Itinerary: Small-Town L.A.

Maybe it’s all those reruns of “It’s a Wonderful Life” on TV, but there’s something small-town-ish about the holidays. Ice skating. Parties. Wrapping packages. It’s all so quaint.

And yet, right in the middle of that classic film is George Bailey hollering, “I’m shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m going to see the world!” George Bailey, like the rest of us, has a complicated relationship with our small towns. So charming. So confining.

Even in a sprawling metropolitan area like Southern California, many people try to re-create--or preserve--that sense of community. Like George Bailey, we realize that in a small town, you can have a wonderful life. At least for the weekend.

Thursday

The movie “You Can Count on Me” dissects two points of view about life in a small town in upstate New York--one from the sister (Laura Linney) who stayed there to raise her son, and the other from the brother (Mark Ruffalo), a drifter who can’t seem to settle anywhere. To her, the town is a comforting flannel; to him, an itchy wool.

The film, from writer-director Kenneth Lonergan, won the Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival last year. It made several critics’ year-end, top-10 lists, and won the screenwriting awards from both the L.A. Film Critics Assn. and the New York Film Critics Circle.

“You Can Count on Me” (rated R) is in selected theaters. If you want a small-town theater, you can see it tonight at the Rialto (1023 Fair Oaks Ave., [626] 799-9567) in South Pasadena.

Friday

What happens when a movie crew comes to a small town in New England? Well, if the star has a thing for teenage girls, the main location burned down, and the mayor’s wife is not to be slighted, then a lot. That’s the plot of David Mamet’s comedy, “State and Main,” also in selected theaters and rated R.

The ensemble cast features William H. Macy as the director, David Paymer as the ruthless producer, Alec Baldwin as the movie star, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the much put-upon screenwriter.

Saturday

On the first Saturday of each month, the group Claremont Heritage leads walking tours of the Claremont Village area. The town, 29 miles east of Los Angeles, was created in 1887 by the Santa Fe Railroad. Built by New Englanders, it doesn’t look typically Californian, but its wood-framed houses have been well-preserved. The restored Santa Fe Depot is on the tour, as is the Sumner house, one of the first Victorian homes built in the city.

The tour starts at 10 a.m., lasts just less than two hours and will be canceled if it is raining at 8 a.m. Meet in front of the Historic Claremont Metrolink Depot, 200 W. 1st St. $5. (909) 621-0848.

You can catch the Metrolink’s San Bernardino line train to get there. It leaves Union Station heading east at 9 a.m. and will put you right at the starting point 12 minutes before the tour begins.

Sunday

Small towns stay that way by being out of the path of progress. Montrose managed it. At the interchange of the 2 and the 210 freeways tucked along the Verdugo Mountains, Montrose still has a traditional Main Street--in this case Honolulu Avenue--with little shops and restaurants. It’s hard to believe that this area of about 2,000 people lies only 12 miles from the second-largest metropolitan area in the U.S.