Thanks to the power of Netflix I've been on an old movie binge. I'm going with that because writing "I'm depressed and haven't been productive," just doesn't sound as exciting. Anyway I recently watched watched three movies that really had me wondering: What is wrong with these women???
Let me explain.
Netflix has this thing that will sort through your likes and guess what movies you might like. Kind of like how Facebook takes your likes and tries to suggestively advertise to you and fails miserably. Well Netflix does actually do a pretty decent job, sometimes and I found myself watching Omen.
I have never actually watched Omen so I got a great hoot out of Atticus Finch trying to kill a five year old. I guess as an actor he did his best??? But that's not my beef.
My Beef is with Lee Remick. Lee who is from Massachusetts like me, plays the mom, Katherine, in this movie and my gawd do I hate how helpless she is. I absolutely do not understand how a woman can be so hands off with her own child that she can let another woman tell her what is right and what is wrong.
What I don't understand and it starts right at the beginning is how it takes almost a day for her to see her child after giving birth. Obviously for the story's sake we need time for the father to switch out the babies but can this have ever happened in real life without the mother saying something? And why didn't he just go in and tell her in the first place? "Hey our kid died but we can get this one for free because no one knows it exist...." Problem solved. She may have objected at first but her character was malleable enough to probably eventually go along.
Then, when we get the the part where we meet the new Nanny, I'm even more upset. Now both parents share this epic fail moment but I want to focus on Katherine. The Nanny looks creepy, acts creepy and insists on meeting the child alone. C'mon Katherine you have been managing with out a Nanny just fine since the last one bought the farm. You and your hubby have already deduced that neither of you called the agency. You're just going to smile when she hands you references and let her walk through your house and close the door between you and your only son? Those references are fake everyone but you knows it. FAIL: I've seen drunk military wives with more sense than you when it comes to your child.
Disclaimer: I'm not attacking military wives with the above statement I am attacking the stereotype.
I hate to say this but I'm glad she died. If they gave her character even one more thought I think I might have hurled. I can't relate to her. I can't relate at all to her casually distant approach to raising her son. She was a house wife. Why did she need a nanny in the first place?
May because I'm poor, I just don't understand letting some one else raise my kids when I have the time to do it. It's just a movie so I'll get over it.
Netflix then suggests I watch a documentary about Roman Polanski. I have no idea who this guy is except for the fact that he was married to the blond in Valley of the Dolls. Now there was a movie that made me wonder. I hope that's not what men think of us... So I watched it and I feel nothing. Out of all the movies this guy made I was only interested in watching Rosemary's Baby. I added it to my instant que and watched a day later.
Frankly I couldn't even enjoy the movie much. That old woman from Harold and Maude was in it though. I think she does eccentric old lady really well. But the main character, Rosemary, I just can't subscribe to that kind of lack of will.
I watched her submit to everyone else's demands but her own. Even when she tried to get away, she ultimately put herself back in a position where she and her child were helpless. I find a lot of older movies portray women this way.
Perfect example during the movie, actually the whole movie, but I'll cut it down. The MC, Rosemary, let's her husband tell her, she doesn't taste anything funny, when she clearly feels like there was something wrong with the food she was given. And of course to make him happy she eats it anyway setting in motion the rest of the movie. Oh my goodness I think right then and there I began to not like her. I can't picture myself in a situation like that. I can't imagine myself in a situation like that. I can't fathom anyone who'd want to try to place me in a situation like that. The food taste funny? You don't believe me? You eat it. I'll get something else. I'll pass. There, the whole movie, done, over, problem solved.
I don't want a medal for saying I would have handled these characters differently. I just want an explanation as to why these cult classics make women out to be such dunderheads? I am confused and slightly insulted.
Instead of writing for the last two days I've been sitting on my couch watching Netflix. Not to worry though because I pulled almost 5000 words out my ass in three hours just now so I'm going to finish on time.
Anyway, back to my two days of watching television. I'm surfing through my suggestions which by the way, on Netflix they suck, I start watching romantic comedies. I have no good reason to be watching that drivel but I do. I like to laugh and I like to fake like there's hope.
Basically despite my being raised by wolves, surrounded by crazy women, and spending the last few years, sailing a bunch of seas with politically incorrect Sailors (blissfully), I'm still essentially a female with frilly female ideas on what romance should be. Well, actually I buy into what I'm told is the frilly idea of what romance should be.
But that does not stop me from watching some thing just because Doctor Who is in it. So that is why last night I found myself watching of all things, The Decoy Bride, starring David Tennant. This is not the first time I've watching some thing because of a Doctor Who actor had a role in it. Some time at the end of the summer I discovered Party Animals with Matt Smith from 2007. But forget him I'm all about the wibbly wobbly timey wimey right now.
So The Decoy Bride stars that young woman who played that young Scottish maid in Gosford Park and the tenth Doctor Who. It actually turned out to be a fairly decent movie. A lot of funny Scottish people running around with being proudly different from everyone. I have to wonder why the movies do that. It's like they go out of the way to make Scottish people and Welsh all seem really crazy. What ever once you got over the over done silliness of the extra character you managed to get an okay story line and mildly entertaining comedy from it.
So yes it fulfilled its requirement for a romantic comedy. But really I was watching it for my favorite Doctor. He's actually not that bad of actor when he's not pointing a sonic screw driver at things.
But after two days of watching the idiot box I did finally sit back down at my computer and work on my story. I wish it didn't feel so much like work at first. But once the words finally decided to flow I was fine.
