Crying

Mamakat's Prompt: What is it about that movie that makes you cry every time?


Ever since Old Yeller, when I cried for two and a half hours after the movie was over, I've been embarrassed to be seen crying in the theater. I've cried over Terms of Endearment and Steel Magnolias in the safety of my own house, a box of tissue handy. I tend to avoid chick-flicks like the plague. One day, my friend asked me to go and see The Bridges of Madison County with her. I love Clint Eastwood, but really only when he punches and shoots people on screen. This was one of my good friends, however. Sometimes you bite the bullet for your good friend, even when you aren't sure whether she will be okay with a blubbering idiot sitting next to her in a darkened theater.

The basic story--woman in a rut finds herself falling in love with some random stranger she meets at a covered bridge--was all right. Except that the woman in question was married with two children; her husband and children were out of town. Of course the random guy wants her to run off with him, and of course she can't do that to her children. As he walks out, Clint Eastwood's character Robert turns.

"This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime." he says. I started bawling, and did not stop until the movie ended.

It is very easy for me to put myself into the shoes of the characters on the screen or on the pages of a good book. I felt a great deal of empathy for Meryl Streep's character, Francesca. I understood the intensity of her feelings. She was up there on the big screen crying, so I was crying as well. I was also pretty angry at her. Robert is supposed to be the "love of a lifetime", and in a colossal display of utter selfishness, he demanded that she leave everything to run off with him. He claimed to love her, claimed to understand her, yet he expected her to leave her children behind without a second thought? A normal person would have become angered by this. Did his selfishness make Francesca turn her back on him? No, she almost jumped out of a moving vehicle to join him, and then she pined over him for the rest of her life. I cried out of frustration that Francesca was an idiot. I so wanted to like her.

Rumors to the contrary, I do have a girly side. I am a woman who likes to be swept off her feet on occasion. I love the idea of true love conquering all and the knight riding off into the sunset with the princess. Thus it was that the majority of my tears that day were of the "OMG! That is SO romantic!" nature. I still can't watch The Bridges of Madison County without getting weepy. Sometimes I find the movie on a cable channel, and I end up watching, and I end up crying. My husband sometimes finds me blubbering; he just sighs heavily and brings me the box of tissues.

It's Thorsday

My husband is a HUGE comic book superhero geek. While I know who some of the bigger names in the Pantheon, my husband can recite the superhero family tree in minute, exacting, detail. Without looking anything up.

He's been excited about seeing the new movie Thor. Very excited. What he's been most excited about has been the idea of seeing the movie with his son. Which I happen to think is very cool.

However, I had to be the rain on the proverbial parade. I had concerns regarding this particular field trip.

Concern about my son's age and the resulting attention span of 1/10000th of a second.

Concern about the darkness of the theater once the movie starts.

Concern that Zane will raise a ruckus because he doesn't want to sit still in his seat.

Concern that the other patrons attending will smite us for ruining their viewing experience when Zane throws a fit.

Concern that the loud volume of the movie will scare Zane.

Concern that there might be inappropriate language, or worse...boobies.

Concern that some of the 'monsters' in the movie would scare Zane.

Concern that in the dark, Zane will fall down the stairs if he runs off.

Did I mention that I had concerns? I am the party pooper in my family, sad duty that it is.

Larry listened to all of my concerns very attentively and thoughtfully. Then he told me that he still wanted to take Zane to see Thor. I was incredulous.

Did he not hear all of my completely logical reasons for not taking Zane to the movie theater?

He will eventually be going to the movies at the theater, Larry pointed out, so why not get him started now?

I countered with my final fear that if we had to leave the theater with Zane because of his behavior, we would be out the money we had spent on the tickets.

Zane himself has been ambivalent much of the time. Sometimes if you ask him if he wants to see Thor, he says that he wants to see it. Other times, he says that no, he does not want to see Thor.

Larry stuck to his guns, and he had a plan. He would keep an eye on Zane during the movie, and if Zane becomes rambunctious, he would be the one to take him out of the theater. We will go to the earliest possible show, so there won't be 400,000 people in the theater, Larry told me. That was before we found out that many theaters would be showing the film in 3D. No way would Zane wear the glasses; he doesn't like anything covering his face. Finally,Larry found a movie time that wasn't 3D, at 11:30.

Today is the day. It has been officially deemed "Thorsday" by my husband, and Zane has concurred. Keep your fingers crossed that we at least make it through the opening credits.