CREDIT: WARNER BROS.
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman as Rick and Ilsa in a classic cinema moment in Casablanca.

Let's take a step back for a moment and consider what this column is all about. At its heart, it's about those moments during a film when the magic of cinema is palpable. It's about those moments that give you goosebumps, that make your heart skip a beat, that make your eyes tear up just a little bit. Everyone has one — and the lucky ones have more — a perfect moment in film that gets to you every single time.

What's mine, you ask? My magical movie moment is that scene in Casablanca where Rick and Ilsa are standing in the fog, on an airfield, planning to flee the city together for a new life in America. At the last moment, Rick tells Ilsa that she has to go without him, to go with her husband Victor, though he knows that she loves them both.

Why is this moment so magical for me? Because it's heartbreaking, it's beautiful and devastating. It's got the pain of a love lost, the beauty of a selfless man and the perfection of the romance of it all. It doesn't hurt that the cinematography is flawless, with a soft focus on the star-crossed lovers in the haze, or that the stars of the scene are two of the most beautiful people in the history of cinema.

Why am I telling you this? It's not to indulge myself in that joy that it gives me (okay, maybe it is, just a little), it's instead to make you aware of what movie moments can really do. Some people watch movies because they like to look at pretty girls or handsome guys. Some people watch movies because they like to see things blow up. Some people even watch movies because they think they should, because they think it will make them seem more cultured. But movie moments make me think of why people really should watch movies: for the magic of the screen.

It's a beautiful thing when you can watch a story unfold onscreen and become so completely enveloped in it that you forget your own world, your own life. You can forget about the trivialities that are difficult not to get caught up in, and you can even distract yourself for a few precious moments from the daunting problems that pose a major difficulty to your life. You can forget your pain, your sorrow and your struggles. You can watch someone experience pure joy, live it with them, or you can let yourself get swept away in someone else's heartache.

The next time you decide to throw on a flick just for the sake of something to do, try to figure out what your magical movie moment is and just revel in that for a while.