Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots (2005) is a comedy directed by Julian Jarrold about Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton), a man who inherits his father’s failing shoe factory and decides to save it by finding a niche market with the help of Lola/Simon (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a drag queen.

Life Lesson:

Accept others for who they are, even if you don’t understand them.

Movie Scene:

Don (a factory worker who’s just won an arm-wrestling match against Lola): Why’d you stop?

Lola: “Well, I wouldn’t want you to walk into the factory and feel that people didn’t respect you Don. I wouldn’t want anyone else to know what that feels like. … Change your mind about someone.”

Related articles

• Chiwetel Ejiofor Talks About ‘Kinky Boots’ (about.com)

Tootsie

Tootsie (1982) is a comedy directed by Sydney Pollack about Michael Dorsey/ Dorothy Michaels (Dustin Hoffman), a temperamental, struggling actor who decides to impersonate a woman in order to get a part on a soap opera, then learns firsthand what it is like to be treated like a woman, all while falling in love with a co-star, Julie (Jessica Lange).

Life Lesson:

“You never truly know someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.”

Movie Scene:

Michael: “I just did it for the work. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody, especially you.”

Julie: “I miss Dorothy.”

Michael: “You don’t have to. She’s right here. And she misses you. Look, you don’t know me from Adam. But I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man. You know what I mean? I just gotta learn to do it without the dress.”

Related articles

• Thirty years ago, ‘Tootsie’ made us laugh — and think (northjersey.com)

It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) is a fantasy directed by Frank Capra about a kindly bank executive, George Bailey (James Stewart), who has always tried to help others, even at the cost of his own dreams and ambitions, until a financial setback plummets him to despair when he realizes that he is worth more dead than alive, but a stranger, Clarence (Henry Travers), helps him see how valuable his life is by showing him what it would have been like had he never been born.

Life Lesson:

Be grateful for your life; it beats the alternative.

Movie Scene:

Clarence: “Strange isn’t it?  Each man’s life touches so many other lives. And when he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?  [...]  Your brother Harry Bailey broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.”

George: “That’s a lie! Harry Bailey went to war. He got the Congressional Medal of Honor. He saved the lives of every man on that transport.”

Clarence: “Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn’t there to save them, because you weren’t there to save Harry. You see George, you really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?”

Related articles

• The George Bailey Technique: Mentally Erase Your Blessings for Greater Joy and Optimism (artofmanliness.com)