You know what I can’t get enough of, especially in the winter? Those satisfying escapist films when urbanite women head to the country for some simple living by the fire in their flannels. In turn, they find themselves,  a more meaningful life, and usually a man who can chop wood with one hand. Everyone needs a place to escape, and in the dead of the winter, you want to close your eyes and transport yourself more than usual. If you don’t have the money to do it yourself, thank God for Netflix. Now that the streets are frozen in NYC, my mind wanders to Baby Boom (maybe the best movie ever?) in which Diane Keaton unexpectedly inherits a baby and is forced to leave her high-powered wall street job. With nowhere  to go, she takes her severance and savings to the country– and it’s there she gets an amazing house, finds herself again, starts her own business, and falls in love with Sam Shephard– and she does it all in a very comfy looking, floor-length flannel nightgown.

Below, my favorite Start Over in a New Place movies.

Baby Boom

As previously mentioned, JC Wiatt (Diane Keaton) had it all, eighties style. The perfect high-shouldered power suit, the six figure salary, the huge upper west side co-op, the rich, successful boyfriend. Then, a distant relative dies and she inherits a baby. Her boyfriend dumps her, her job fires her, and she and her baby move to the country. But don’t feel bad for her, girls. The point of these escapist movies is they throw in a plot twist that the heroine doesn’t think she needs or wants, but it turns out changing her life for the way better! Ever the entrepreneur, JC finds a gorgeous country house, buys a Winnebago, starts a ridiculously successful baby applesauce company, and meets the hottest man in town, Sam Shephard.

Behold the Greatness:

Private Benjamin

I had to start with my two favorite films, maybe ever! Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) believes all there is to her life is marriage—so when her first husband croaks on their wedding night, she finds herself in an emotional well. Frantically searching for order and meaning, she gets swindled into enlisting in the Army (so, in this case, think of the barracks as the country) but the closest Judy’s ever been to the Army is Club Med.  That’s ok, because the trials of the Army force Judy to find her true self.  When she does return to real world (as a fierce redhead), this time, she’ll actually put herself first.

Private Benjamin:

Overboard

I am a sucker for Goldie, and apparently she’s a sucker for second chance screenplays too. OK, so Joanna Stayton doesn’t THINK she wants a new life, but an entirely new life is just what she gets. When we first meet Joanna, she’s a yacht-sitting rich lady in a loveless marriage, but when she hires  poor, hunky (that’s the only word him in this one folks!) Kurt Russell (aka Dean) for a contract job, everything changes. When Joanna falls overboard and gets amnesia, Dean takes advantage of the situation and has her tend to his dilpidated country house and very bad brood of young boys. Eventually, though, Joanna falls overboard for Dean. (And, bonus:  Kurt and Goldie fell for each other in real life too!)

Overboard:

Hope Floats

When former high school prom queen Birdee Pruitt (Sandra Bullock) finds out on national television that her husband and father of her child  has been having an affair with her best friend, the only place she has to go is home to her family’s big creaky old house in the country to live with her aging mother. Despite her depression, disgrace and embarrassment—she—you guessed it! falls in love with Harry Connick Jr! By the end of the movie you– and Birdee– realize what she was fighting so hard to keep wasn’t what she wanted at all.

Hope Floats:

The Holiday

Right before Christmas, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz both get effed over by total cads in this by-the-book romantic comedy. What do they do? Get online, of course, and, miraculously find each other— normal 30-year-old professional women– one in LA (Cameron) and one in England (Kate) to switch lives with for the holidays! (They easily could have been fooled been serial killers typing from their basements, but you have to let that slide). Once in London, Cameron falls for Jude Law, who’s at his peak, but poor Kate Winslet gets saddled with a terribly awkward Jack Black. (Why, because she’s “normal-sized?”) Still, escapist film at its sweetest.

The Holiday:

Addendum!!

Sweet Home Alabama

A kind reader reminded me I forgot Sweet Home Alabama! Reese Witherspoon is a yes, work-obsessed fashion designer in NYC, and when the Mayor’s son, Patrick Dempsey asks her to marry him, she says yes. One hitch– she has to go home to her small southern town to beg for a quickie divorce from her hot ex-husband (Josh Lucas). But Josh has other plans! Back in her Southern roots, she fights the slower, simpler ways at first, but we all know Reese loves the south! Again, just when she thought everything was falling apart, it was actually all coming together! Gotta love the second chance formula!

Reese returns to the South:

Tags: Movies

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 4:28 pm and is filed under art&music, celebrity&lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.