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I’m writing you from Michigan. My Dad is sick and here I came to help out for a little while. I’ve claimed a certain family room chair and side table as my perch. 

I grew up in this house, took prom pictures on the porch, and I remember where I was in this house when I got the call that CBS News was offering me a job out of college. Also where I was when i went through my first teary breakup with a boy. Childhood homes are a crazy thing. And so is the neighborhood I live in, set right on a picturesque lake that brings me peace. It all holds a lot of memories, this town. It’s called Grosse Pointe. I digress. 

As I sit here, dad reclines a few feet away from me in a power chair LAZYBOY recliner that has been an absolute God-send as he goes through some medical stuff. As he dozes in and out, I bond with my remote control. And it’s quite a lackluster bonding, because I find cable TV a real buzz kill. How is it there are so many channels and nothing ever good on?

I’ve just rented my 6th movie. Or is it my 7th. I really have no memory at this point. Nonetheless, renting movies has got me to thinking about my Top Ten. Those movies I could watch endlessly, over and over, recite the lines, hum the theme music, and never get bored of. (PS: I recently discovered The Movie Tavern and I think it is the most brilliant concept ever…that is if we are talking movies. Again i digress.) 

So let’s set the stage: I don’t love going to the theater to watch movies because I get claustrophobic, uncomfortable in those erect chairs, and panicked if I have to pee, mid plot. So I much prefer renting on demand from home. My movie candy of choice - Raisinettes. Washed down with Sour Patch Kids. I’m super sensitive to movie sound that’s too loud. Again, noe of this intel is important I’m just saying. And if you do plan to watch from home, I highly recommend getting the Bose Solo 5 Sound System, it turns your TV into an epic theater surround sound heaven. Either way, movies bring back memories, they conjure up feelings, and perhaps that’s why we bond with the ones we love. Watch them over and over. because they make us feel good or safe or nostalgic. 

Here are my Top 10 … of all time:

#10 James Bond anything, especially vintage

As we speak I am watching Goldfinger. Probably the best most classic Bond pic ever. I’ve seen it easily 25 times, maybe more. While home I’ve also rented You Only Live Twice, Thunderball, From Russia With Love, and caught a glimpse of Octopussy. Sean Connery was the best Bond in my opinion (but I’m a smitten for modern day Bond, Daniel Craig). The vintage Bond's released in the 60’s and 70’s were the best. The soundtrack, the villains, the gadgets. I grew up watching Bond with my Dad and brother, every Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were always Bond marathons on TV and it became a family tradition. I can recite the lines from any number of Bond movies, I know a boatload of Bond trivia, and once I got into a standoff with the President of CBS News when he challenged me on my Bond knowledge. On any given rainy day, or day I feel like I need comforting or to feel safe and cozy, I turn on Bond. No doubt. 

#9 The Holiday 

C’mon this is movie gold. The perfect dream romance scenario. Single American girl flees to the countryside of England and tucks into a tiny picturesque cottage hoping to escape life, her high powered career, and her nasty breakup…and wouldn’t you know, Jude Law knocks on her door (literally), and they fall in love. He’s completely handsome, I mean dreamy. And that ridiculous accent. And he’s a widow, so of course you feel wildly sorry for him. And his daughters are like beyond cute and they too have ridiculously adorable British accents. And that’s just half the plot. 

Warning: I once asked Santa for a British accent and anything that takes place in England I pretty much flip over.

#8 Pride And Prejudice with Keira Knightly

I love period flicks. And there is nothing better than unrequited love, or even the mere appearance of it. I am in love with Mr Darby in this movie, I mean it. When he says to Ms. Bennett, “You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love..I love..I love you” .. I’m not joking, I can feel my heart beat out of my chest and a lump forms in my throat. It is the most romantic thing I honestly have ever witnessed. 

#7 The Pink Panther 

Isaac and I once hummed a key song from this classic movie, during one of our shows. Music back then was so killer…it was the 60’s, lounge martini Euro swagger kind of music. And the plot all takes place in the snowy picturesque chic Alps. David Niven stars, as does Robert Wagner. There are jewels, intrigue, dashingly handsome men and women. The music is very “swish”, Peter Sellers is of course, a hot mess of hopeless police shenanigans, and his wife is wildly glamorous. They ski, they wear dinner jackets, and it’s all very fabulously retro. 

By the way, I’ll never look at Peter Sellers the same. Joan Rivers once told me, most casually, that she met her husband thanks to Peter Sellers when she was on The Tonight Show. Of course she did. Oh Joan.

#6 The Sound of Music

I studied in Switzerland in college. One weekend we trained into Austria…Salzburg…and we took the SOM tour. Oh yes, complete with a tour bus that took us up into the Alps, and all the way the guide led us in a singing rendition of 'Do Ray Me'. It was fabulous. Cheesy fabulous. We ate strudel at a little bakery across from the church where they filmed the wedding scene with Maria and Cptn Von Trapp…and every Thanksgiving when this one comes on, the whole family watches. I’ve even gotten Joe into it. 

#5 Somethings Gotta Give

Just watched this with Dad. He loves it. Did you know there is a scene in it where Jack Nicholson says to Diane Keaton, that he’s busy watching “Joan Rivers sell stuff” on TV? That made me smile so hard. I love that Diane Keaton wears turtlenecks in high summer. Brilliant. I cried like a baby through most of the last half hour. A great movie is one that no matter how old it gets, the humor, the wit, the plot, the acting, never feel dated, or old. This was as funny and charming and funny when we watched it ... as it was the first time I saw it 13 years ago. 

And btw, i want that house in the Hamptons.

#4 The Ocean’s Trilogy

11, 12, 13 .. Ahhh vegas. I think it would be insurmountably cool to have lived during the Vegas 'Rat Pack' days. Joe and i visited Vegas after years of me having no interest and protesting. I have to admit, I kind of fell a little in love with it. Joe frequently says the concert he wishes he could attend, would be Sinatra. And I for one am an old soul so I would have much preferred doing Vegas back in the days of the Sands and the Dunes, and Sammy Davis Jr…but Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and that motley crew of bickering misfits is pretty entertaining I admit. I love a good heist movie, especially when there’s no gratuitous violence. And the soundtrack…

#3 To Catch A Thief (2nd runner up: Charade)

A great Cary Grant movie that takes place in Europe, and involves an epic romance set against a backdrop of wealth and intrigue, is irreplaceable. How come they don’t make movies like this anymore. Or men. Or women. Those were the days. Everything was a little bit more civilized. Grace Kelly. Audrey Hepburn. Women carried pocketbooks. Men wore pocket squares. No adult language or scantily clad scenes needed to grip an audience or tell a compelling story.  

#2 Love Actually

The first few minutes of a movie are quite important. In my book, they are the hook. In most cases if the first few minutes are weak or illogical or empty, I’m out. In 'Love Actually’, the first few minutes are among the most profound, the best. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. i don’t want to give it away. Lets just say its an airport scene. Arrivals. People hugging. Greeting. Embracing. It says a lot about life, that picture of families uniting. And Hugh Grant who narrates the opening makes an observation about humanity, about life after 9/11, and about love, just by watching the arrivals gate at an airport. 

I love this movie because it takes place in England. Duh. But then I love it because it follows the unlikely course that love takes in the lives of countless people. Countless people who are a little unhappy, or lost, or trying to figure out what love looks like. And well, I just like the concept. Love. (And the soundtrack, again, is quite awesome.) 

#1 Step Brothers

It’s just so ridiculously funny. Sophomoric I don’t deny. But absolutely replete with one liners that have you howling, if you can commit to the brainless funny of it all. Joe and I cannot get enough of this one. We once watched it with my Dad, and he couldn’t quite get into it. I don’t deny, it’s not for everyone. Perhaps it’s a generational thing. There is nothing like a great laugh. That’s all. My best laughs are those that make me cry, literally cry. I love laughs like that.  

Ok my Top Ten is done. Now, lay it on me. What movies rank in yours?

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