“The Green Mile” is cited as another top-notch weeper. In the authors’ view, a 10-hankie movie is great medicine for a woman who either wants to wallow in her pain, or would benefit from feeling not so bad off, compared with the pitiable people on the screen. “It’s a story about true love and unfulfilled promise,” West said.

“Boys Don’t Cry” is this year’s Best Copious Weeper, according to the Cinematherapy judges. Angelina Jolie is a good reminder to all of us that in order to be really sane, you have to be a little crazy. Bad girls used to be much badder on screen, and they weren’t even punished. “Since the days of Bette, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford, women have taken a big step backward. “She’s Bette Davis bad in that movie,” Peske said. In contrast, they say, men would have no use for their own guide, since they know only two moods: on and off.ĪMC’s Romance Classics has spun the idea into a television show called “Cinematherapy,” which features two uninhibited female hosts discussing the therapeutic value of a classic film during a number of breaks.Īngelina Jolie earned the Cinematherapy Best Bad Girl honor for her turn in “Girl, Interrupted.” The New York-based authors, who are cousins and years ago learned from their shared grandmother the healing powers of a rainy-day matinee, consider a woman’s right to have moods as inalienable, protected by the Constitution. Their concept is that the right movie can enhance or alter a mood. And everyone knows that good medicine doesn’t come cheap. They are, in fact, a potent form of self-medication.

Nancy Peske and Beverly West, coauthors of “Cinematherapy: The Girl’s Guide to Movies for Every Mood” (Dell Publishing, 1999), believe that films transcend escape. Movie ticket inflation wouldn’t be nearly as upsetting if a trip to the cinema were seen as providing more than mere entertainment.

Cinematherapy by Nancy Peske