Best Film Couples: Part One

Ask 10 people what are the best film couples and you will get 10 different answers. This is my list. Get your own.

• Carey Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious. The gold standard by which all romantic film couples are judged. Scary-hot, tense, dangerous. My pulse races just thinking about it. The definition of chemistry.
• John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean in Best in Show: As Scott Donlan and Stefan Vanderhoof, the Tribeca-dwelling shih tzu owners who finish each other’s sentences, sing their dogs to sleep, and comically and poignantly describe how they met (“The great American love story…On the marquee…writ large: US!”). They are just beautiful together.
• John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Liasons. Tragic, creepy, and moving. Two of the saddest death scenes ever.
• Butch and Sundance (Had to be said)
• Brad Pitt and Edward Norton as Tyler Durden and The Narrator in Fight Club. The embodiment of that whole”You complete me” shtick.
• Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort in Harold and Maude. We should all be this lucky.
• Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in It’s a Wonderful Life. Chalk up another one for chemistry. An excellent script helps too, as do really professional actors who know how to become their characters.
• Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in Annie Hall. Opposites attract, and a sense of humor is more effective than good looks any day. Here is the proof.
• Doris and Rock in Pillow Talk. Ding! Ding! Ding! This example has all the ingredients: Good looks, humor, great script, tension, chemistry to BURN, camaraderie, excellent acting, great characters. You cannot help but fall in love with these two. To her credit, Doris Day had magical chemistry with James Garner and most of her other co-stars as well.
• Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. Just for the scene on the yacht alone, these two rank. Honorable Mention goes to the couple of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the same movie.
• Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek in Desperado. Once upon a time, couples made no bones about their intentions. No mincing words, or lighthearted banter. Just get right down to it and set the place on fire.
• Maggie Gyllenhall and James Spader in Secretary. The official offbeat choice of this list. Not every couple is mainstream. Clearly not this one. But they are completely believable and compelling.
• Warren Beatty and and Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass. Angst! Tragedy! Good actors! He is another one who can work up the steam with his co-stars: Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton. I think he might have been f^cking them off screen as well. Please. Like you wouldn’t.
• Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver in The Year of Living Dangerously. This is a smoking hot couple whose romance takes on a much deeper meaning and understanding when it is tested by making hard, moral choices in the middle of war. Great scene in the rain.

I’m not done. Back with Part Two later…..