{"id":451,"date":"2007-06-01T10:08:46","date_gmt":"2007-06-01T15:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forgetful.ca\/2007\/06\/01\/an-unfunny-review-of-an-unfunny-movie\/"},"modified":"2007-06-01T10:08:46","modified_gmt":"2007-06-01T15:08:46","slug":"an-unfunny-review-of-an-unfunny-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/?p=451","title":{"rendered":"An unfunny review of an unfunny movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

There will be no jokes today.<\/p>\n

Last night, I watched Dancer in the Dark<\/a>, and now I feel like I need to unleash some thoughts. It might seem weird to review a movie 8 or so years after it came out, but Dan loaned it to me a year and half ago and I only just watched it, so I feel I owe him something.<\/p>\n

At some point in early 2006, I enthusiastically borrowed Dancer in the Dark from the Fullerton Multimedia Library, as Dan had described it as \u201cone of the best movies I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d. I didn\u2019t know what it was about; just that Bjork was in it, so it was probably pretty weird but would at least have a good soundtrack. As it sat on my coffee table for a few days before I prepared to watch it, friends would see it and comment \u201cman, that\u2019s one sad movie\u201d, or \u201cI don\u2019t usually cry, but that movie was brutal\u201d. Hearing these \u201creviews\u201d, my enthusiasm began to fizzle. I don\u2019t really understand the point of sad movies \u2013 why sit down and watch something that will only make you feel terrible?<\/p>\n

And so it sat on my coffee table, unwatched\u2026 until I moved into a new house, where it then sat on my new coffee table, still unwatched.<\/p>\n

Dan recently reminded me that I had his movie, and I debated returning it without actually seeing it. He wouldn\u2019t hear it, though \u2013 he wanted it back soon, but I had to watch it first.<\/p>\n

So I did. And now I\u2019m sad.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t really go into a plot summary, but if you haven\u2019t seen it, it\u2019s about a poor hard working immigrant woman who works in a factory. She has a degenerative disease that\u2019s making her go blind. Her son also has the disease, so she secretly saves all the money she earns so she can pay for corrective surgery for her son. The man that she rents her trailer from steals all of her surgery money because he\u2019s too much of a sissy to tell his wife that he\u2019s broke.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s only about the first 20 minutes. It gets sadder from there. And sadder, and sadder. Then, just when it seems like there\u2019s a glimmer of hope and everything will turn out sort-of ok\u2026 more sadness.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, this movie was pretty amazing. Brilliant performances. Great music. Believable dialogue. Bjork was amazing. 5 stars, all that jazz. But man\u2026 it made In the Bedroom<\/a> seem like the feel good hit of the summer. Everything about this movie is heartbreaking – the settings, the wardrobes, the lighting. I imagine the director’s most pressing concern was finding the saddest camera angle for every single scene.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s I\u2019m Telling You for the Last Time<\/a>, someone in the crowd asks him if he\u2019s ever thought about making a Seinfeld movie. He responds that he probably won\u2019t because most movies are terrible \u2013 if you go see a bad movie, it\u2019s 2 hours; if you\u2019re in a bad movie, it\u2019s 2 years. I immediately thought of this quote after watching Dancer in the Dark \u2013 not because the movie was bad (at all), but just because the actors and actresses had to deal with this story every day for months, if not years. It must have been totally draining. I’m pretty sure that every single remotely significant character in the movie cries. And not just a few tears and a runny nose – I’m talking full-on wailing. I read that Bjork has said that she will never make another movie, and I can understand why\u2026 she doesn\u2019t want to go crazy (too late<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Anyway, it was a great movie, but I hope I never see it again. I think that\u2019s about as good of a review that a movie this sad can get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There will be no jokes today. Last night, I watched Dancer in the Dark, and now I feel like I need to unleash some thoughts. It might seem weird to review a movie 8 or so years after it came out, but Dan loaned it to me a year and half ago and I only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}