Still Mine
Posted on July 18, 2013 at 6:00 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and brief sensuality/partial nudity |
| Profanity: | Mild language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | None |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Sad themes of aging and loss |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | July 19, 2013 |
Why do we spend so much time in movies watching young people fall in love? Why is the wedding so often the happy ending? “Still Mine” is a beautifully performed true-life tale of a couple who have been deeply in love for 70 years. That is a love story.
James Cromwell (“Babe”) plays Craig Morrison, a flinty, taciturn, stubbornly independent man in his 90’s who is committed to caring for his wife, Irene (the exquisitely lovely Geneviève Bujold), as she is struggling with becoming forgetful. Their seven grown children are concerned, but Irene wants to stay at home and Craig is resolute. He has land and he knows how to build. When she falls down the stairs in their home, he decides he will build a new house for them on their land, something small, simple, and one-story, where he can keep her safe.
The local building authorities tell him that he is in violation of their rules. They have no reason to believe that the structure is unsafe. But they have regulations about the certification of lumber and various other check-list requirements that his home does not meet. As the movie opens, he is in court, with the judge to decide whether he will go to jail for contempt, or go home to his wife.
We then go back two years to see what has led to this court appearance, in a series of sensitively understated scenes brimming with privileged moments. It is clear that the depth tenderness between Craig and Irene is earned over a period of decades. And it is so sweetly portrayed it will make you eager to get old.
Parents should know that this movie’s themes include aging and loss. There is a sad death.
Family discussion: How should families talk about end of life issues? Do you agree with the way the Morrison’s children and grandson respond to them? What is the best way for government authorities like the building inspectors to ensure the safety of the community but give people like Craig the freedom they need?
If you like this, try: “The Straight Story” and some of the earlier films with the immensely talented Cromwell and Bujold like “Babe,” “W,” “King of Hearts,” and “Anne of the Thousand Days”
Cher won an Oscar as the bookkeeper who has given up on love until she meets the brother of her fiance, who tells her:
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet find that they really don’t want to forget each other, no matter how painful love can be.
This third version of the story of a couple who are at war in person, not realizing that they are tender lovers through the mail, updates the story to the computer age. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have so much chemistry on screen that we know from the first moment what it will take them the whole movie to discover — they are meant to be together. Be sure to watch the earlier versions, 
with James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan and the musical 
with Judy Garland and Van Johnson.
On the eve of her wedding, socialite Tracy Lord’s ex-husband shows up with a couple of journalists and we get to watch three of the greatest stars in Hollywood history sort out their affections. This movie has everything: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart (who won an Oscar), George Cukor as director, wit, heart, and romance and an important lesson about how sometimes it is not about falling in love but recognizing that we have already fallen.
As tough guy Humphrey Bogart meets the even-tougher Lauren Bacall (only 19 years old when this was filmed), we get to see the real-life romantic sparks that gave the on-screen love story some extra sizzle. Watch her tell him how to whistle.