outer. The three films I've seen her in -- "The Proposal," "Happythankyoumoreplease," and "The Romantics" -- show her taking on very different supporting characters. I'd love to see her in a meaty lead. 

(Oops. On further research, I see she was also (forgettably) in "27 Dresses" and will have the perhaps too-meaty lead in a forthcoming movie on Linda Lovelace.)

In short, there are family fights, accidental naked embraces, the obligatory called-off wedding and, yes, a run to the airport. 

I enjoy the parts of "The Proposal" that are played relatively naturally. Unfortunately, that see-sawed with segments of broad and slapstick comedy. The other annoying flaw in this film is one of the most boring happily ever afters ever. The movie wants us to be shocked by the business proposal -- the wedding for career -- so the story can bring us around to a standard love story ending. Except it's hard to believe it. There isn't much passion after all that clashin' between Bullock and Reynolds. It's a fun movie, if your suspension of disbelief is in good shape.

Lots of good actors here, though. Betty White is enjoying her golden years with roles like this, and I'm happy to see Mary Steenburgen almost any time.

"The Art of Getting By" (2011) is a watered-down version of the "The Wackness." (2008) They are both about a kind of geeky kid with a case of anomie, falling in love for the first time. Both films have New York settings, looming college worries, family financial ruin, parents with murky moral boundaries, substance abuse and first sex. But it all seems much milder, less edgy in "The Art." Hence a PG-13 rating instead of R.

That doesn't make it bad. This is the kind of film I enjoy. Teen love, struggle, loss, angst, redemption. It doesn't matter so much that  it doesn't feel risky this time. The lack of risk isn't just about what happens in the story. It's also the way it's told. If not wholly formulaic, the storytelling of "The Art" felt familiar, comfy. When you see the girl at the airport, ready to leave for Europe with the wrong guy, she's still staring wistfully out the window after everyone else has boarded. It seems like you've seen it before, and even if you can't pick out another film where you've seen it, you know what's going to happen in this one. 

I'm happy when George (Freddie Highmore) gets the girl (Emma Roberts) after first losing the girl, but I long for something more original. More original, like "The Wackness." That, too, was the old story of the guy trying for the girl who's beyond his league, but it didn't give you the predictable ending.

I watched this with Son of Chick Flick Guy, and he expressed frustration at seeing the supposedly smart George lose the girl in the first place, simply because he couldn't tell her how he felt. Son of CFG is a lot better at saying the things that are hard to say than the CFG is. I really identified with the uncertainty and lack of emotional risk-taking by George. I understood his hesitation at the make-it-or-break-it moment.

The movies are where we go to see our innermost desires. I didn't make that up. I read it in the New York Times Book Review last week, so it must be true. Sometimes, those inner desires aren't that elevated. That's "The Art of Getting By."

With a title like "Unconditional Love," I was expecting a fun but unexceptional rom com. You know, something where she's a journalist who starts out hating him, there are aborted weddings, maybe a run to the airport and in the end they get together and, we must assume, live happily ever after. (By the way, the links lead to movies that fit those themes.)

This 2002 film is emphatically not one of those movies. It is instead one of the strangest films I've enjoyed (more or less) in a while. Kathy Bates plays a bored and boring woman whose husband leaves her just as her singing idol (think Barry Manilow/Elvis/Liberace) is killed on the day she was to see him in person.

It becomes a strange quest for the killer, accompanied by the dead guy's lover (Rupert Everett) and a dwarf in a red raincoat. Don't ask. It is, of course, also a search for self on the part of all these characters, with a moral of being accepted for who you are. That's broader than the obvious lesson here that homosexuality is not a reason to ostracize someone, as the singer and his lover have been.

Kathy Bates is not particularly good in this role. I like her better when she's loud and assured. Her timidity here seems off. Julie Andrews makes an occasional appearance, singing in bizarre situations. But it's the strangeness that makes the film compelling. You keep watching to see what they'll come up with next.

What they come up with is not always good and sometimes is awful. At one point Everett is attempting to yank a gun out of his sequined pants through the fly and his pulling is made to look like he's jerking off in a deserted parking garage. It just isn't necessary. The constantly fluctuating tone of the film makes me think it was written by committee and adds uncertainty to the bizarre events.

The only thing that isn't surprising is that this film was released straight to DVD, instead of making it to theaters.

My family has a catch phrase that relates to this film, a movie that I enjoyed more than I care to admit. (Except that liking this kind of film is what this blog is all about.) The phrase: "I read it in a magazine."

The line comes from one of my daughter's then tween-aged soccer teammates who used it a time too often when challenged on some dubious statement she made. Ever since, if we assert something that we know may not hold water, members of my family back it up with, "I read it in a magazine."

"What's Your Number?" (2011) is based, implausibly, on something supposedly read in a magazine. Ally Darling (Anna Faris) sees an women's magazine article saying a woman who has had sex with 20 or more men is unlikely ever to get married. Something to do with poor self-esteem. After totting up her conquests (not that a woman refers to them that way), Ally realizes she's already hit 19.  So begins a quest to recheck her past bedmates to see whether any of them is marriageable. Her marital clock is ticking, especially since her younger sister is readying happily to tie the knot.

The concept that a supposedly intelligent woman like Ally would find it necessary to go on this quest is silly enough. To add to the silliness, she seeks help from the despised serial womanizer Colin across the hall in her apartment building. Surely you see where this is going. I did, but I was charmed all the same. I won't say that either Faris or Chris Evans (as Colin Shea) is a terrific actor, but when they are together, they make the unreal feel more natural. You can feel the characters grow to like each other and, oddly, we like them better too, despite the oddities they go through.  I must admit,  however, even I found my credulity taxed by watching them  play HORSE in Boston Garden in their underwear.

In fact, both leads are in minimal clothing on maximum occasions, which is kind of a plus. If the visuals aren't  enough, there are some enjoyable, rather clever writing bits ... though perhaps they are maybe not quite as clever as they seemed at the time. These include Ally's thumbnail description of the perfect girl (as she thinks Colin sees her) and the wedding near the end where small children run around shouting the four-letter word they learned when Ally fell off a fence.

Does this film really deserve four stars? Perhaps not, but I was engaged enough to consider watching it over right away. (It's better than the trailer. Honest.) And not because of the acres of epidermis on display. I was charmed, but I finally decided to send it back to Netflix so I could get another silly film. And though these romantic comedies may not generally win Academy Awards, they are important for helping understand and improve the social and romantic interactions of men and women. I know that, because I read it in a magazine.

What's so bad about merlot, anyway? Regardless of what the film "Sideways" did to sour the market for that varietal, my favorite wine of the moment is a merlot. (Yorkville, 2009) That probably speaks volumes about my taste, or lack thereof. Chances are, it is the wine equivalent of my weak-hearted love for romantic comedies. So be it. That's all the more reason to mix romance movies with wine. Instead of rom com, it's vin cin.

Here, then, are the results of my laboring in the cinematic fields -- a case-worth of films, each with at least a bouquet of winery or some vineyard notes. For many of them, wine is integral to the plot, including a whole subgenre of "Inherit the Winery" movies. Drink up! But be careful, some of these are definitely of the sip-and-spit sort.

"Love, Wedding, Marriage"  (2011) -- The wine part of this movie is still a bit of a mystery to me. The hero, we are told at the beginning, was working in wine in Napa when he met the heroine, but then the whole film shifts to Louisiana. I reckon it's prohibitively expensive to shoot in Napa these days. But he's still working at a winery. In Louisiana. The plot? Don't bother.
"Parent Trap" (1998) -- Quite likely Lindsay Lohan's best movie and a favorite of my daughter's formative years. Dennis Quaid is winemaker Nick Parker, not famous wine guy Robert Parker. Sorry aficionados. Nick Parker is also the dad to the long-separated twins (both are Lohan) who try to reunite their parents.
"Sideways" (2004) -- Probably the best known film of this bunch, it features two guys on a boys' trip to the lovely, wine-producing Santa Ynez Valley. One is a wine snob -- hence, his line: "If anyone orders merlot, I'm leaving." The other is his pal, who is having a last fling before marriage. A fling with lovely wine bar hostess Sandra Oh. 
"The Chateau Meroux" (2011) -- Wendy inherits a winery from her estranged father. We're led to believe it's Napa, since it's a quick drive from San Francisco, but it was shot in the not-so-pretty Central Valley wine region. Wendy falls for the rival winery owner's son, while her BFF falls for the assistant winemaker, played by the movie's writer. He should know you can't make a good wine (movie) with bad fruit (script).
"A Good Year" (2006) -- I quite enjoyed most of what Ridley Scott did with Peter Mayle's novel. Russell Crowe plays the heartless financier -- an investment wanker, let's say -- who finds fertile ground for love in the French vineyard inherited from his beloved uncle. Charming, and above average for this sort of film.
"Letters to Juliet" (2010) -- A minor winer. The main premise is the search for Lorenzo Bartolini, the long-lost love of an Englishwoman now in her twilight years. He is found, at last, amid the vines of Tuscany. Marriages follow.
"Bottle Shock" (2008) -- I have not yet tasted this one, suggested by wine movie sommelier Mike Dunne. It's a fictionalized version of the great Parisian blind tasting of 1976 in which a Napa wine beat the Europeans. Unexpected, but it was bound to happen.
"Corked" (2009) -- If "Bottle Shock" twits the Euro-snobs, "Corked" is the comeuppance for the Napa/Sonoma snobs. This mockumentary appears to be a send-up of the Wine and Whine Country.
"A Walk in the Clouds" (1995) -- This one sounds to me like a cloying dessert wine. A young soldier helps and then falls in love with the pregnant girl returning home to help with the harvest. 
"Autumn Tale" (1998) -- I haven't seen it, but knowing it's Eric Rohmer, I'd expect French, lust, laughs and romance. Set in the vineyards of Southern France.
"French Kiss" (1995) -- Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan: Is that annoying or romantic? Even they can't seem to decide in this film, but there is winemaking along with the lovemaking.
"Bed & Breakfast" (2010) -- This is a ghastly film billed as being about a Brazilian woman inheriting property in California wine country. The property turns out to be in arid Southern California, far from the coast, and winds up being a house, not a vineyard. (At least, as far as I could tell from the dull first 30 minutes. That's all I could take.) Wineries are mentioned and vineyards are seen along the way. If any scenes were shot in vineyards, I'm guessing it ruined that year's crop.

Bonus:
"The Language of Flowers" (in the works) -- Even though IMDB doesn't have much on this, I expect to see it in a few years. The movie version of Vanessa Diffenbaugh's 2011 bestseller will certainly have (Sonoma?) vineyard scenes including one climactic heart-breaker.