Kelly's Top Five Movie Love Triangles

Kelly from Kellyvision and I often talk books, TV and movies. We often discuss love triangles as well. She's Team Rainer, and I am firmly Team Jordan for Rebecca Serle's Famous In Love series. Our discussion about this book resulted in me asking her to take part in this week long event, and she graciously agreed.

Here is her guest post on her top five favourite movie love triangles...

When Kathy and I were talking about how much we loved Famous in Love, I said that one of my favorite parts is that---while there's a love triangle---there isn't a bad choice to be made.  Both guys are equally wonderful and the "right choice" is a matter of personal taste.  That isn't always true.

I am a huge fan of movies and one of my secret shames is that I love a good love story.  And one of the things it seems that you can't get away from is a love triangle.  (And unlike in Famous in Love, in these cases, there is a definitive right answer and a wrong one.)

Here are my top 5 favorite cinematic love triangles!  (There are spoilers...and potentially unpopular opinions.)

Pretty In Pink (Molly Ringwald-Andrew McCarthy-Jon Cryer).  (Fun fact: this is the only movie I picked where the first choice is also the final choice!)  I am starting to feel like the only person in the world who hated Duckie in this movie.  Is it the fact that I find Jon Cryer to be the world's most obnoxious person? Could be! It's highly possible that I would've hated the ending if they had cast the OTHER choice for Duckie, one Robert Downey Jr.  I think that he could have made it obvious that Duckie's grating personality hid a great deal of vulnerability and would have made him charming.  Instead, while Andrew McCarthy's Blane has plenty of flaws of his own, he's at least a person and not a cartoon character.  I pick Blane; she picked Blane.

Gone With the Wind (Vivien Leigh-Clark Gable-Leslie Howard).  Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite movies ever and I'm honestly not sure that this really counts as a love triangle just because Scarlett never really loves the two at the same time.  Instead, Ashley Wilkes is sort of her ideal, the person she wishes that she could be with, and Rhett Butler is the person she SHOULD be with, although she doesn't realize it until she's too late.  (Also, I'm pretty sure that Clark Gable is one of the most handsome people who ever lived.  I don't see the appeal of Leslie Howard AT ALL.)  I pick Rhett; she picked Rhett. (But too late.)

Sweet Home Alabama (Reese Witherspoon-Josh Lucas-Patrick Dempsey).  Here's probably another unpopular opinion of mine: If all things are equal and you have a choice between handsome, kind man who loves you and New York City and handsome, kind man who loves you and Alabama, YOU PICK THE ONE IN NEW YORK.  No offense to Josh Lucas, but Patrick Dempsey is also cuter.  Even so, this movie is a total guilty pleasure of mine and I do watch it every time I see it on TV.  (I pick McDreamy and New York; she picked Alabama.)

Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn-Humphrey Bogart-William Holden).  My friend Paul hates this movie because, he says, it's inherently flawed: who picks Humphrey Bogart when they could have William Holden? The answer: Sabrina, the chauffeur's daughter.  Like in Gone With the Wind, she spends the bulk of the movie pining after the wrong guy only to realize the right guy is RIGHT THERE.  And, you know, Rick from Casablanca.  I know everyone loves Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany's the best, but this is my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie.  No contest.  (She picked Bogart; I pick Bogart.)

Bull Durham (Susan Sarandon-Kevin Costner-Tim Robbins).  It's a personality quirk of mine that I hate sports but love sports movies.  This is my favorite baseball movie (Field of Dreams is a close second) and most of it has to do with the love story.  Susan Sarandon plays Annie, a woman in love with baseball and its players.  Each season she picks a player and they have a fling.  This year's contenders: Crash Davis (Costner) and Nuke LaLoosh (Robbins).  Initially, she goes with Tim Robbins, but ultimately ends up with Kevin Costner.  There are some great speeches in this one, too.  (We both pick Crash.)