Movies, Mom & Me

1. Who's watched:  M & G
2. Mentions:  *1*
3. Commentary:  My reaction to this movie is complicated.
   • I'm sure you've heard the following: "If you love the series, you'll love the movie." Not so. I agree that in order to become involved in the movie one has to be familiar with the series, but I love the series and the movie was a disappointment. I can see how my mother liked the movie. Aside from her reaction noted above, it was so colorful and splashed so broadly on such a huge canvas that it was kind of like watching a cartoon.
   • That having been said, I was deeply affected, after my mother's death, by the scenes involving Carrie's mourning of what she assumed to be the definitive death of her relationship with Mr. Big. These scenes tugged mercilessly at my heart. At one point, the week after the first group of visitors left, I would watch the series of scenes, from her phone dropping at the wedding site when she hears that John has decided not to come to the wedding, straight through to her finally arising from an emotionally drugged three day sleeping binge in Mexico and joining the rest of her friends, endlessly. I would weep uncontrollably throughout...then continue my own mourning, which while it didn't include constant sleep, did include loss of appetite, drawing of all drapes, extinguishing of all sources of light and a strict isolation from everything that implies the continuation of life. That part of the movie continues to tug at my heart. On bad days, I make it a point to watch that series of scenes, yet again.
   • I was completely disappointed in something about the movie, but I couldn't place my finger on what until MCS and MCNC came to visit in early spring and we watched the movie (they hadn't seen it). When MCS pronounced it, after having watched about a half hour of it, as "a bunch of privileged women buying things", I realized what bothered me about the movie: The hard-driven focus on fashion, which is so relentless that the story lines get lost in the shuffle. Although the series has a decent fashion thrust, it isn't relentless; nor does it obscure story lines and ideas. The movie, unfortunately, took the fashion/money thrust to the limit and, in doing so, limited the ability of the story lines to come through.
     I'll keep the movie, though, as a part of my SATC collection. I hope the company doesn't plan to do another, though. My hope is that they consider all loose ends tied up tight. Enough is, as this movie proves, more than enough.

Labels: buddy, dramedy, romance

# posted by gail @ 15:39    email......this post