The internal nature of winter here on Orcas, aside from bringing out our creativity, provides a wonderful excuse to cozy in and watch lots of movies. It hasn’t really been a tough winter, so the sun has actually pulled me outside much more than previous winters. But my mom and I have a movie date every Friday night.
After an almost-four-year steady stream of pointless time wasters, we needed to make a new way for ourselves. So we started renting series from the library. We watched every episode of Downton Abbey and Victoria. After three or four seasons of Call the Midwife, we decided to dip our toes back into movieland. I was also getting a little self-conscious – I wondered if the people upstairs from my mom heard the blood-curdling screams of women (giving birth) coming from my mom’s place every Friday night – did they wonder what kinds of things were going on every time I came over?
I’m happy to report a stream of movies that I have really liked over this Christmas and New Year’s season.
The first one is a movie we almost turned off after the first 20 minutes – Maudie. I couldn’t stand the emotions it aroused in me. But we kept watching, wondering if something of any redeeming value could ensue. It did. Wow. Give it a chance. I’ll say no more, except to say that the actors were fantastically believable and stick with it through the first part. Here’s the trailer…
I love love. I love love stories. I like just about every The-Notebook-esque movie you can name. And I like likable characters who seem genuinely nice. So I really liked About Time, a movie I happened upon at the library. It’s a love story about an awkward guy who can time travel and redo every situation in his life that didn’t go well. His awkwardness is not a problem in liking his character, and the woman he falls in love with is super likable. I think I would probably like her as an actress if she’s like this in other movies. Her name is Rachel McAdams. And I really enjoy the actor Bill Nighy. But what I especially appreciated happened at the end of the movie – the message that the main character stopped time traveling after awhile because, aside from becoming more confident in various social realms, he decided to make every moment, interaction, and day really count in the sense of his mindfulness and genuine attention toward those he encountered. It’s actually a big life lesson – being present, perceptive, and loving in whatever situation you’re in, simply because that’s all that really matters at that moment. Sometimes seemingly frivolous things, like movies, can actually make bigger, faster impacts on your life in ways that your own efforts have been slow to accomplish. My words written here won’t have much affect on you, but the way the movie plays out will…
Speaking of seemingly surface-y movies with surprisingly deep messages, Evan Almighty is a totally goofy movie with one line that is very powerful. First of all, I like totally goofy if it’s done well. Secondly, Steve Carrell can always make me laugh. My husband and I used to watch The Office, and his goofy humor just strikes a laughy chord in me every time. In this movie, Morgan Freeman plays God, and he wants Steve’s character, Evan, to build an ark. Evan’s wife thinks he might be losing his mind as he begins to obey the call. So God (Morgan Freeman) tells her something in a cafe one day that is really thought-provoking. He says this (skip to 1 minute, 10 seconds on this clip)…
If you’ve been trying to be more of something – more patient, more understanding, more loving – you know from experience that you often get more opportunities that seem to bring out the worst in you. But really, they’re opportunities to practice the kind of character you’re wanting to build. As humans, we’re always hoping those character traits will come more quickly or more easily. So this struck a chord in me.
Aside from all that, I’d recommend Evan Almighty if you want a fun, goofy, laughy movie that lowers your blood pressure in its lightness. It’s not new, I just hadn’t seen it until a friend happened to recommend it. Here’s the trailer…
And then there is As It Is in Heaven, a Swedish film that has stuck with me for weeks. It’s about a big-time, world-renown conductor who moves to his tiny, snowy, Northern European hometown and ends up directing the little church’s choir. I’ve seen it three times now. It makes me laugh out loud (movies don’t easily make me laugh out loud), and I feel akin to the characters, perhaps because they are a group of very different people living life together as an extended family. I feel a closeness to it because it is like Orcas life in many ways. I took a writing class in college that had us analyze all kinds of modern media – songs, movies, etc. – and write extensively on all the deeper meanings quietly being communicated. You could write a pretty sizable paper on this movie for the underlying message that makes it so emotionally captivating – the characters who seem least focused on their morality and spirituality are the ones who are the kindest, gentlest, and most loving. It brought out my every emotion. It’s just so human. Here’s the trailer…
Photo of choir from As It Is in Heaven
