Thursday, June 6, 2013

Ten Mintes Later

"Moe is like a retarded person who doesn't know any better. He doesn't desire new experiences, new women, nothing. He's like a mental patient who doesn't know he's mental, so he's perfectly content."

That's a quote from a movie titled "Beautiful Girls." A great and hilarious quote from Beautiful Girls and to hell with you politically correct Playdoh heads. Check out the context.

Most have never seen the movie. It's a small movie. Most would rather watch Fast & Furious 19.

This movie belongs to Carol and me. Along with "Nobody's Fool."

We worship these movies and have seen them exactly 187 times each. I have talked about them before within these walls. They are quiet movies, movies with stories and deeply human characters. Movies you can watch over and over and still cry and laugh.

Carol was upstairs at the computer last night, I was looking for something to move me on TV. Came across Beautiful Girls on Sundance, in progress. Within two minutes, Carol heard the dialogue and knew what I was up to, yelled down asking "Is that Beautiful Girls?"

Ten minutes later she was on the couch and engrossed.

It was a moment. I dug the simple beauty of watching this movie again with my wife. We anticipate dialogue, we laugh in advance of funny scenes, we judge and make comments about certain characters. We share this movie between us, it resonates with us, we as a couple enjoy it together. It has meaning for us. It is a part of this couple identified as Carol & Joe.

Carol is a Red Sox junkie. The game started at 7:00 last night. We didn't switch over until the movie ended at 8:00. Even though we have seen it 187 times and own the DVD.

I am raw and exposed at the moment. At times like this I am more receptive to truth and beauty. When your nerves are scraped and bleeding, when they are exposed to the world with no protection, perception is heightened.

We were perfectly content as we watched that movie. A simple pleasure. A simple escape. I was on high alert and fully aware that the atmosphere in the house had changed and that something tangibly magical was going on.

If I could have bottled that experience I would never again need another drop of whiskey.

The experience changes a little every time we watch it depending on whether we are tired or not, happy or not, stressed or not, getting along or not.

However it goes, it is always our experience, and it doesn't matter to us if nobody else in the world ever sees or hears about this movie.

I have to be broken down and raw, sometimes, to fully appreciate small pleasures. Last night was great. Maybe the small things resonate because they are in keeping with a small life. Maybe they resonate because they vibrate at the same frequency. Maybe if you are hugely struggling to make your life large, you miss out on these things.

I look forward to viewing # 188.

Editor's note: In direct opposition to my remark claiming that I don't care if you ever see either of these movies, consider the casts:

"Beautiful Girls"  1996  Directed by Ted Demme  Starring: Matt Dillon, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O'Donnell, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman.

"Nobody's Fool"   1994  Starring: Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Philip Seymour Hoffman

There is one guy who is in both movies - Pruitt Taylor Vince. He plays a particularly touching character in Nobody's Fool.

There is a scene in Beautiful Girls that invokes the spirit of  fortune telling. Natalie Portman plays a 13 year old who is exceptionally intelligent and mature for her age, and does it brilliantly. Timothy Hutton is infatuated with her even though he is many years older. As he prepares to leave town with his girlfriend, he tells Portman that she is amazing and that he hopes they stay in touch because he thinks she will grow up to do amazing things. How true, how true.

I leave you with the following quote from the character played by Michael Rapaport in Beautiful Girls, who is obsessed with super models, has his walls plastered with super model posters and has named his dog Elle Macpherson:

"Super models are beautiful girls, Will. A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack & Coke all morning. She can make you high with the single greatest commodity known to man - promise. Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gaze of a beautiful girl. In her smile, in her soul, how she makes every rotten little thing about life seem like it's going to be OK. The super models are bottled promise. A beautiful girl is all powerful, and that's as good as love. As good as love."

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