I think she asked me how I was doing. I had a bit of a rough summer for reasons best left un-blogged. Is that a word? It is today. In any case, she inquired about my well being and then recommended I see Eat Pray Love. She isn't the first person to say I should see that movie and I admit, it was on my agenda. Of course, I will be more likely to read the book first and then go see the flick if it is still in theatres. Otherwise, I'll buy it later. She had heard mixed reviews about the movie, which starts Julia Roberts as a woman who after suffering a terrible loss in love goes abroad to travel. She has money as she has sold a book. So some people have been criticizing the film as how did this woman get all that money to travel? Many people have enjoyed the movie, though.
I have not seen it yet, but I will comment that during my own time of tribulation, I recall distinctly thinking of this fabulous movie called, Under the Tuscan Sun. This one starred Diane Lane, whom I love, and she'd been recently divorced. She played a writer who was able to leave the marriage with a great deal of money. This does not mean she was not hurt. My favorite line from the script is when she says (as I don't remember is exactly, I'll give you the gist of it) something along the lines of, "It's amazing that it doesn't actually kill you." (Talking about the pain of the divorce and that her husband had left her for another woman.) I understand this viewpoint. When faced with terrible, humiliating loss, it as though it would have been easier to just die. Instead, you live on in the face of it. I am not saying it is more right to die, but that is certainly what a person suffering could be contemplating. In this film, she winds up in a foreign country where she purchases an old home and recreates a life there. That's all I will say as for those of you who have not seen it, I don't want to spoil it for you. It is not a recent film, but who knows what my readers have seen?
As I was saying, during my own upsetting time, I remembered this movie. I thought, why is it that in the movies, the woman always seems to have money and she can just move to a foreign country and get over it? In Something's got to Give, she lives in the Hamptons. Although she is suffering, she has a beautiful beachfront property and plenty of space and money and not to mention, Dr. Reeves to take her mind off of her loss. Don't misinterpret me, these are two of my favorite films and I own both. However, in life, that doesn't necessarily happen. The woman does not have a successful career and tons of money and can't just get on a plane to Paris and ease the bite of it. It is more likely that she has to stay in the same environment where the loss occurred and trudge through a job where she is underpaid and over qualified and continue on that path until age and stress consume her or she somehow decides to live and gets on with it.
With that tangent in mind, my friend and I got to discussing movies. I told her about what is positively my favorite comedy of all time. Rare Birds. Starring William Hurt, it is truly a gem. If you have never heard of it, it was probably under promoted and never a blockbuster. If you like very dry humour, you simply must see it. After mentioning this to my friend, she told me about several others I should check out, one of which was Clue. Based on the board game, it stars Tim Curren.
As I do take advice from friends sometimes and I was in need of a something to watch and take my attention off of other momentary distractions, I bought Clue on E-bay. The music in the beginning made me laugh out loud. It was absolutely ridiculous. The setting was incredibly like a very bad high-school play. The characters, oh, dear, were beyond over acting. Beyond Jim Carrey over acting. And that is saying something. I believe it's called "indicating" in Directorial Terms. The plot, if there actually was one, was never thickening. Instead, it was spreading out in every direction like a box of dried spaghetti that just flew off the refrigerator in a six point nine earthquake. There were so many murders in so odd a fashion, it completely suspended my suspension of disbelief. Even the costumes were horrible. In fact, I think I am almost annoyed that I watched it. It was that bad. It was so bad, that I almost want to watch it again just to prove to myself that it was really that bad. Kind of like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It is so bad, it is almost good.
I am normally not a critic. I do admire any art and I so dislike to say bad things about other artist's work. I pray to the Critique Gods above that I do not get struck by a thunderbolt. But, it was bloody awful! Save Howard the Duck and The Crow, which are the only two movies I have ever walked out of, this was the worst movie in the history of movies. Except for one small thing. That thing is that when something is honestly that bad, it is almost funny. I mean, the laugh I got out of just discussing it with a different customer today in the store, whom I mentioned it to, made it worth seeing. We howled. It was just too amusing. She sooooo thought it was just as awful as I did. And of course, I feel terrible for saying it out loud and now worse for actually putting it in writing publicly, but not really. Well maybe a teensy bit. I seriously do not think it is o.k. to criticize another's work and if I go back and watch it again, I am sure I will find something good about it to communicate. Or not.
The good news is that despite the fact that I will not get those two hours back of my life, at least I did not spend them pondering the past and evil thoughts of what not. I was too busy staring in absolute awe of how incredibly silly this film actually was.
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