Movie Marathon

Posted by Lara Masters at 11:13 on 16 Feb 2009

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I went on a movie marathon last week. First stop was Revolutionary Road. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play Frank and April, a bright, refreshingly idealistic couple in 1950s Connecticut who find themselves in a rut; he works, she stays home with the kids, it's what everyone’s doing, it’s dull. One morning, going through old photos, April vividly recalls how they used to be before their spirit had been strangled by monotony.
Frank had once told her that he felt most alive on a visit to Paris. She suggests they sell-up and move there; she will work and he can write. Suddenly their hopes and dreams are reignited; they are excited by each other again. Friends, neighbours and work colleagues are horrified that they could dare to want something more; it highlights their petty, banal existences.
Frank is offered a pay rise at his uninspiring job and gets cold feet but April desperately wants them to leave their suffocating suburban nightmare. He won’t; she loses respect and starts to hate him but she’s trapped. It all ends very badly.
Oh God. It’s a metaphor for so many of our lives. The annihilation of individuality in "civilised" societies. This film makes an important point, we should all be assessing if we are making good choices, leading fulfilling lives and fulfilling our potential but if you err towards depression this film will be your tipping point.

Next I saw Slumdog Millionaire which although set in the slums of Mumbai was ironically a lot less depressing. At least here young Jamal escaped poverty through a series of extraordinary events which find him spontaneously speaking fluent English when a German tourist mistakes him for a tour-guide and provide him with the fodder for all the correct answers when he becomes a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Finally, rupee-rich Jamal is re-united with his childhood sweetheart and everyone has a big Bollywood boogie at the train station.
Again. A metaphor for so many of our lives. We go through experiences which at the time seem horrendous and senseless but then further down the line we can see why we needed to go through them. And then we become millionaires. Beautiful.

For my hat trick I saw He’s Just Not That Into You. This was hilarious. But I had to get over how irritating some of the female characters were. I would never tell my girlfriends that the reason some guy hasn't called is because they are too bright/gorgeous and he’s intimidated and then chew through the minutiae of the date trying to find out at what point his inferiority complex kicked-in. I was more like the men in the film, I tell my girlfriends he hasn't called because he's not interested; delete. If I was really pushed and she really insisted that they had this amazing chemistry and the date was perfect, I would say there are only two acceptable excuses for him not calling; he’s had both his hands cut off or he’s dead. Hopefully, it's the former and when he gets used to his prosthetic limbs he’ll get in touch so again, delete. Enjoy your singledom while you can.
No metaphor here. Just lots of desperate men and women whose loneliness and neurosis has driven them to insanity. I know I'm not really selling it well but I laughed my pants off. Ha!Ha! Oops! (Blush.)

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