A friend of mine—a friend who reads my blog and paints churches with me in the wee weekend hours—suggested I blog occasionally about family movies, since my family and I watch quite a few. Good idea, Cris! As it turns out, I feel the need to shout from the rooftops about ANNIE today …
… because my daughter had some minor surgery yesterday and had a rough afternoon recovering from the anesthesia. Her brothers and I comforted her as best we could, but eventually gave up and turned to ANNIE for help.
I am sure that some of my devotion to this movie is nostalgic in origin. I was thirteen when the movie was released in 1982, and I fell in love with every aspect of the film. Aileen Quinn (Annie) was a kid, like me. (Okay, not so like me. I could not sing or dance and did not have the nerve to speak up in class never mind star on stage. But she was an orphan, and I was, too. I had always suspected orphans were special, and Annie convinced me I was right.) Ann Reinking (Grace) was beautiful and maternal and lovely. Albert Finney (Daddy Warbucks) was strong and successful and a big softie. And he kind of looked like my grandfather. Carol Burnett (Miss Hannigan) was, to me, the perfect villainess (which is to say, a good gal in the end).
ANNIE is rated PG, mostly because of Miss Hannigan’s excessive drinking, cruelty to her orphans, and irascible attempts at marrying her way out of the orphanage. This is a great family film, especially if you have song-and-dance fans in the house. I highly recommend the soundtrack, which has brightened many a dreary day around here. My little patient fell asleep humming “The sun’ll come out … tomorrow …