Chapter forty-six: Falling in Love

Hi, Merry Christmas Eve! Today, there's no fashion trend for me to gush over, but I will have you know that I am yet again wearing leggings with pockets. I hope everyone is having a good day. The Christmas spirit is definitely in the air, and I think that today's movie coincides with the holiday quite nicely.

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Falling in Love is a movie that takes place over the course of one year, starting and ending with a New York Christmas. It matches with the time being, and I could not have planned it any better if I had tried. It's about two strangers, Molly Gilmore and Frank Raftis (Meryl and Robert De Niro,) who are shopping (separately) at a bookstore on Christmas Eve in 1984, buying last-minute gifts for their spouses. In the checkout area, their bags and other presents mix and are tangled with the other person's. They end up with each other's book, but nothing comes of it.

A month or so later, Frank and Molly see each other again on a train as they head to different stops close by Molly's going to see her father in the hospital, and Frank is on his way to work where his boss later offers him a job position in Houston. They recognize each other after a while and start a conversation. Their bump-ins with each other are becoming more and more frequent as time passes, and during it all, Molly and Frank get closer and more personal with one another. They trade stories about their families. Frank tells Molly about his wife (Jane Kaczmarek) and two children, and Molly tells Frank about her husband (David Clennon) and keeps him posted on her father's condition.

Frank and Molly try to be casual about their affection for each other as best they can. Their outings together are very low-key, and they still act like friends, but eventually, their relationship becomes so personal that people start to notice, as they blow off plans with their spouses to see each other. Molly's friend, Isabelle (Dianne Weist,) in particular, notices a peppy step in her demeanor.

Frank and Molly soon become intimate in the summertime thereafter. But, Molly can't go through with it. Before it becomes too much, she admits to herself and Frank,

"I'm sorry. I can't."

It was painful to watch because there's so much anticipation leading up to it, but it's understandable. It's a big moment, and with it, Frank and Molly agree that it would be best to stop seeing each other.

At this point, Frank is ready to take his family to Houston because the only reason he was rejecting the idea was because of Molly's company. Now that he no longer has that, he's ready to discuss the idea of moving with his wife. Yet, she has beaten him to the punchline. She knows that Frank isn't being completely honest with her in their relationship and is taking the kids to her parent's in Denver on her own. Simultaneously, when Frank leaves for Huston, Molly tries to give him one last goodbye but is stopped by weather and traffic conditions on her way over. This prompts her divorce. Frank and Molly are now officially taking separate paths

Next Christmas, they find themselves in the same bookstore and briefly take the opportunity to catch up. Since they last saw each other, Molly's father has died, Frank's job is going well, and they're both recently divorced. They keep their respective distance at the store but can't help but hug on the train as the movie fades to black.

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This movie is good! It's relatively short and sweet if you're looking for a little splash of romance, which I always am. However, I wish it would have ended in a wedding because it definitely would have made all of the talking I did into my laptop worth it, "Marry him, Meryl! You know you want to! He looks really hot!" Those are the sorts of sentences I loudly whispered to my laptop screen at one in the morning the first time I watched this. Oh, how I love the sense of transportation that movies provide. Nevertheless, I like to think, in my naivety, that there's an alternate universe where they do get married and live happily ever after. In any case, that's a fairytale ending, and movies are more realistic if they don't have fairytale endings all the time because you can't always get one, especially when it comes to finding love.

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That's a wrap until after Christmas! Like Molly and Frank say to each other in the subway station, "Oh, yeah, Merry Christmas!"

As always, thank you for the entertainment, Meryl.