I saw Gone Girl a few days ago (I know, late to the party as usual) and I found no flaws in it (ok, one or two tiny plot holes, but still). I stayed interested in the whole movie, which is going some for me. I found the ending oddly satisfying in some weird way. I was going to post in the thread for that movie, but I want instead to talk about this phenomenon: I find it hard enough to find movies that I might be interested in, movies that aren’t animated comic books, movies without magic, sorcery, or “magic science” like Star Trek. Real world movies about real people. And the only ones I ever seem to see are about absolutely poisonous people.
In the entire movie, there is only one person I could like or admire, and that person (the female cop) fails and gives up the battle.
Another great movie that left me feeling this way is The Lion In Winter. Everything about that movie is breathtaking from the music to the writing to the acting to the music to the direction. But in the end, it’s just a family of little foxes gnawing each other bloody. (I realize that was possibly supposed to be the point, that this royal family is just like everyone else; in fact I think Hepburn’s character says something like that in the film). Again, only one character that one might sympathize with, Alais, but she is so passive and peripheral it doesn’t seem to count.
So what is this post about? Where are the breathtaking movies about real people that can hold my interest and where there is at least one major character who stays mostly admirable throughout the film?
The movie Ordinary People springs to mind. A real conflict, about real-type people, and I found the father (Donald Sutherland) to be heroic in his way. There are probably others that I’m not thinking of right now.
You might get the impression that I don’t go to a lot of movies and you would be correct. Most of them can’t pass my filters (no magic, no superheroes, no horror or gore, and so on) so I don’t bother with them except on rare occasions where I feel like turning off my sensibilities. Suspense movies are fine but they rarely have much character development.
Maybe you have recommendations that would get me out of this dead end feeling about movies. Maybe you would like to share your own frustrations. Maybe I’ve gone on far too long already and you stopped reading halfway through. I just had to vent.