archives # profile # e-mail # notes # Diaryland # design
prev # Tuesday, Dec. 09, 2003 9:15 p.m. # next
Change the world***WARNING: Minor details of the movie are given away in this tirade - nothing that you can't predict, nothing too revealing - but just so you know.****
OK. Alright. This doesn't happen that often (in these circumstances) but I am
PISSED OFF.
I just saw Love, Actually. I was really looking forward to it: plenty of great actors, the kind of romantic comedy I might enjoy, good word-of-mouth. The movie's OK. There are certainly some great people: Bill Nighy as an aging rockstar is a total riot, Alan Rickman's amazing and strangely sexy as always, Emma Thompson's totally sympathetic and interesting, likewise Liam Neeson (and the fantastic little kid that plays his stepson), Billy Bob Thornton has a FANTASTIC cameo as the utterly creepy US President, Martine McCutcheon is gorgeous and sweet, and Hugh Grant does what he does best (well, ALL he does, really, but at least it's charming). So yeah, that's a pretty long list of good folks. And there are moments throughout that click. But only moments. I found myself just *not caring* too frequently, but when it comes to movies I'm not easily won over. Anyway, back to the point: I am still
PISSED OFF.
Martine McCutcheon is, as I said, gorgeous. I especially liked her immediately cause she was a little CLOSER to average size than your typical movie star. Like maybe a size 8. Everybody looks bigger onscreen, of course, so I'm vaguely estimating here. In any case, she is by NO MEANS what I would call fat, or even chubby, or even all that voluptuous. BUT this FUCKING MOVIE has her referred to as "the chubby one", and "plumpie" (that word used by HER FATHER!!!) a number of times. Hugh Grant's in love with her and it ends all happy, but that does NOT make it OK. I kept hoping there'd be some great comeback or SOMETHING that would make all those nasty comments somehow fit in, but no such luck. And there were at least a couple other fat jokes/barbs that bothered me. This is supposed to be FUNNY????? I'm not generally hyper-sensitive about movies, and I try to deal as best I can with the disgusting standards of the movie biz and the absurd images of women (though, really, why SHOULD I have to deal with that???) that we see ALL THE TIME, but for some reason this one really bothered me.
And another thing - there's a scene with 3 ditzy, hot American girls in Milwaukee, who fulfill the ultimate fantasy of a sex-starved Brit. Pretty typical, but in the context of this movie it just added insult to injury for me. I kept hoping it was a dream sequence (somehow that would've made it more palatable), but because it was "real", I was all the more PISSED OFF. I. JUST. HATE. the way it is perfectly OK to make all women stupid sexy objects of fantasy and laugh at it. It. Happens. All. The. Time.
ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH
The guy across the aisle from me answered his cell phone in the first few minutes of the movie. He left the theater, fortunately, but that certainly didn't make it OK. He was with his girlfriend/wife/whatever, and was making all kinds of "whoa" excited noises during the aforementioned Milwaukee dumb-bar-broads scene. WHY and HOW do women put up with this??????????
I am so unusually distressed. I dunno. I guess it's because I was looking forward to it. And it's not a *stupid* movie, overall, so I won't let it get away with it's various and sundry stupidities.
On the plus side, this was the first time April (my roommate) and I have actually left the house together, and that was fun. She's cool.
Oh, and the first verse of Joni Mitchell's "River" is in the movie! I sing a version of it on my dad's newest CD, so it's close to my heart. Actually wanna rerecord to fix a sour note (so close! but close doesn't cut it when it comes to pitch, unless you're doing it on purpose. I wasn't.), but these days it's one of "my" songs.
So I hear fucking Renee Zellweger (ugh) is gaining weight for the next Bridget Jones movie. So, does this mean she'll weigh 103 instead of 100? Gosh, what a relief. What a beautiful sacrifice she's making. I could vomit.
I spend so much time wishing I could change the world. Perhaps I should do something about that, eh? At least my corner of it? Ahhh how sweetly idealistic. What can I do to make the world a better place? I want less bullshit and more beauty. *Real* beauty. Please.
I need to go create something. Anything.