I chat films with Jimmy, at my office. He's always mentioning some flick I just have to see, so before Thanksgiving I asked him for a list of films I should rent. He sent this:

Repulsion
O Lucky Man!
Nil by Mouth
The Sporting Life
Elevator to the Gallows
Diabolique
Europa, Europa
Barry Lyndon (you've probably seen it) No I haven't, and I am ashamed.
Prick Up Your Ears
The Book of Eli
This Is England
Sunshine Cleaning
Haiku Tunnel
The Tao of Steve
Brittania Hospital
If

I sent the list to my wife, who took it to Family Video, which had only one, Diabolique, which was out.

What we actually watched was:

Eat Pray Love
Alice in Wonderland
The Karate Kid
Emma
Duplicity
Young Victoria
Boogie Woogie
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

We also watched young Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street, which I watch every year to see Sinterklaas speak Dutch to the little girl, Mrs Shelhammer get hammered, William Frawley not be Fred Mertz, and Gene Lockhart mug at every turn as the Judge.

As it turns out, we watched Comfort Movies. Except for Alice in Wonderland and Boogie Woogie.

How many movies would you say you KNEW the ending before it happened? I'm not talking about you figuring out the ending of Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects or Memento or whatever (good for you, Nostradamus). No, I'm talking about movies that are essentially made with the premise that you will know the ending. You know the killer will die. You know the guy and girl will get together. You know the planet will be saved. You know the home team will win. You know George Clooney will end up in a tuxedo. You know the castaways will not get off the island.

You know because you are supposed to know, the director expects you to know, the producer expects you to know, the actors essentially act like you know ... KNOWING is part of the experience. This is why sometimes you will hear people, when asked about a movie, say something like: "Oh, well, it was predictable, but it was still pretty good." There is in some of us a capacity to not only like a predictable movie, but like it BECAUSE of it's predictable. There are a lot of not-quite-A-level movies - The Family Man, Doc Hollywood, The Sure Thing, Invincible, Major League, Splash, The Fabulous Baker Boys and a hundred others I'm not thinking of now -- where, once the premise was laid out, I doubt I felt even the tiniest tinge of surprise at any point. And yet, I liked the movies anyway.

I still want to see the films from the first list but here are a few thoughts on our Thanksgiving comfort films.

Eat Pray Love
We chose the director's cut. OK, I chose the director's cut. It either was or seemed insanely long. My wife was very much looking forward to seeing this, but even she got restless. I kept wondering where all the money came from to pay for all of Julia Roberts' self-indulgence. Maybe the book royalties?

Alice in Wonderland
Should have been Alice in Narnia. The characters were drawn from Lewis Carroll, but by the end you had Wonderland's cards arrayed against Looking Glass' chess pieces, and Alice in armor wielding the vorpal sword against the Jabberwocky. Even the Mad Hatter was hacking away against a knight. Bizarre.

The Karate Kid
Should have been The Kung-Fu Kid. We liked young Jaden Smith, and old Jackie Chan, and in most ways it was a better movie than the Macchio-Morita version. But watching a skinny American bullied by brawny Chinese seemed backwards to everything I know, and it had the same stupid, I mean, predictable and comfortable ending as the original.

Emma
Gwyneth still working that Brit accent. Shall we reside at your enormous, park-like estate when we get married, or mine? I thought it was fairly well done.

Duplicity
Maybe it was a leftover from Eat Pray Love but I didn't give a rat's ass about whether Julia Roberts was fooling Clive Owen or whether he was fooling her. They fooled us, but we didn't really care.

Young Victoria
The damn DVD kept locking up. I've heard it is very good. But I know the ending.

Boogie Woogie
I couldn't predict the ending but knew it was only a matter of time before Heather Graham got naked. Danny Huston was a riot as an art dealer who couldn't talk without laughing.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
I love Frances McDormand, but Amy Adams stole the movie. We knew Miss Pettigrew and Delysia would both find true love, but there were some nice moments.

This is a Comfort Post, so there's nothing exciting or controversial at the end. But you knew that.