The RP’s Five Most Romantic Screen Scenes in the Rain

Maybe it’s the fact that Mrs. RP and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary this past weekend. Or perhaps I’m just getting a little tired of the hot and muggy weather.

Whatever the cause, my bow to pop culture this week reveals the Top Five Romantic Screen Scenes in the Rain.

(For my previous pop culture half-Lettermans, check out my Favorite Breakup Songs, Favorite Hoops Books, Most Jew-ish Gentiles, Favorite “Docs” who Weren’t Doctors, Pretty Boys I Begrudgingly Admire, Guilty Pleasures, Pop Music Lyrics, and Awful TV Shows with Terrific Theme Songs.)

I’m not sure of the precise scientific link between romance and precipitation, but it’s real; it’s widespread, and it’s soaking wet. There’s just something in the water…that makes a love scene so powerful and/or tear inducing.

So here goes–the top five screen love scenes that are all wet:

5.  Casablanca

The granddaddy of all romantic rain scenes loses a few points because both Bogie and Bergman stay inexplicably dry amidst the gray, foggy drizzle. But aaaahhhhh, the romance…Humphrey Bogart’s cynical Rick risks his own life during WWII and makes the ultimate sacrifice: providing safe passage for the woman he loves and her Resistance hero husband. And as “As Times Go By” plays solemnly in the background, the Kentucky Derby of movie scenes (the most exciting two-minutes in film) packs in three of cinema’s greatest lines: “It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”; “We’ll always have Paris”; and “Here’s looking at you, Kid.” Watch it here, and then play it again, Sam:

4. Spiderman

As we await the latest reboot of this epic Stan Lee franchise, it’s important to remember that the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst trilogy stood out less for its supernatural feats of strength and power — C’mon, it was Tobey Maguire, for goodness sake — but rather for the aching, unconsummated three-way romance among the forlorn Peter Parker, his alter ego Spiderman, and the beautiful ingenue, Mary Jane Watson. The climax of their romance comes in a kiss: As Spidey hangs upside down on a building’s edge in a dark, dreary alley in the middle of a rain storm, a dripping wet Mary Jane removes just enough of his mask to reveal his lips, and then plants a sloppy one on him.  Watch it here, and just try not to gush.

3.  The Notebook

OK, gotta admit:  Didn’t care too much for this click-flick schlock. But I had to throw it in here for the RPettes, for this is the scene that will define their generation’s vision of young romance. After seven years of waiting for each other, the two lovers stand in a wholesome field…Rain Pouring…They exchange sorrowful shouts…He lifts her in his arms…Draws her closely to kiss…They lock lips…BLECHHHH!!!.  At least it has inspired a fairly funny satire about cell phone use during the previews of pretty much every movie I’ve seen this summer.  OK, you young’uns out there in RP Nation, here it is:

2.  The Office

Sorry if you don’t approve — and I’m the first to admit, one of these scenes is not like the others — but this atypical romance really struck a chord in me.  The show that consistently makes me laugh week after week, even in repeats, actually brought a tear to my eye, which is quite a feat.  There’s just something about the agonies and misadventures of Michael Scott — this well-meaning, heart-breakingly earnest loser — who finally finds his soulmate, loses her for a year because of a heartless corporate policy, and then wins her back.  A small man of grand gestures, Michael proposes to Holly in his uniquely preposterous way, all goes awry, and yet they share their beautiful moment while doing off-kilter, slightly inaccurate Yoda impressions.  Enjoy:

1. (Say…)Anything with John Cusack

I am John Cusack.   We’re roughly the same age, size, build. As a young teen, I was the brace-faced geek who tagged along with a pack of nerds a la Sixteen Candles.  And a few years later, I was Lloyd Dobler of Say Anything, the smart-alecky, slightly unhinged high school senior vainly in search of the woman of his dreams. As an adult, I did (and still do)have a long term relationship with a brunette beauty who spent critical time in Guelph, Canada (Me: Mrs. RP; Cuzack: Neve Campbell). And I most certainly entered a portal that landed me inside of John Malkovitch’s brain, only to be thrown out onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Since all of his greatest romantic work occurred in the rain, it is fitting that this list is topped by a montage of the rain-soaked passion that is John Cusack:

So, RP Nation, how did I do?  What did I miss?  Please comment below: