Ne'er brought to mind

By popular request, another post has been demanded of me. By popular request, of course, I mean Lindsay. Andrew's own return to fine form is also inspiration as well as Matt's continued prowess with the page.

So I have a confession to make: last night I rented a "video", if you know what I mean. I've done it before a few times, and I can't promise that I won't do it again. I was all by myself and I finished my work earlier than expected and so I just did it. Walking through the aisles of the store, it feels like everyone's eyes are upon you, like they know what you'll be doing. The clerk patiently accepts money like he does this hundreds of times a day, but you know what he's thinking. He's scoffing at you, quietly judging you, before handing you the video in a little plastic bag. And you just walk out of the store hoping that no one saw what you did.

That's right boys and girls, I rented "Freaky Friday" from Rogers. And you know what...it was awesome.

I say this proudly because one of the prevailing themes of my return home to Ottawa amongst my family was my "over-intellectualizing" of that wretched thing called "Love Actually." It turns out that everyone else in my family had seen it and all of them thought it, if not a work of genius, then one of their favourite fun movie of the year. So my comments (see below) on the class/gender/race issues that ruined the movie for me were not well taken and I was metaphorically beat up for my position.

So, yes. I like my arty movie. I can handle slow and dramatic. I have no problem with subtitles and I do take more pride in discovering hidden gems than gushing over the latest multiplex blockbuster. But damn it. I like my cheese too!

Freaky Friday is unexpectedly quite a fine piece of old cheddar. Sure you can find many varieties of it at your local grocery store and it doesn't contain any surprising bits of jalapeno. It just does what it does and it does that very well. Both the lead actress and Jamie Lee Curtis appeared to be having great fun and I giggled pleasantly along with them. It's got a surprisingly good soundtrack too with one of the better teen movie "bands" I've seen. It even manages a convincing attempt at a tear-jeaker moment at the end. All in all, more fun than "Love Actually" without all the moldly bits that made that movie such a stinker.