May 16, 2010
The other day I got sucked into a movie I didn’t want to see. It wasn’t because I don’t like the movie or that I was humoring my wife (well, okay, I was… a little). It’s because I didn’t want to cry… and I knew that movie would make me cry.
There are certain movies that make me cry, guaranteed. And Steel Magnolias is one of them. Go on, laugh. But you watch it again and you’ll know what I mean.
You see, the first time you watch a movie that makes you cry, you don’t cry like the second time, or third time, or fourth time you watch it. That’s because the first time you watch it, it’s unexpected. It either sneaks up on you or hits you all of a sudden, and the cry just kinda comes out of you from surprise.
The next time you watch a cry movie, you know you are going to cry. From the minute the credits roll, you know there is going to come that scene or scenes that will open the flood gates to your heart.
Crying isn’t bad. In fact it is very healthy. But crying when you don’t want to but you know you will is awkward. Because you cry when something is true, but it is so goddamned sad, like when Sally Fields finally breaks down after her daughter’s funeral with her untethered tirade about how unfair and senseless death is.
That is very true. And it is so goddamned sad.
The upside to all of this is that most movies that make you cry usually also make you laugh… for the same reasons. Like when Dolly Parton says: “Time marches on and eventually you realize it’s marching across your face.”
That is very true. And it is also goddamned sad. But it is exceptionally funny.
