Beliefnet’s List of Great Movie Marriages

Be sure to check out Ten Movies that Celebrate Marriage by Kris Rasmussen. There are a zillion movies that celebrate falling in love but relatively few take on the more challenging task of showing what happens next — what living happily ever after really means. I was glad to see Julie & Julia on the list. The portrayal of the real-life marriage of Paul and Julia Child as passionate, supportive, understanding, and deeply loving was one of the great cinematic treats of 2009. And the wordless depiction of a decades long marriage that began Pixar’s Up conveyed more in a few brief moments than most movies do in two hours. I liked her mentioning both versions of “Shall We Dance” and “Father of the Bride.” And of course there is special sweetness in the Spencer Tracy speech she quotes from “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” because it was clear that he was really speaking about his love for his co-star, Katherine Hepburn.

My own list of great movie depictions of marriage would include Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney in Two for the Road. But because we follow them over time, I think television does a better job in showing us great marriages — think of Ricky and Lucy, Rob and Laura, Cliff and Claire, as well as the couples in “Mad About You,” “Growing Pains,” “Home Improvement,” and many, many more.