Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A Rant About A Movie

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is Sam, and I’m venting. Against my better judgment, I began watching movies again. Tonight, the movie is “The Holiday”. It has Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, and that squinty-eyed fellow from…ummm “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”. Perhaps you’d know him better from “Cold Mountain”? Oh well.

Anyway, I’m in the middle of it right now. No, I’m not recommending the movie. Even though it has its cute parts and sweet parts, overall, so far, this movie is poison.

I like movies that have a certain feel to them. Give me a movie with a good sound track, the sound of strong breezes at just the right moments, and a green, open-feeling setting for all the scenes and I’m a fairly content girl. I’ll usually watch movies like that all the way to the end, even if I don’t like the story. I also like foreign films, since the ones I’ve seen haven’t had such contrived plots and one dimensional actors.

The problem with this movie isn’t its sound track, or background noises, or scenery. The main problem is that for most of the movie (again, so far) Kate Winslet’s character has been plagued with one of the worst problems known to woman. An inability to stop herself from going insane over a completely gross, insensitive, selfish, boor.

Why do movies do this? Why do writers create this tripe? Who wants to see yet another female with no intention of controlling her actions or emotions? Not me!!

I’m going back to the movie now. I’ll be back later with more, and let’s hope they save this train wreck. Maybe, she'll wise up in these last ten minutes and stop acting like a complete ninny.

Okay. I was wrong. This movie has a fair amount of poison……BUT, I should have known that those BLESSED Brits wouldn’t allow a film to end with the leading lady being completely spineless and gutless. Kate ends up with Jack and everything is fine. *happy sigh*

But back to my earlier point; why is it that we have so many movies showing men as insensitive, selfish, greedy, stupid brutes and we, oh, so much smarter women are just too dumb and lovesick to ask for something better. So basically, when you boil down our plot lines: men bad, women dumb, when love grows cold (as it so often does, since love is a fickle weed that grows, blooms, and dies, mauling both people in the process…or so these movies would tell you) the men get fat, and the women get bitter, sharp, and naggy.

Dang. Bleak.

Thank goodness, Hollywood has no clue about describing true love. True love is a choice. It can be easy at first, but at some point, you have to choose to keep going. You have to choose to tend that love, focusing on the good, doing what you can to make sure the other person feels loved in their own love language.

It’s like, I was born to a family of four kids. We are all extremely close, but through the years, we have definitely had to take the time and do maintenance. As many things I have in common with my sister Danielle (chocolate, peanut butter, Calvin and Hobbes, Newsboys, yakking our heads off late at night, and crazy, wicked humor!), we still have to sit down and spend time together. Otherwise, since we are both quality time people, we’ll both have to fight feelings of neglect and abandonment. It’s natural for us to care deeply about each other and have soul ties to each other, but to love each other in a way that shows up in our actions is a choice.

Getting off track here. Back to topic. While love is a choice, we need to start encouraging our girls to choose NOT to love “fixer-upper men”. “The Holiday” has the typical cheating, conniving male sucking the life and breath out of Kate Winslet’s character. At the end, even though she tosses him over, they drag out her struggle to escape his claws for waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. This could have been a movie about her tentative, fresh explorations after forcing herself to stop pinning for a garbage heap. That would have been something to cheer about!!

What kind of example is this to our girls? A pretty lame one in my opinion. I am a fully red blooded female, and yet, I seem to be able to control myself fairly well. I've become adept at denying myself things that are unhealthy and likely to scar me. Let's try encouraging our young women along those lines, yes?

So girls, grow up strong, bold, and don't be in a hurry to fall in love. Do what the Bible says and don’t awaken love before its time. If you mess up and get attached to a trashy bit of baggage, toss it over as soon as you can, and spend some time around mature, healthy people. Listen to your mom. Listen to your dad. If they don’t like him (and they don’t like him, no matter what they say), throw him back and wait until you find a guy who has more evidence of maturity than just shaving and driving. They ARE out there, no matter what the mainstream media may say. I have the pleasure of knowing several!!

(A note to the males: I'm not saying that all guys are bad. My main point was that being in a relationship with a person, male or female, who is unhealthy and poisonous is a really dumb idea. So guys, please don't bombard me with hate mail. =D Shanks!! )

Ok. I'm done now. Night!

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