A Mom's Top Five Movies for a Girls' Night In

A night watching movies for a group of girl pals means more than watching a typical chick flick. Sometimes you want a good scare; other times you want a good cry. Sometimes you want a movie that empowers you; other times you want a movie that makes you laugh. Sometimes you want movies that capture your fantasies; other times you want movies that relate to you. So, there's several movies that you could choose, depending on your tastes and moods for the evening. Here are my top five that I would watch with my friends:

Steel Magnolias

This is the one true weeper in the list. A story of a group of women that rally behind a mother and daughter as that daughter becomes her own woman, having a child in spite of the health risks due to her diabetes. The cast includes A-listers like Sally Fields and Julia Roberts. It's a good story, that even I could enjoy when I first watched it as a teenager. Now that I am married and a mother, I can appreciate all the more the details of the wedding preparations and the role of the mother in her grown daughter's life as I prepare for that phase of my life when my baby girl becomes an adult.

Pretty Woman

Julia Roberts appears in this second movie of the list. It seems to be a must-see movie for women who are roughly in the Generation X, approaching their 30's and 40's. In this modern-day twist of "My Fair Lady," Julia Roberts character, Vivian, charms filthy rich businessman, Edward Lewis, played by Richard Gere. So, what if Vivian is a prostitute from the wrong side of town? And who cares how old Richard Gere is? It's fun to imagine what kind of indulgences you could enjoy if the man in your life had all the money in the world to lavish upon you!

First Wives Club

We go back to another movie full of A-listers - Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn. This movie is all about the first wife empowering herself to be something better than she was and getting even with the husband that has hurt her. While some women in real life may not go to that extent to get back at their former husbands, the movie embraces a refreshing and comical "girl-power" attitude for women looking to get a new lease on life and starting a new phase of one's life after marriage and family. It is also a movie that tries to affirm the power of friendship among women.

A League of Their Own

This is my one of my all-time favorite movies, and for me, it makes me cry. It's a light-hearted movie focused on two sisters who join the All-American Girls Baseball League during World War II. Most of the movie is filled with comical situations as the women learn etiquette training as well as baseball. But I cry, on cue, every time the messenger comes before one of the games to tell one of the women their husbands has been killed at war overseas. The cast features Geena Davis and Tom Hanks as well as Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna.

Sweet Home Alabama

To round out the list is a movie that features one of the newest A-list faces to make romantic comedies and more recently dramas. Reese Witherspoon holds her own as an Alabama native trying to escape her past but realizing she just can't get rid of the country out of her, in spite of her big move to New York City. Trouble ensues when she gets engaged to the mayor's son and has to go back home to divorce her childhood sweetheart. For a countrified, suburban girl, this movie has country charm and fun-loving characters. It's a good feel movie that's great to watch at the end of any Girl Night movie marathon.

These movies are available to purchase through www.amazon.com. For more information about these movies, go to Internet Movie Database (IMDB) at www.imdb.com.