Movie Monday : Christina Ricci

Preciously plump or scarily skinny, Christina Ricci will always be my favorite actress. In my eyes she can do no wrong. I've always loved her precocious, outspoken nature. And she's got that kind of unaware beauty I admire. Not a classic beauty, but edgy and a little dark. Maybe I'm a little bias because she was such a prevalent part of my adolescent years. It was a tough task narrowing it down to five, but here are five of Christina Ricci's movies that I think everyone needs to make sure they see, at least once. In alphabetical order.

After.Life (2009)

 After a horrific car accident, Anna (Christina Ricci) wakes up to find the local funeral director Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson) preparing her body for her funeral. Confused, terrified, and feeling still very much alive, Anna doesn't believe shes dead, despite the funeral director's reassurances that she is merely in transition to the afterlife. Eliot convinces her he has the ability to communicate with the dead and is the only one who can help her. Trapped inside the funeral home, with nobody to turn to except Eliot, Anna is forced to face her deepest fears and accept her own death. But Anna's grief-stricken boyfriend Paul (Justin Long) still can't shake the nagging suspicion that Eliot isn't what he appears to be. As the funeral nears, Paul gets closer to unlocking the disturbing truth, but it could be too late; Anna may have already begun to cross over to the other side.

Buffalo '66 (1998)

Having just served five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo)'s first desperate post-incarceration action is to search for somewhere to relieve himself. Oddly enough, the first thing he does is try to go back into the prison he was released from and denied. Then, to impress his dunceish, thoroughly neglectful parents (Ben Gazzara & Anjelica Huston), Billy kidnaps a dance class student named Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his wife. Layla allows herself to be kidnapped and it is clear she is romantically attracted to Billy from the start, but Billy all the while is compelled to deal with his own demons, his loneliness and his depression, and it is only at the end that he allows Layla to give him the love and comfort he has been needing all his life.

 Penelope (2006)

This is the story of young woman a named Penelope (Christina Ricci), who is the victim of a curse placed on a wealthy family by a witch. Many generations ago, a witch placed a curse on the Wilhern family that would result in the next girl being born into the clan having the face of a pig. The otherwise-normal girl Penelope is forced to endure life with a pig's snout instead of a conventional nose, which has sent many a potential suitor running off into the streets, shouting in terror. Eventually, she runs away from her sheltered existence and overprotective parents (Richard E. Grant & Catherine O'Hara), to explore the world on her own. As she meets new friends (Reese Witherspoon) and a potential lover (James McAvoy) who doesn't run away, she begins to discover happiness - while all the while her parents believe the only way she can be happy is through an arranged marriage, which they hope will break her curse.

Prozac Nation (2001)

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wurtzel (Christina Ricci) is a 19-year-old girl accepted into Harvard with a scholarship in journalism. She has been raised by her divorced mother (Jessica Lange) since she was two years old and hasn't seen her father (Nicholas Campbell) at all in the last four years. Despite his lack of interest and involvement, Lizzie still misses her father, a contributing factor to her depression. Through a series of flashbacks, it is clear that there was a total communication breakdown between Lizzie's parents, which is soon reflected in Lizzie's own relationship with her mother. Soon after arriving at Harvard, Lizzie decides to surrender her virginity to an older student, Noah (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Lizzie proceeds to alienate Noah by throwing a loss-of-virginity party immediately afterwards with the help of her roommate Ruby (Michelle Williams). Although best friends in the beginning, Ruby soon becomes another casualty of Lizzie's instability. Although Lizzie's article for the local music column in The Harvard Crimson is presented an award by Rolling Stone early into the semester, Lizzie soon finds herself unable to write, stuck in a vicious cycle with substance abuse. Lizzie's promising literary career is at risk, as is her mental and physical health. Her mother sends her to expensive psychiatric sessions toward which her father, pleading poverty, implacably refuses to contribute anything at all. After a long period of treatment under medication and an aborted suicide attempt, Lizzie stabilizes and begins to adjust to her life as it really is.

 Pumpkin (2002)

Perky, perfect Carolyn (Christina Ricci) and her Alpha Omega Pi sisters plan to win Sorority of the Year by impressing the Greek Council with a killer charity: coaching mentally challenged athletes for the regional Challenged Games. When Carolyn's assigned to coach Pumpkin (Hank Harris) she's terrified at first, but soon sees in him something she's never seen before: a gentle humanity and honest clarity that touches her soul. To the horror of her friends and Pumpkin's overprotective mother (Brenda Blethyn), Carolyn falls in love, becoming an outcast in the process. As Carolyn's "perfect life" falls apart, Pumpkin teaches her that perfect isn't always perfect after all.