Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

So...

Here I am again, at work, trying to collect all my expense receipts together. I seem to have some kind of mental block that prevents me from having all the receipts I need all together in the same place. I've always got some, but the others are at home, or they're in my other bag, or sometimes lost altogether. Oh well, only a small problem really.

Anyway I was re-watching some old favorites of mine this week, "Signs" and "Spirited Away."

Signs
Note: Some general spoilers, but not specifics
I like this movie a lot. In my recent attempts to put together a Christian movie discussion group (Christians discussing movies, not discussing Christian movies,) I was looking forward to giving this one a shot. That group hasn't really solidified yet, but that's a post for another day. Anyway, I enjoyed this movie thoroughly when I first saw it. It's so nice to see mainstream films that aren't actively hostile towards religion. Plus, I thought it was funny and creepy and exciting and touching. Still do, actually. I don't mean to use past tense. But in thinking about it recently, I perused some of the discussions on the imdb message boards about the movie. Several people didn't like it.

Now, of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and additionally, I can imagine that someone who feels strongly that God doesn't exist, (or at least that He doesn't interact with us,) might feel that the ending is a cop-out. A literal deus ex machina so to speak. I disagree with that, since the entire story is constructed in such a way that it supports that ending. As opposed to a "gee, I can't figure out how to end this movie... I know! God saves them!" sort of thing.

Even if I don't agree, I can definitely see that point of view. What I didn't expect however were some of the other criticisms that the characters didn't behave in believable ways. In particular, one person felt that for Mel Gibson's character to lose his faith after the personal tragedy he suffers was unrealistic. According to him, a pastor should have lots of experience counseling others through personal tragedy and thus should not react in such an extreme way when he goes through it himself. It meant that he had a weak faith, and for this person, that made the character unrealistic and this in turn made the movie a bad one.

I have two problems with this position. The first is the rather obvious difference between observing tragedy and experiencing it. They are different, and I don't see much point in elaborating, because it seems like common sense to me. The second is that this movie is not about "pastors" but about losing and regaining faith. If he hadn't lost his faith, the movie has lost the central theme. We might as well complain that the movie is unrealistic because aliens haven't really invaded. Now, if the issue was that the character was not handled in a convincing way, that would be one thing, but this particular person felt that the very concept was inherently unbelievable.

The second complaint they had was that, when the family goes into the basement, they didn't take weapons with them.

Okay.

I'll concede that it might have been a good idea for them to take weapons, but to complain that the movie is unrealistic because the characters didn't think of it? Besides, the plan was not to fight the aliens off, but rather to hide and hope they go away. On top of that, they hadn't planned to go down in the basement. That was an emergency judgment call that they made when they realized that they had forgotten to block the attic door and that the aliens had gotten in. So while the weapons might have been useful, I hardly think that the characters's failure to do so constitutes a flaw with the movie's story.

Now, I can't read minds, but the impression I get when I read these comments is that the movie just didn't tell a story that these people liked. That may sound obvious, but I'm making a more specific point. The baloney 'flaws' that they presented were just an attempt to explain why they didn't like the story. However, they were not given in this context. It seems to me that these people wanted an 'Independence Day' type of movie and didn't get it, so they were disappointed. That's fair, but they should say that. "I just wanted a different movie." But instead, they say: "The movie is stupid, flawed and unrealistic."

I'm not trying to say it's a perfect film, but why do people have to act like their subjective opinion is a matter of objective fact? *sigh* This issue is a pet peeve of mine.

Anyway, I liked the movie. A lot.

Spirited Away

I love this movie! If you haven't seen it, it's a Japanese animated film that has been dubbed and released in the US. The story is similar in some ways to "Alice In Wonderland" in that a young girl finds herself in a fantastical place and has to find a way to get home, but the real story is of a whiny, spoiled little girl who experiences tremendous personal growth and discovers real courage in strength within her heart that she never knew was there. And she discovers it through love, compassion, hard work, and trust. It's wonderful.

Viewers used to American animation only may have a bit of culture shock. There is a depth and complexity to the characterization that is unusual in, say, the average Disney picture. The characters have fluids. Sweat. Blood. Spit. Occasionally vomit. Also, the movie allows silence sometimes. So often with American animation, something has to be happening every second. Japanese animation, and this film in particular, occasionally take the time to be quiet and still.

I decided to watch it in the original Japanese this week, with the English subtitles. Ordinarily, I prefer watching foreign films in the original language, but for some reason, I prefer the English dub for this film. *shrug* Maybe it's just nostalgia, because when I first saw, and loved, this movie, it was the English dub. Either way, however, I highly recommend this movie. Check it out!

Wow, I can't believe it's been ten months since my last post. I've been traveling a ridiculous amount for work. Business travel is fun in small doses, like going out to get a steak, but what I've been doing is more like eating the same crappy hamburger every night for a year. *sigh*

The good news though is that I've reached the end of the tunnel... Um, assuming that I didn't just jinx myself there, anyway. This week should be the last week I have to do serious traveling for a while. I am so looking home to sleeping in my own bed more than twice a week.

In other news, I'm trying to get back into my writing and so on, since it has largely lapsed lately. (And always avoid alliteration.) I've got some new ideas about Call It A Gift, got some agent queries out for Nina, and have a few new shorts percolating.

Also, I bought a new car. A nice shiny silver 2001 Mercury Sable. It's so pretty ^_^ I might see if I can put up a picture later. It's the first car I ever bought. Slightly more sad is that I had to finally say goodbye to my '86 Camero. It looked great on the outside, but in March it had a major coronary and then died on the operating table.

Um... what else? I can't think of anything else just now, but I'm going to try and start posting regularly again. Maybe put up some movie/book reviews, etc. See 'ya'round!