Three love stories.  Three very different kinds of love.  Each leaving an irreplaceable mark on this viewer.

I thoroughly enjoyed recently the complex relationship between the incomparable, and gone-far-too-soon Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix in The Master. Traces of the story of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, were certainly evident; those references, though, weren’t the narrative, and they never overshadowed the focal point: the mystery of how and why we form relationships with the people we do.

The equally complex relationship between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in the deceptively simple though highly-charged love story, Fifty Shades of Grey, and the nuances that drive us into and out of another’s arms, continue to unfold long after the final credits roll.

Rounding out this engaging threesome, the endearing, quirky Israeli film, The Farewell Party, explores the indelible bonds that are created between two people who spend a lifetime together. Touching eloquently on the subject of dying with dignity, the film gently illustrates that no matter how close we are to another human, in the end, our most important love relationships are with ourselves, and with our Higher Power, however we might define that creator of all things.