I channel surf, I’ll admit it freely. I can flip through my Direct TV guide in nano seconds and find what I want. And it’s precisely this reason why I covet my numerous movie channels — the ability to catch movies I’ve either a) seen a jillion times and STILL watch; b) wanted to see again and hadn’t been able to; or c) always wanted to see but never got the chance — all at a quick glance. It drives my mother crazy when she’s visiting because she likes to read what it says about each film and wants me to slow down, but that’s OK. I do it anyway. For me, it’s better than renting DVDs or Netflix, hence the reason I spend my money in this way.
So, in the last couple of weeks, c) has been applied: I saw two films I missed in the theaters, never rented and waited patiently for them to appear on cable. First was M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening. Now, I have been a M. Night fan since the beginning, something I’ll also freely admit, even if his name is mud at the moment. I think he is a fantastic storyteller. I’ve loved all his signature films — The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs — and thought The Village was a turn for the weirder but still as engaging. I’ve even defended Lady in the Water, because I recognized what M. Night was going for: telling a bedtime story in all its incarnations and ridiculously fantastical ways. So, I was really excited when I saw The Happening trailer. An R-rated movie by M. Night Shyamalan? Sign me up. But unfortunately, I missed it in theaters because I was in the middle of a big move. Then, I starting reading all the negative feedback. Yikes. I held off, knowing I’d see it at some point.
And now that the deed is done, well, it was the first time I was a little disappointed. Maybe not as outright hateful as some critics were about the film but indeed, I was let down. It wasn’t so much the story about plants and trees getting even with us humans destroying them (which was a bit of a stretch); it was more the casting that got it wrong for me. M. Night always picks great stoic leading men — Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Giamatti — but Mark Wahlberg just didn’t cut it. Neither did Zooey Deschanel as his wife. This doesn’t mean, however, that I’ve given up on M. Night. I’m still going to go see his stuff, including the upcoming Airbender.
The other movie I finally got a chance to see was Lars and the Real Girl. Wow, how Ryan Gosling missed an Oscar nomination for this performance is beyond me. He was amazing as a socially stunted man who finally comes out of his shell by believing a life-sized doll he buys from the internet is his very real girlfriend. And how the rest of the small town he lives in plays along with it because they care about him, and finally, how this doll ends up changing all of their lives. Excellent, excellent movie and one I highly recommend, if you’ve haven’t seen it. And you can now catch it — if you have cable, that is. OK, you’ll have to excuse me … I’ve just flipped and found Grosse Pointe Blank.