Random musings while watching a rom com from the late 1990s.

Yesterday, I ended up watching "Return to Me", a sweet little romantic comedy from about 10 years ago. It stars David Duchovny as a widower whose wife was the heart organ donor for Minnie Driver. The two meet years later and fall in love. In an eerie twist, Natasha Richardson plays the wife who dies too young.

I found myself reflecting on a whole bunch of things, watching this movie for the first time in years. To wit:

• I was struck by how many nods to the Catholic church are found throughout the movie. Minnie Driver plays Grace, an Irish Catholic whose Grandfather (Carol O'Connor) runs an Irish Italian restaurant where Robert Loggia is the chef. Praying the rosary, priests coming for dinner, the works. It makes me want to watch "Going my Way" again!
  
• I kept thinking: "What a fun blend - and Irish and Italian family". Until I realized that's what I have! D'oh. I mean, Newfoundlanders are as close to the Irish as you'll find outside Ireland.
• But man - the beginning of that movie is SO SAD. I was maybe 22 the last time I watched this movie and I knew it to be sad. But this time, it was all that I could do to fight off tears. The husband and the dog missing the late wife - GAH! I guess at 22, I had far less to lose and so identified with it in a more abstract manner. No longer.

This movie is set in Chicago, just like "While You Were Sleeping", another fave. It seems to me that they aren't making these sweet, light-hearted movies any more. I miss them.