"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out." ~ Alfred Hitchcock

And the Watch More Movies initiative for 2011 continues...

 

1/14 = Inception (Netflix Blu-ray)

I love that this movie is complicated, but without being tricky.  It all makes sense, and it's fascinating.  The special effects were especially eye-twisting on Blu-ray.  It's nominated for a bunch of Oscars, and I hope it wins best original screenplay. I heard Christopher Nolan spent eight years working on the script, and I can believe it took that long to make it so complex.

 

1/15 = True Grit (theatre)

I haven't seen the original, but according to the Cohen brothers this is more like the book.  I thought it was brilliant, and I hope it wins a lot of the Oscars it's nominated for.

 

1/15 = Notorious (HD cable)

This is the biography of Biggie Smalls. I enjoyed this movie, although it seemed too long.  Several things nagged at me a bit, like why Angela Basset's character, who is from Jamaica but lives in New York, speaks like a diction teacher without a hint of either accent.  I liked it a lot, but it is probably more interesting for fans of the 90's rap era (which I am).

 

1/22 = Forrest Gump (Netflix Blu-ray)

I'm really not sure why, but I have always hated the idea of this movie.  When it came out in 1994, I thought the trailers looked schmaltzy and silly, and despite all the great reviews and accolades, I never saw it and never wanted to.  (I may be the only person who has not seen Forrest Gump, and yet has eaten at the Gump & Co movie themed restaurant.)  But it's one of Greg's favorites, so after a decade of pressure I finally gave in.  I have to admit, it was better than I expected, and I did enjoy it.  Apparently Tom Hanks, deadset against sequels, was similarly worn down, and they are now in the early stages of filming another Forrest Gump movie.

 

I'm considering trying to watch every one of the ten Oscar nominations for Best Picture, but honestly, some of them don't particularly appeal to me, and several are still in theatres now, which makes it a bit harder (and more expensive). 

 

I've already seen three:  Inception, The Kids Are All Right, and True Grit.  We have The Social Network and Winter's Bone in our Netflix queue, and will hopefully see those within the next week or two.  I am not especially interested in Toy Story 3, although I understand it's really well done, yadda yadda yadda.  All of the remaining movies, Black Swan, The Fighter, The King's Speech and 127 Hours are all still in theatres, so I may have to wait until those come out on DVD.

Just Missing Dad

And the Watch More Movies initiative continued with going to see True Grit in the theatre this past weekend.  I was really looking forward to seeing this, it's getting great reviews and several friends saw it and loved it. 

 

The original, which I've never seen, was one of my father's favorite movies.  When I was in my early twenties and had just moved to Florida by myself and was trying to make a life here, he wrote me a letter and said that he was proud of me and that I had "true grit".  And yet I never watched the movie.

 

I know without any doubt that my Dad loved me, and I know that he knew I loved him.  With the spectre of sudden tragedy never out of my fearful neurotic mind, I really try hard to tell people that I love them, and to spend time with them; I don't want to have any regrets.  But what I didn't know would pluck at my tender heart are the missed opportunities, the things that seem so clearly vital now but didn't even occur to me at the time. 

 

Why didn't I watch the movie and talk to him about what he loved about it?  Better yet, why didn't I think to sit down and watch it with him during a visit?  I try not to beat myself up for things like that, I can't go back in time and change how my head worked and plant the idea, but it hurts to imagine what a wonderful thing it would have been.  It really, really hurts.

 

So I sat in the theatre and watched the movie and wondered what Dad would have thought of this new version.  I liked the movie very much, and when it was over Greg and I stayed to read the credits, like we always do.

 

And all of a sudden I just started sobbing.  I was aware of being kind of sad, but honestly I had no idea that tears were coming.  Greg held me and I cried for a couple of minutes.

 

A few days ago a friend's father died.  In tribute to him, she got a tattoo, and posted photos of it on her Facebook page.  My sad heart hurts for her.  Last week my co-worker's father passed away, tonight I'll go to the service at the funeral home.  My heart cries for her, too.  It's just too much sadness.

 

Here's a favorite picture of me and my sweet Daddy: