Couples Movies Staff Picks!
By: Couples Counseling Center Staff
Hooray for Hollywood!
Planning a movie night with your significant other can create a rare opportunity to leave behind the rut in which we all tend to find ourselves. There’s something just kind of cool about watching something funny and silly with the person you love. Deciding on what to watch, however, can sometimes be a challenge.
To help take the guess work out of the process, we polled our Chicago couples therapy staff and came up with a list of five couple friend movies that are pretty much guaranteed to get your giggles on.
FYI: Here at Couples Counseling Center in Chicago, we regularly suggest “movie therapy” as way of helping couples spark laughter, closeness and romance. While it is true that movie watching can be a somewhat passive activity, it is also true that sharing a funny flick with someone close can act as a conduit for conversation and by extension, conversation. For couples who struggle with communication issues, movie-therapy can act as a kind of jumping board of common interests.
OK – check out our five staff picks for fun couples movies. Many of these can be downloaded directly to your personal electronic device or streamed via services like Netflix and Hulu-Plus. Not bad for a cheap date, huh? And yes, we recognize that some of the films mentioned here are not new but that doesn’t change the fact they are fun to watch!
1) “Magic Mike”
This romantic drama/comedy is a look at how even the lure of money and fame as well as the excess that can come with that, may be bested by a chance to have a long-term, warm connection. Channing Tatum as Magic Mike, will take you and yours on a journey together from the sometimes seedy life of exotic dancing to what defines a true connection between people.
This film helps put away the idea that lasting relationships must be born out of a neat and orderly background, but can indeed, be the island in a storm that changes each other’s life.
2) “Meet the Parents”
Told from a man’s perspective, this laugh-a-minute comedy can easily sweep a couple into the seemingly nutty experiences of meeting each other’s families. You and your partner may really connect over these less than perfect moments that sometimes turn out to be truer than most would like to admit.
This wacky film does a splendid job of helping everyone understand how powerless one you can feel when you really care about something and just want it to be perfect. It also reminds couples that extended family can really add complicated dynamics to any relationship, no matter how strong you may think it is.
3) “Coming to America”
This movie is the true example of fun and fantasy. Eddie Murphy, Samuel Jackson and Cuba Gooding Jr., make it easy to suspend disbelief and take a magic carpet ride with them as the characters navigate the same difficult cultural peculiarities and misunderstandings, especially in love, that you all face at times, even after being together a long time.
This movie can serve you and your partner also by simply allowing the both of you to walk through the magic door of film that allows you both or de-stress and be a part of a world where everything works out.
4) “Knocked Up”
No one understands how it feels to deal with the unpredictable nature of child baring than most of you who met someone you simple fell in love with almost immediately. This film can allow you and your spouse or partner a chance to see that relationships don’t have to always be perfect and shiny to work. Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl offer an emotional but humorous performance that could spark understanding for both sides of this sometimes clunky situation.
The film also provides an opportunity for couples to understand that sometimes making things work and caring for someone else requires a real commitment as well as the personal decision to consider others.
5) “Tootsie”
Nothing spells hope for what may feel to you like a doomed, dead relationship better than Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of a man on a mission to save his family. This film’s portrayal of the misunderstandings that sometimes precede the end of a long-term, otherwise solid relationship can perhaps open the door to similar feelings you or your spouse or partner might have.
This film considers both sides of the story in an equal and fair way and can provide a less dark framework or foundation on which to discuss these issues and come to a plan that provides everyone in the family with what your family needs.
Final Thoughts
Take the time to make a movie night with each other. It’s easy to plan and easy on the pocket book. Try to see through the lens of others how differently you and your partner can choose to communicate. There is not a one-size-fits-all requirement in love.
You can make your relationship exactly what you want by learning fun and inventive ways to consider the other person in your life through the non-threatening act of simply hunkering down in the sofa with some popcorn and a good movie together!