Goodbye Mr Chips AND P.S. I Love You

Wow – I just ran over to my favorite Movie Info Website – the Internet Movie DataBase – and it tells me that this movie was Greer Garson’s FIRST movie!  Louis B Mayer discovered her on a trip to England.   I don’t know why this is so cool to me, but it is.    I would be a movie fan FREAK if I allowed myself one interest only…  Like, did she appreciate everyone thinking her first name was ‘Greer’?   (She was born and named Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson; her nickname was Duchess.   I’m not sure I like that any better.   I’d have preferred Evelyn – very grand.)    She was Elizabeth in the 1940 production of Pride and Prejudice – gotta see this next!!!    I think she is lovely and smart and was well received in many of her films.    I want to see all most of them.

Anyway, back to the topic of this post.  I saw the 1939 Goodbye Mr Chips the other night and LOVED IT!    Even better than the book; they succeeded in capturing the warmth of the original written work.   At first, I wasn’t impressed with the first scenes of Chips as the very old guy but as the movie progressed and Donat aged his character, it got better.    Garson was fabulous.   

I CRIED and CRIED!   I love crying to movies.  

My book review of this is here.

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Last night I watched   PS I Love You starring Hillary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Kathy Bates, James Marsters, Harry Connick Jr.

I cried and cried again!  This movie was a lot better than I expected.    Based on Cecilia Ahern’s book of the same name, this is the story of a young widow receiving letters from her dead husband; others are afraid this is keeping her from moving on with her life.    Can she learn to live and love again?

This was Ms. Ahern’s first book – I have yet to read it, but promise you this:  I WILL – and it looks like from all the book press that she is on her way to a fabulous writing career.    The movie was everything I wanted it to be in a good love story, a woman finding herself, humor and wisdom combined with great fashion and more than a few good looking men.       [Jeffery Dean Morgan]     Hillary’s character was an unhappy real estate agent (been there, done that) and she stumbles into a career idea that combines what she loves (shoes, art) and learns to appreciate those she loves even more, especially herself.

Chick lit at its finest?   Well, I can’t say I’m an expert on that.     But I enjoyed this movie very much and I’m inspired to read the source.