One night, two movies and a lot of thought
Autor: Léo | Publicado: 2010-07-09T00:52:00-03:00

Some people eat comfort food to feel better (chocolate, ice cream, etc.)... Me? I watch romantic movies. It (almost) never fails.

The movies of tonight were "TiMER" and "The Answer Man", both provided by the awesome Netflix stream service through my Wii. Both were classified by Netflix as Indie Romantic, which was a good sign to me.

TiMER

I must confess the reason why I select this movie was because it has Emma Caulfield as leading actress, and seen her reminded me of Buffy. The movie itself was just ok, but the intriguing part was the premise of the movie: how would your life change if you had a device (timer) that could tell you exactly when you would meet your soulmate?

Now the fine print: your timer only start working when your soul mate get his/her own timer (which is something like a chip in your wrist). Then it will tell you exactly how many days, hours, minutes are left until the day when you will meet your soulmate, when both your timers will then beep to show that you found each other. Neat, uh?

Not really, because as you can image, knowing isn't always a good thing. What if it tells that you will have to wait a few decades until you find your other half? What if you already are in a relationship, both of you get your timers and find out you are not made for each other?

Not knowing is just as bad, as you have to wait until your yet-to-be-found other half get his/her own timer, so anyone that already has a device is out of question.

As you can see, this simple premise adds a lot of conflict (and conflict is always in the core of a good story). This made me think about what I would choose if this device did exist. As much as I like to think that I would be brave enough to not have a device like this, I know myself to well to acknowledge that the finding-your-soulmate-thing has always been a big deal for me. And as much as the "comfort" of knowing when you will meet your soulmate is tempting, it would be pretty scary to live your life with absolute confidence that this very interesting girl you just met is definitely not your soulmate. It would be kinda depressing, to tell you the truth.

What do you think? Would you implant such device or not? Why?


"The Answer Man"

This movie got me for two reasons. Number 1: Jeff Daniels (he is a nice guy and I usually like his movies). Number 2 (and main reason): Lauren Graham. I absolutely love her since Gilmore Girls and still totally fall for her in Parenthood. I really don't know why, but she has that effect on me that wants to be with her, take care of her, laugh with her... weird, but pure gut feeling. Who knows?

Now, going back to the movie, it is a really good film. It tells the story of three different people that are trying to find their way in life through their many fears: the self-help all-time-bestseller-author-with-a-screwed-up-life (Jeff Daniels), the single mom (Lauren Graham) starting a new life while trying to take care of her little boy and the recovering alcoholic (Lou Taylor Pucci) who is trying to restart his life while having to deal with an alcoholic father at home and a bookstore about to close. 

Tying it all together is Jeff Daniels' character, the bestseller author who in theory gets answers straight from God, but can't deal with his own life which results in a very frustrated life (and some of the best comic relief moments in the movie).

Great movie, with some very interesting points in the script and a very good cast. It is definitely worth the time to seat through and watch it.

Now, if you had a direct line to the almighty, what would you ask?

That's it for today. :)