Love, Actually for The Sound of Music

As child I remember going to the movie theater on Sundays. My Aunt Toya would take me to the see whatever movie was showing either at 10 am or noon at the Tropicana theater. An odd name for a movie theater I know, but it was in Honduras...San Pedro Sula to be exact. OK, so the one movie they loved presenting was The Sound of Music. From the moment you see the cloudy skies and the helicopter shot slowly and methodically descending over the Austrian Alps, the country side of Salzburg, and then the city of Salzburg, as a child, you know you're in for a wonderfully enchanting movie. Then you see the 'copter slowly approaching a small figure who turns out to be Julie Andrews who is about the sing the title song. In my opinion there is nothing better in the cinema than this movie. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I've finally lost track of how many I've seen. Maybe it's because I've been crazy enough to own the soundtrack in 8 Track version, Cassette, LP (several) and CD versions. I own the VHS tape and the two DVD versions including the latest 40th anniversary edition. Am I crazy?

My craziness/addiction came to a head recently when I tuned in to Will & Grace this past Thursday. Their episode was title "VonTrapped." Basically, the premise was that the four main characters were going to attend a local screening of Sing-a-Long Sound of Music. Words can not do justice as to how hard I laughed throughout the whole half hour. There were many inside jokes related to the movie and you really had to be a fan, like crazy...a-cuckoo fan to be in on most of them. My favorite was the one where they are all hiding in the supply closet and Ralph(Rolph) flashes his flashlight in their faces just like they did in the movie during the cemetery scene towards the end of the movie.

The costumes were great and they looked as if they had been perfectly planned to copy the originals. It was a great homage to a great movie, and a high note for a show in decline.


Love Actually, while not my all time favorite like The Sound of Music is right up there. It's a movie with a large cast and many storylines. While the stories loosely come together at the end of the movie, you never feel that it is forced. It takes place during the Christmas season in the U.K. It's a lighthearted comedy that no matter how hard I try to say I will never watch again, I always end of coming back to it. It's simply irresistible.

I always find it very difficult to quantify things. While I think it's OK for people to make lists about their favorite things, no pun intended, I often can't bring myself to do so. I realize that I have just said I have two favorite all time movies, but it's only because I fell so strongly about them.