Movies:
Shopgirl - When I read this novel by Steve Martin it disappointed me because it seemed so inconsequential and airy. After I watched the movie I also watched the "Making Of" featurette on the DVD and Martin described his feelings that as an author, this could never have been made into a movie. But, surprisingly, once he began writing the screenplay and found the right director and the actors for the main characters (himself included), it all came together beautifully. The lonely shopgirl (Claire Danes) finds the one who will love and cherish her (Jason Schwartmann), but only after she lives through a relationship with an older man (Martin) who was unable to dedicate himself to their future. The ending, by which time the older man has realized that the shopgirl could have been his lifelong destination, is achingly sweet and made me cry.

The Family Stone - I have a fondness for movies about moderately dysfunctional families that are set during the Christmas season. Although this film slowed to a crawl in the middle, and the final scenes were predictable and sentimental, I still found it warm and entertaining. Claire Danes appeared in this one as well, although in a somewhat tangential role in which she only had to appear as a sociable, outgoing woman to contrast with her redwood-up-the-ass sister played by Sarah Jessica Parker. That sentimental scene I mentioned a few sentences ago? That made me cry too.