In the digital age of social media and smartphones, the practice of hand-writing letters is on the decline. On December 7th, we honor this disappearing art form on National Letter Writing Day. These five films center around pen pals who cultivate relationships through handwritten letters. Letter writing helps the characters in these films reveal their true selves and forge a connection with an unexpected stranger. The friendships and romances that unfold through these letters will warm your heart this December.
84 Charing Cross Road
A search for some rare books leads aspiring Manhattan writer Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) to contact London-based antiquarian bookseller Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins). So begins a loyal business relationship quickly turned friendship spanning post-WWII to the late'60s. Hopkins and Bancroft are terrific as the two bibliophiles drawn by their mutual interest though doomed to never actually meet, let alone consummate their sublimated love for each other.
Check out our review of 84 Charing Cross Road
The Lunchbox
Set in contemporary Mumbai, this is a romantic tale of strangers who fall in love through letters. A lonely widower with little joy in his life, Saajan one day opens his lunchbox, only to discover that it's not his. Instead of his usual drab, store-bought fare, this meal was prepared by Ila, the neglected wife of a workaholic businessman. Soon Saajan and Ila are exchanging inquisitive, then revealing, and even intimate handwritten messages via the daily lunchbox.
Check out our review of The Lunchbox
Mary and Max
Max is a tragicomically warped victim of modern urban society who can't hold a job or connect with other human beings. Eight-year-old Australian Mary Daisy Dinkle, seemingly doomed to a similar life of dysfunction and loserdom, chooses Max's name randomly from a phone book in search of a pen pal. Her initial letter sets off a 20-year correspondence between these two equally damaged souls, and we learn the full story of their comically pathetic lives through their offbeat missives to one another—up until the fateful day when grown-up Mary decides to visit old-man Max in New York.
Check out our review of Mary and Max
Moonrise Kingdom
On an idyllic island off New England's Narragansett Bay in September 1965, two alienated, rebellious 12-year-olds fall in love and decide to run away together. Orphaned outcast Sam Shakusky is tired of being bullied by Khaki Scout Troop 55 at Camp Ivanhoe, while sullen Suzy Bishop peers through binoculars, eager to escape from her younger brothers, morose father Walt and harried mother Laura, who is having an affair with the local sheriff, Captain Sharp. A breath of cinematic fresh air.
Check out our review of Moonrise Kingdom
The Shop Around the Corner
This 1940 romantic comedy stars James Stewart as Alfred Kralik and Margaret Sullavan as Klara Novak, two feuding clerks in a Budapest shop who--unbeknownst to one another--have been having an anonymous romance through the mail after Klara placed a personal ad. If the plot sounds familiar, it should: the film was remade in 1949 as the musical In the Good Old Summertime and again in 1998 as You've Got Mail. While both remakes have their particular charms, neither eclipses the feel-good original with its wonderful onscreen chemistry between Stewart and Sullavan, nutty but endearing supporting characters, and warm and witty script.
Check out our review of The Shop Around the Corner