Top 10 movies with the write stuff

Snowed in? Hooray! Grab your Netflix or Amazon Prime account (or finagle one somehow, I won’t look) and check out these films that explore many aspects of the writerly life. Some are biopics, some pure fun.
These are in no particular order, except the number one slot, a duh choice for most female writers since 1930’s when the first version starring Kate Hepburn made its debut. (Please note: This is not an exhaustive list. Similar lists exist, but many—if not most—seem entranced with the raunchier aspects of author life and are very male-oriented.)

Yuletide season selections (cue eggnog and gingerbread)

• Little Women: Any version, really, but my personal favorites are the lushly beautiful and deeply felt 2005 film with Winona Ryder and the 2019 time-jumble one starring Saoirse Ronan, which brilliantly investigates the profitable write-to-market vs no-compromise conundrum.  
• Christmas in Connecticut (1945) Barbara Stanwyck plays a syndicated magazine food writer who is utterly clueless about cooking in this screwball rom-com. Her hack-writing life reminds us to be truthful to yourself—and your talent.
• The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) Ever feel like your characters are bossing you around? Here’s your movie. Dan Stevens’ Charles Dickens is intense, hilarious, moving, and memorable. I adore this movie and what it taught me about authorship and the power of the pen.
• Miss Potter (2007) Renee Zellweger is touching, poignant, and convincing as Beatrix Potter, Victorian-era author of the Peter Rabbit books. The Christmas scenes alone are worth the price of admission, but its deep study of creativity and the importance of story to authors—well, it’s beautiful. Don’t miss this!

For any ol’ time viewing–

• Out of Africa (1985)Merle Streep plays Danish writer Isak Dinesen whose writing is inspired by her romantic, sweeping life in Africa. Oh, and Robert Redford plays her lover, who isn’t exactly a hardship to watch.
• The Ghost Writer (2010) Need a little noir? This nail-bitingly suspenseful tale of a no-name author who sells out his talent and is dragged into some gnarly political insanity will keep you guessing. Ewan McGregor stars with Pierce Brosnan, so there’s that, too.
• Genius (2018) Once I got over the confusion of a nearly pure Brit/Aussie cast for a VERY American story, I was fine. Lyrical novelist Thomas Wolfe (Look Homeward, Angel) played by Jude Law embodies authorial angst. This moody, well-done film warns of the dangers of believing your own press. (I’m no Hemingway fan but this film made me reconsider him. The chap playing F. Scott Fitzgerald is particularly marvelous.)
• Old Acquaintance (1943) Bette Davis is a serious, much-lauded author; her longtime best frenemy (Miriam Hopkins) grinds out pulpy potboilers. Davis and Hopkins were real-life enemies, so the acidic chemistry between them crackles.
• Shakespeare in Love (1999) What fuels the writerly imagination? In Shakespeare’s case, this film declares the muse is a lady love. Full of laughs and sighs, this treasure is insightful and oh, so gorgeously produced.
• Becoming Jane (2007) Anne Hathaway convincingly tackles the role of Jane Austen in this biopic that explores some of the influences that may (or may not) have informed her writing. Stunning and terribly romantic.

BONUS: Father was a Fullback (1949) Betty Lynn (best known for being Barney Fife’s longsuffering girlfriend on the Andy Griffith Show) is fetching and funny as a high school-age wannabee romance writer. Fred MacMurray, Maureen O’Hara, and the adorable Natalie Wood round out her family. If you yearned to be a writer when you were a teen, you’ll recognize your own stages of development in this sweet comedy. Happily for us, the film’s on YouTube for free! Here’s the link …you’ll love it! 

So, grab some popcorn (and maybe your journal) and snuggle in with a film that uniquely speaks to any writer’s soul. Like the pageboy in Good King Wenceslas, you’ll be treading in your master’s steps–these movies are places “where the snow lay dinted” and you’ll find reassuring heat in the very sod which this motley catalog of authorial “saints” have printed.

Merry Christmas and have a wonder-filled new year!

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1,2