So work is pretty shitty at the moment, and I was going for one of my comfort films when I realised that actually, they're probably pretty odd to have as comfort films. They're not exactly all sweetness and light, but they do have things in common.

My four most common go-to comfort movies are:

The Quick And The Dead
Sliding Doors
Shakespeare In Love
Love's Labour's Lost

Which will surprise most people who know my film watching habits, and yes I love Serenity and I love The Princess Bride and I love the Lord of the Rings movies, but when I need a comfort hit, I turn to those four more than any other.

The thing that they have in common is that none of them have a conventional "happy ending". They all feature women who learn, who grow, who do things for themselves and become stronger for it, and at the end of the film, they go off to make their own lives. We're left not knowing where Lady's headed, but she's leaving Cort behind to go and do her own thing. We don't know what's going to happen next in Helen's life (even if there's a strong suggestion that romance with James is on the cards, that's just a possibility). Viola's shipwrecked and independent and forging her own path into the unknown future. The Princess of France and her ladies choose to walk away from the men they've been romancing for the span of a year to fulfil their own responsibilities and find their own place.

(I suspect the next film to join the list is likely to be Bend It Like Beckham, since I just acquired that.)

So there's my wish fulfilment. Strong women, independent women, who learn something about themselves and are confident in going off to find and shape their own futures. That's my comfort.