# "Depressing" movies that aren't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773 "2004-10-23T16:15:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/1 "2004-10-23T16:15:03Z")
[Bringing Out the Dead](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163988/), boiled down, is a movie about how horrible and stressful it is to be a paramedic. Watching it, the only thing I get from it is that it looks like an interesting job, and something I could have fun doing and the fact that all the reviewers and I disagreed on this is one of the reasons I switched from an IT degree to nursing. Are there any movies you found uplifting when they weren’t meant to be? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/2 "2004-10-24T00:35:27Z")
AI could have been a depressing yet good movie: instead it made me amused and angry 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/3 "2004-10-24T00:53:00Z")
I don’t know about inspiring, but [Dancer in the Dark](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168629/) had me in stiches, especially the end song that gets abruptly ended when Bjork gets hung. That cracked me up. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/4 "2004-10-24T01:02:35Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > I don’t know about inspiring, but [Dancer in the Dark](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168629/) had me in stiches, especially the end song that gets abruptly ended when Bjork gets hung. That cracked me up. 😃 So tell me, how does the movie end? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/5 "2004-10-24T22:32:53Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > I don’t know about inspiring, but [Dancer in the Dark](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168629/) had me in stiches, especially the end song that gets abruptly ended when Bjork gets hung. That cracked me up. 😃 Shit . . . I found that movie physically painful. My stomach hurt afterwards; I would have preferred Lars Von Trier had just spent the two and a half hours punching me instead. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/6 "2004-10-24T23:16:25Z")
I can see how someone can find _Dancer in the Dark_ to be heavyhanded, but hardly funny (unless you’re also one of the kids that liked to pull wings off of flies). _The Time Machine_ had the potential to be very, very depressing. Hell, the only good parts of the movie were the added subplot about the Moon hitting the Earth (forgive the spoiler, but I feel very little guilt about spoiling a crappy movie, and it’s not a climactic point, anyway) and Orlando Jone’s character, both of which weren’t even in the book. That alone, combined with the dystopic fate that man was meant to have, coulda made for some very powerful emotions. Instead, I feel like I got raped in the ass by industrial equipment. Ironically, I don’t consider the book to be the least bit depressing. Melancholy, maybe, but not depressing. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/7 "2004-10-24T23:40:14Z")
I found _The Station Agent_ to be depressing. Not devastatingly so, but not really uplifting either. Finbar was, and still is, a little person. And that sucks. He can adjust, and he turns out to be ok, but he is an oddity no matter how fine his character. I loved Joe’s character. He remimded me of someone I used to know. Honest and open and totally generous. Generous as in give as well as take, without owing. I really liked the scene where he took over Fin’s new video camera, before Fin himself even got to see it. At the end, I felt good that the three had pretty much resolved their friendship. But I still felt for Finbar, because the world would keep on dealing him shit simply because of his physical stature. Ten of ten, IMO. Because of the movie’s honesty. And beacuse I wanted to be there. I really wanted a “Cafe con Leche,” 😛 Peaca, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depressing-movies-that-arent/270773/8 "2004-10-25T00:40:11Z")
[QUOTE=SPOOFE] I can see how someone can find _Dancer in the Dark_ to be heavyhanded, but hardly funny (unless you’re also one of the kids that liked to pull wings off of flies). I thought it was heavy handed to the point of absurdity. Good movie, but needed to be cut back a bit. The ending wouldn’t have been as funny to me if I hadn’t predicted it about as soon as she got arrested and been cracking wise about it up until it happened. What can I say, something that obvious has to be funny. :rolleyes: