District 9, and others

Per my request, Dammerung posted a small review on District 9, a movie I'm interested in watching, and after reading his review and braving the message boards at IMDB.com I'm still interested in watching it.

As I read more about District 9, including Damm's review, it somehow reminded me of "Meet the Parents", which was my wife's choice of movie (way back when we rented it). I had little desire in watching it but only did so at her urging, and while she was laughing at everything that happened to Greg Focker (Ben Stiller's character) I empathized far too much with him, so for me the movie was very painful to watch.

As the movie went on and as Greg's get-to-know-you with his prospective in-laws spiraled ever downwards, it finally got too much for Liz and she decided she'd had enough...but by now I was too emotionally vested in Greg and I needed to see him succeed. He deserved his reward for putting up with everything the movie's plot threw at him and I wanted to see him get it. So we watched the rest of the movie and it was as painful as the first half, but in the end that only made the ending even more satisfying when Greg finally won over Jack and earned the respect for which he was long overdue.

"Meet the Parents" also reminded me of another movie I saw a long, long time ago. I was maybe in 5th or 6th Grade, so 1980 or '81. I don't remember the title but it was a similar disaster-comedy movie with a teenage boy at a family reunion/picnic where absolutely nothing was going right for the boy. In one scene in particular the lad was lining up alongside his relatives at a huge picnic table to get his lunch. After loading up his plate the boy was pushed away from the table by the adults either side of him, who then moved together and closed the gap. And the lad was stuck with his arm wedged between their bodies with him on one side and his plate of food on the other.

I remember my classmates laughing at this movie, which confused me because I didn't think it was funny. If anything it was sad & depressing. Through no fault of his own the boy's day was being slowly ruined and nobody seemed to notice or care. I do remember that this scene was typical of the entire movie, and it culminated with the boy turning his plate sideways to pull his arm free. Of course my classmates laughed as the boy's lunch was smeared over the sides of the unknowing adults, fell to the ground, and was crushed underfoot. And just as the adults around him were oblivious to the boy's plight, nobody watching, neither teachers nor students, seemed to notice that one little boy was not laughing.

Empathy is a gift, and a curse.