You know when someone tells you you’re REALLY going to like something, you rarely do. There’s something about the perceived amazingness that doesn’t live up to what’s in your head.
So when Jake asked if I had seen Me and You and Everyone We Know, and “good christ is that film right up your alley”, I immediately thought of this phenomenon. Will I actually like it? Will I analyze why Jake said that?
So I watched it last night. I did homework diligently until 9:30, then made a nest (Dr. Kim style*) so I could watch in solitary comfort.
So as to actually review the movie, I can say that this is not a blockbuster, formulaic, tired story. This was not a broad-sweeping, everybody-loves-it movie. This movie seemed very, very real to me. Not that it was realist, but that the kinds of things people though, and the kinds of actions they took are the same as what I think of doing.
We’re all a little bit weird. We all have our quirky tendencies and penchants. This particular movie seemed to focus on those tendencies and penchants that I like to think about. So in a way, this movie was made especially for those who have a similar style of though. Of course, others will like it. But for those of us who’s socks are knocked off by the movie, it’s something special. I described it to a friend as the same feeling as when you were younger and reading a book that filled you with such emotion, with such feeling that you certainly weren’t able to feel on your own. I lament the fact that my brain has become a grown-up and I can’t just have that feeling any time I read a decent story.
I think that one up side to this gradual loss is that when a movie or book does fill me to the brimming full with a feeling, it’s extra miraculous, because it’s a rare, rare treat.
Right. Back to the movie. There are adult characters, there are teen characters, there are child characters. There are complex interactions and complicated relationships. In it all, there is nothing mystical, nothing overly serendipitous (except for the ))<>(( thing), and nothing moral. It’s like real life, as told by someone like me.
At the end of it, I realized how I wished I had watched the movie with someone, someone who felt the same way as I did about the movie. That would mean that they were like me.
*Dr. Kim nest: many pillows and blankets piled around and on top of oneself – can be done on a couch or on the floor
