Snuggling up and watching a romantic movie with your wife might be a great way to end Mother’s Day. Adam Holz, the director of Plugged In, recommended the movie Old Fashioned. Here’s part of the Plugged In review:
Amber Hewson has a curious way of deciding where she’s going to live next: looking at the gas gauge in her car. Every so often, when she’s feeling fidgety, she’ll just pack up her stuff, hit the open road and drive until the needle points at empty. That tells her when to coast into whatever anonymous burgh she’s near and start the next chapter of her life. It’s a pattern that’s already propelled her across 14 states.
This time, her destination is an archetypal everytown nestled in rural Ohio. A cursory glance at the classifieds after landing a job at a flower shop yields exactly what she’s looking for: a cheap furnished apartment.
Amber’s prospective new residence sits atop an antique shop dubbed Old Fashioned. Before long, the store’s owner, a quietly intense thirtysomething bachelor, is showing Amber up the stairs to check it out.
Nothing odd about that. But then Clay Walsh refuses to enter the apartment with her, loitering on the landing outside as she wonders what’s up with this landlord. “Don’t take it personally,” he explains. “I made a promise—to never be alone with any woman who’s not my wife.”
Amber misunderstands, thinking Clay’s married. He tells her he isn’t. She’s amused. She’s intrigued. She decides to stay.
When her gas stove won’t light, Clay shows up to fix it … handing her a blanket to keep warm with while she waits outside. She thinks he’s joking. He’s not. “Open that door and I raise your rent,” he scolds when she starts to come back inside.
Still, the physical space separating them doesn’t keep them from talking. And talking slowly kindles something between this free-spirited woman and conviction-clad man. Something good. Something romantic. Something old-fashioned.