I Can't Hear You

“You can believe in yourself...if you’re lucky.”- Uncredited character from the movie Now and Then

Real life romance seems a bit farfetched to me, but I have to confess I love a good romantic comedy.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is one of those movies that I’ve watched multiple times because it’s so much fun.

The movie came about in a pretty magical way. Nia Vardalos had written and performed in a one-woman show about her Greek family.

She said in an interview, "I basically took every Greek wedding I’ve ever been to, including mine and on a scale of one to 10, I turned it up to an 11."

Rita Wilson saw the show and told her husband Tom Hanks to go see it. He did. His production company produced the film. Nia Vardalos not only wrote the screenplay, but also starred in the film as Toula, the main character. My Big Fat Greek Wedding became one of the top grossing romantic comedies of all time.

The film is full of quirky characters – from Toula’s Windex®-wielding father, to her crone of a grandmother whose mission in life seems to be fleeing back to the old country.

Toula comes around to believing in herself, thereby securing the life she has wanted for years. She’s lucky.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an absolute hoot and if you loved it, I’m sure you’ll love my all-time favorite romantic comedy, Still Breathing starring Brendan Fraser and Joanna Going.

If you start dragging Brendan Fraser before I even get started I’ll place my hands tightly over my ears and begin my off-key la-la-la-la-ing.

I love Fraser, not only because he’s as adorable as a basket full of baby seals before some asshole clubs them to death, but because he’s a damn fine actor.

Unless one catches him in an independent film, he usually portrays a happy-go-lucky misfit, all bumbling charm and dimples. George of the Jungle, Encino Man, The Scout and Airheads are excellent examples of Fraser displaying these qualities.

He slides with ease right into serious roles in School Ties, With Honors, Gods and Monsters and Twilight of the Golds.

Fraser can play the villain with the best of them. In Journey to the End of the Night I’d have to rank him somewhere between Hannibal Lecter and Cruella De Vil. His character is a coke/gambling addict, prostitute slashing, backstabbing, adulterous, fratricidal dog murderer who needs to enroll in anger management classes. Stat.

In Still Breathing, Fraser’s character Fletcher McBracken is lucky. He not only believes in himself, he accepts who he has always been. There’s a reason he knows someday he’ll find his one true love.

His love interest, Rosalyn (Roz) Willoughby is played by Joanna Going. Roz feels as if any chance for love has passed her by on the street and for good measure has kicked her to the curb.

At the point in the film where Fletcher and Roz meet in Los Angeles, they are polar opposites although they have a connection which Fletcher embraces and Roz denies.

The most romantic love scene I’ve ever viewed in any film begins in a darkened room. Renée Geyer is singing Foggy Highway as background music to a slide show of famous art. The only nudity is revealed in the art of masters. Instead of the usual consummation we have come to expect in scenes such as these, the viewer is treated to snippets of less than romantic conversation.

Fletcher: “I seem to be gaining a whole new perspective on the rococo.”

Roz: “You’re so weird.”

Fletcher lives in San Antonio and convinces Roz to accompany him back to Texas. She has her own less than respectable reasons for agreeing to make the trip.

As a lifelong Texan who lived in San Antonio, I’d love to meet most of the local characters in this film. They march to their own drummer, if their own drummer happens to be Nyango Star.

I’ve watched Still Breathing numerous times and I’m not kidding when I say that during the last 30 seconds I get goosebumps. Every single time.

Remember this began with an uncredited character, a disillusioned Vietnam vet who said, “You can believe in yourself...if you’re lucky.”

Brendan Fraser played that guy.