Should I be worried?

February 4, 2014


We watch a fair amount of television.  By fair, I suppose I mean more than the average household.  Too much really, but this time of year we are not spending a bunch of time outside.  And we don't like shopping.  So television.  However, the issue with that is that there are no good shows on right now.  Plenty of reruns and a whole bunch of shows we don't watch.  So Beth went out and borrowed some movies from the library over the weekend just in case we needed something to watch.  I figured any of these would be better than starting a relationship with Duck Dynasty.


So here are the four movies she rented:  Lincoln (not the vampire slayer Lincoln), Fast and Furious 6, Before Midnight, and This is 40.  Since we don't see a lot of movies, sometimes we just have to go for names or titles we may have heard of and hope that the movie turns out okay.  I am going to do a bit of a review for you.


I watched Fast and Furious 6 the other day without having seen all of any of the previous 5.  Unbelievably, I was able to keep up with the plot.  I figured they had to make a 6th one due to all the of the previously unanswered questions, but as it turns out, they are just really good at finding new ways to film car crashes, do stunts, and blow stuff up.  Nonetheless, I was entertained for a couple hours.


Now my post title will start to come into play.  Last night, Beth and I watched Before Midnight.  This was the sequel to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.  Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are the stars.  Talk about depressing.  The characters are probably 6-7 years younger than Beth and I, but good Lord they have trouble communicating.  I know all couples have times when they just can't get on the same page, but these two people don't seem to be in the same book.  He is pretentious and too emotional in an argument, and she is bipolar.  Makes two excellent points quickly followed by a side trip to crazy town.  The movie makers tried to give it an everything is going to be okay ending, but I didn't walk away with that feeling.  I almost want them to split up so there won't be another movie.  The only thing Beth could find interesting about it was that the character, Celine, actually looked like a 4o something year-old woman. 


Christie Brinkley was on the cover of a magazine last month celebrating turning 60 and wearing a bathing suit.  Women that look like that are not normal.  Celine looks normal.  Sure, the producers probably sprung the idea of the movie and the turn-around time on her such that she would have liked to look thinner I'm guessing, but it was realistic.  Except that Beth has never walked around our room with her top off as long as Celine did in this movie.  Not going to happen anytime soon either.


After this viewing, Beth put herself on movie picking probation.


Today I watched This is 40.  If you are thinking that it must be nice to have time to sit around watching movies, well I do have to go unload the truck in the snow tonight, so bite me.  Anyway, I thought this movie was going to be a comedy and it was.  However, it was really just the comedic version of the same movie we watched last night.  Two people turning 40 who are having some difficult times in their lives and have absolutely no idea how to lean on each other to right the ship.  I was so depressed.  Thank goodness there were some funny parts because otherwise I would have gone and stuck my head in the toaster.  Or tried to  climb through the screen to punch the two characters in the face.  Especially him.  His wife in this movie is gorgeous.  Way out of his league.  And way more normal than he is.  He is the problem but she seems willing to try harder to make it work.  Dude, if she leaves you she will be snapped up as quickly as Beth would if she ever left me.


Which begs the question, is Beth trying to tell me something by borrowing two movies about couples in their forties who are having trouble communicating?   Or is she just really bad at picking movies?  If this is her way of communicating the problem with me, I think that would mean we were bad at communicating.  Could you imagine that if every time you needed to get a point across to your spouse you had to rent a movie about it?  I really wish Paula from June's blog read mine because I am going to ask any of you to submit the name of the movie you would need to rent right now to communicate with your spouse.  Paula would totally nail this assignment with something hysterical whereas I am struggling.  I can think of plenty that I don't need like Brokeback Mountain or My Life, but let me see if I can think of something.


How about ........Ferris Bueller's Day Off-Bethie, do you have a kiss for daddy?