5 Reasons… Sleepless in Seattle is my all time favorite romantic movie

Image Credit: Tristar Pictures

Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories… and those who have never seen Sleepless in Seattle, my all time favorite romantic movie. It was the first rom-com I ever saw that did not make me want to slap both characters for being such stereotypical idiots and for that it holds a special place in my heart. It’s hard to narrow down just five reasons this one is my favorite, but I did my best for this week’s five reasons.

Image Credit: Tristar Pictures

1. If Meg Ryan’s character, Annie, can find true love, than anyone can. Annie is far from perfect, but not in your typical rom-com way.  She’s not too busy with her career to date, too uptight to fall in love, or unable to find Mr. Right (in fact she already has a doting fiance who is a catch himself – aside from allergies that is, but no one is perfect- at the film’s start). Annie’s problem is that she’s in love with the idea of love, the type found in classic romances like An Affair to Remember, a bit neurotic, and let’s face it fairly selfish… but she’s also pretty damn brave, kind, and can peel an entire apple skin in one piece so she’s got that going for her. I think her good qualities outweigh the bad and really who hasn’t hid in a broom closet with a radio and a telephone? Ok, maybe not everyone, but we can all relate to those moments Annie has as she struggles through deciding if she should pursue what seems like the safe and predictable path before her or a chance at a love that is true magic.

Image Credit: Tristar Pictures

2. Annie is also the ultimate fan girl and I love her for it. Every fan girl out there knows what it’s like to fall in love with someone we hear on the radio (like Annie does with Sam), with a character on TV, in a book, or in a movie.  She pretty much writes him fan mail and gets her best friend involved in the process tossing one letter after another and in a frantic attempt to catch the interest of “Sleepless in Seattle,” a man made a celebrity by a radio shrink. She even abuses the privileges her job as a journalist provides her to track him down like the ultimate stalker to get to see him in person. She is one committed fan girl and for her it all pays off in the end.

Image Credit: Tristar Pictures

3. Believe it or not, one of the things I love most about this movie is the reaction of Annie’s fiance, Walter, when she admits she’s been having an emotional affair (if only in her own head) with Sam. Walter doesn’t flip out on her, call her names, or demand to fight the man for her honor. He matter of factly tells her that even though he loves her,  he does not want to be someone anyone settles for. When she says she doesn’t deserve him, he agrees before encouraging her to go to the Empire State Building and take a chance at happiness with someone else. The movie doesn’t suddenly give him flaws he didn’t have before to justify his dumping or make him out to be someone worth leaving. He is the same dependable good guy he was from the start, just not the guy for Annie.

Image Credit: Tristar Pictures

4. The conversation Tom Hanks character, Sam Baldwin, has with the radio shrink about his deceased wife, Maggie, has to be one of the most genuinely heartbreaking and love reaffirming dialogues in film history. I have seen this movie at least fifty times (yes, I am aware I have a problem) and it still brings tears to my eyes every time. There is something so real about that conversation, and Sam’s character in general, that is often missing from your typical romantic comedy that makes this film so special.

Sam Baldwin: Well, I’m gonna get out of bed every morning… breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won’t have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out… and, then after a while, I won’t have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while.
Doctor Marcia Fieldstone: Tell me what was so special about your wife?
Sam Baldwin: Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together… and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home… only to no home I’d ever known… I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like… magic.

Image Credit: Tristar Pictures

5. The biggest reason of all the that Sleepless in Seattle is my all time favorite romantic movie is that Sam and Annie do not meet till the very end. You go through an entire romantic comedy with the two main characters not meeting till the closing scene and yet all you need to know about how their life together will play out is written on their faces in that final scene. It’s a gratifying end to Annie’s journey and that “at last” feeling you get when they lock eyes leaves you feeling good about love, life, and just about everything.

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