Fifteen years ago I had a very definitive idea of what good cinema was all about. I didn't care for "childish" comedies, adored romantic movies, wanted to see good acting not special effects and my tolerance for action was extremely low. I had never realized that most of the movies that I adored at the time were predictable at best and lacked the style and substance I thought they'd had. I was extremely naive about life in general back then and that tainted my views on films completely. I was definitely not the kind of person you would call a movie-buff...and then came Duckie.
Duckie's views were a complete 180 degree perspective from mine. He loved action, begged for bigger and better special effects and didn't really care about what kind of story it had, as long as something blew up. I dreaded seeing movies with him in the beginning of our relationship because the Curse of the People Pleasers already had a firm hold on me; I wanted him to be happy no matter my discomfort. A strange thing started to happen as the years drifted along, though. Our ideals began to merge...we each started seeing that the other had a point to their view. As I stared at the screen, watching fight scenes, begging to find anything I could enjoy in it, I started to notice the grace in movement. Yes, it's a very girly thing to notice, but it was the start to not dreading an outing to the movies when it was his pick. It was strange when I started to actually enjoy going to see Kung Fu movies because I noticed the artistry in every little piece. It was more than the action, more than the costumes; there was a deeper story there if you watched it with an open mind. Even stranger, though, was that Duckie started to need more from his movies than just action. He needed a good strong plot line...he still likes mindless-blow-em-up-bang-bang movies from time to time, but he mainly wants to see something with substance now.
That's not to say that we both don't get in the mood for some mind-numbing substance-less movies from time to time, the occasions are rare these days and last night just happened to be one of them. We picked a movie that had gotten horrible reviews...Sucker Punch. Everything we had read on it said that it was drivel...action with very little storyline and absolutely poor acting. Imagine our surprise when we immediately started seeing something more.
Every piece of the movie was designed to tell the story. It wasn't inundated with dialogue, as a matter of fact, there was very little of that in there, but the story unfolded before us in an unexpected way. I have seen very few films that have used everything from the sites on the screen to the music running alongside the action to let you know what lies beneath the surface, but this was definitely one of them. I won't give any spoilers, but I will tell you that if you watch the movie, watch with an open mind. Look for the subtext of it all because it is there and it left us talking until 2 o'clock in the morning about the nuances that made this one of the best movies we've seen in a long time.
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