Films to be Thankful For

When you think about it, Thanksgiving is a very Hollywood-friendly holiday. The whole Thanksgiving story is like a screenplay for your typical inspirational blockbuster: A group of plucky outcasts hop on a ship and deal with incredible odds and impossible hardships to follow their dreams. It’s like a cross between The Goonies and Guardians of the Galaxy, maybe. Only with dowdier clothes and a lot more prayer.

So perhaps it’s fitting that tomorrow, we mute the football game and put down the gravy and give thanks … for the movies.

Or, at least give thanks for some movies. Particularly the movies that remind us—or, at least, remind me—of the many things I should be thankful for.

Now, I’m not talking about some sort of superficial sense of thankfulness, like Doctor Zhivago makes me thankful I don’t live in Siberia or The Godfather makes me thankful I’m not a racehorse. No, I’m talking about the sort of Thanksgiving that is truly appropriate for a holiday predicated on taking stock of our many blessings, and tipping our cap to the One who ultimately gave them.

Here’s a quick rundown of five of my favorite “thanksgiving” movies to come out over the last 10 years or so.

The Blind Side (2009): You don’t see a lot of movies that actually have an actual Thanksgiving scene in them, so you might think The Blind Side squeezes into this list by default. But the scene is only important in that it represents what the movie’s all about.

Michael Oher, the big, out-of-place-looking fellow who just a little while before had been homeless, obviously has a great deal to be thankful for: A roof over his head, food on his plate, and the beginnings of a family he never had. But as we come to understand, it’s Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and the rest of the Tuohy fam who should be even more thankful for Oher’s sweet, stabilizing influence. To paraphrase Leigh Anne, it’s not the Tuohys who changed Michael’s life. It’s Michael who changed theirs.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009): Hands-down my favorite Wes Anderson movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox dwells on the midlife crisis of the titular Vulpes Vulpes—a fox (voiced by George Clooney) with a steady job, a nice family and an elegant home in a tree but still wants more. He returns to the chicken-stealing ways of his youth and eventually antagonizes three vindictive farmers who declare war on Mr. Fox and, by extension, the whole forest. It’s a bad time for Fox and his fam. But in the midst of his struggle, he comes to understand what’s really important to him: His wife, his son and his freedom. And even though Mr. Fox’s vanity loses him his tail, he eventually counts it as no big whoop compared to his blessings.

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014): This charming but little-noticed film will hopefully get a second look from folks when it comes out on video Dec. 2. It’s the story of a talented fledgling chef (Manish Dayal) whose family immigrates to France and opens an Indian eatery right across the street from a swanky restaurant owned by the persnickety Madam Mallory (Helen Mirren). While the two restaurants go to war for a bit, its characters have a great deal to be grateful for by the movie’s close. In the end, it’s a celebration of family (even when they can be a little embarrassing), new friends (even when they don’t start out as such) and, appropriately enough for the holiday, great food.

The Impossible (2012): If someone had given me a Best Picture vote in the 2012 Academy Awards, this might’ve been the film I chose. This harrowing but ultimately inspiring tale is centered around the 2004 tsunami that devastated a good chunk of Thailand … and a family that was caught in the middle of it. This movie wrung me out in a way that few others have, and we’re exposed to unimaginable devastation. But the family—based on a real one—had plenty to be thankful for by the end.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013): It’s no secret I dig this film. It made my personal “best of” list last year. For most of the movie, Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) doesn’t have a lot to be thankful for. Trapped for decades in a life of quiet desperation, the photo wrangler for the old Life magazine has few friends, a demanding family and an unfortunate tendency to drift away into a world of fantasy. But when Walter’s job hinges on a “lost” photo and he sets out on a globe-spanning trip to retrieve it, he discovers not only new wells of strength and adventure in him, but a whole new appreciation for everything he has—his family, his friends, his job. Walter Mitty loses his “secret life” by the time the movie is done, but it’s no huge loss. He finds a great deal to be thankful for in his real one.