Hitting the Jackpot Twice

One of life's greatest pleasures is seeing a good movie in the theater. I absolutely adore going to the movies. I love the freezing cold and being transported to another time/place/story/character. Also, I think any movie is better with an ice-cold drink and maybe some popcorn or Goobers. It's an escape. The only movies I won't see are violent ones or horror movies.....because, honestly, what kind of escape if that???

In recent years, I've found it's much harder to find good quality, interesting movies. Or maybe, with age, I just have more discriminating taste. ??? Who knows. But I am writing this post because, recently, I've hit the jackpot twice. I recently wrote about A Single Man. That movie was WONDERFUL and I find myself still thinking about it. My fingers are crossed that Tom Ford comes out with a second movie, just as good.

Well, I neglected to mention that a member of our village (Hi Mom!) came to visit last weekend. She always seems to know when Alain and I desperately need a break. When Mom visits, we almost always head to a movie, if something good is playing. We're lucky in that we have a more artsy theater nearby. We see a lot of smaller, independent films....some that we never hear of before seeing them. Not this time. I'd been waiting a long time for The Kids Are All Right to come to Charlotte. It took a while but, BINGO, we finally saw it.

Wow.

I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that was so emotional, so original, so human, so moving. Honestly, I don't know when I last saw a performance as good as Annette Bening's. I wanted to see this movie in part because of Julianne Moore and because I heart Mark Ruffalo. I was not expecting for Bening to just blow me away. But she did. She stole that movie and made it her own. I think one thing I really enjoyed was seeing an actress (not actor, actress!) with her natural face. She is allowing herself to age gracefully. I guess that's rare these days. Maybe that made me put myself in her shoes more easily? I think so. Some of her best scenes rocked me. I cried like a baby in one.....had to bite my tongue to hold in my sobs. When is the last time that happened? Perhaps I also loved this movie because it's not geared to teenagers. And we all know that's rare these days. It's a story about a family, period. No matter what your nature or how you got there, being married and having children can be damned hard. Anyone in a marriage or with children can relate to some part of this story. I don't want to give away too much because I know most of my friends & family haven't seen the movie. But, if you have, email me......because I'd love to discuss it.

AND, if you haven't seen it, please do. You'll relate...trust me. Unbelievable. Amazing movie.