Over my dinner of chile relleno poblano last night and his of chicken enchildas, the husband and I started talking about M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, specifically Signs, Unbreakable, and The Sixth Sense. We haven’t seen Lady in the Water, and I’ll talk about The Village in a minute.

I’m much more of a fan than the husband is, and I think it’s the storyteller approach I take to watching Night’s movies. First of all, I find them incredibly slow, but since I also find them compelling, I deal. I know he’s setting a mood and allowing for rising tension, but yes. At times, I find the pace grueling. *g*

When the husband and I were talking, however, I realized why I like “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable” more than “Signs” - and it has nothing to do with Mel Gibson!

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!

In “Signs”, the characters faced an external threat from the aliens. They had no real conflict between themselves. Yes, Mel’s character had to deal with his wife’s death, etc., but overall, the story was about the invasion and the affect it had on his family. If the invasion hadn’t occurred, the characters would have had no reason to change.

In “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable”, the threat or conflict is between characters we’ve grown involved with while the movie unfolds. In “Unbreakable”, the story ends with a showdown between the Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson characters. In “The Sixth Sense”, Bruce’s character is forced to face his own demons.

I don’t know what that has to do with anything except that I related it to my love of writing and reading character-driven books. Character-driven books are what brought me to romance in the first place. I’d grown up reading a lot of Alistair MacLean novels, loving the espionage and the action. I also read Robert Ludlum and Larry McMurtry before discovering romance. I still read primarily outside the genre (the homework thing), but my love of love stories is what keeps me writing there.

Of course, what I really wanted to talk about was “The Village” - a movie more viewers hated than loved, and a movie that was one of my favorites of 2004. How can that be, you ask? Simple. Because of the romance between Lucius Hunt and Ivy Walker.

There were so many tiny moments in the movie that showed the relationship developing between these two characters. At the dance when chaos ensues and he finds her hand . . . it takes my breath away every time. But nothing gets to me like his declaraion there on the porch in the fog in the dark:

“Everyone is forever plaguing me to speak further. Why? What good is it to tell you you are in my every thought from the time I wake? What good can come from my saying that I sometimes cannot think clearly or do my work properly? What gain can rise of my telling you the only time I feel fear as others do is when I think of you in harm? That is why I am on this porch, Ivy Walker. I fear for your safety before all others. And yes, I will dance with you on our wedding night.”

What about you? What are your favorite romantic declarations in romance novels? (And we can discuss Shyamalan, too, if you like!)