Monday, December 12, 2005

Car Crash Movies


Yesterday I watched in DVD “Just Like Heaven” and “50 First Dates.” Both main characters were in a car accident before they met their “destined” partner. I guess for a love story to be worth making a film for, you have fill the story with every single scenario why the couple couldn’t be together – she’s in a coma, he’s alive; she has short-term memory, he wants to have a long term relationship with her… you get the picture.

In “Just Like Heaven” David (Mark Ruffalo) meets the nagging spirit of Elizabeth (Reese Witherspoon) who pops up everytime he makes a mess in her former apartment. The conflict was built nicely… he was dead inside because of the loss of his wife.. she, a spirit who doesn’t know if she’s dead or not, needs to learn to rely on another person other than herself to find out who she is. They bicker as they go along the mystery solving, which leads them to finally finding where Elizabeth’s body is… in life support inside a hospital. I foresaw what the cliché ending would be: David would have to kiss Elizabeth’s comatose body so come to life again. And so he did. What I didn’t foresee was that when Elizabeth’s spirit returns to her body, she wouldn’t remember David.

I found the movie mildly entertaining, and yes I rooted for David to save Elizabeth, but the middle part while they were bickering and supposedly falling in love… I didn’t “feel” that they falling. It’s just like “oh you nagging spirit, I’m gonna help you find your body to get rid of you but wait, on second thought, I kinda love you.”

I enjoyed 50 First Dates more (what do you expect if you put in Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore together). But Henry Roth (Sandler’s character) had to go through heartwrenching obstacles just to get Lucy Whitaker (Barrymore) meet him and know him again and again… because after Lucy sleeps, she wakes up not remembering anything that happened after October last year… the day she had the car accident. It was really persistent, devoted love on Henry’s part. Though there were corny sequences (Rob Schnieder suddenly appearing in Henry’s aquarium while he makes out with Lucy; Seals vomiting copiously) the love of Henry for Lucy made up for it. After watching the film you’d wish you’d find someone like Henry Roth who will never ever give up on you even if everyone else has given up on you. Imagine, the day before Lucy agrees to marry Henry and make love after more than 50 First Dates, the next morning she wakes up next to Henry – a stranger for her – and whacks him with a huge stick. It’s not easy to love someone like Lucy but Henry makes it look easy because he loves her everyday as if it’s the first day they met.