The Ugly Truth

I love a sappy, romantic comedy, the more unrealistic the better. OR SO I THOUGHT. For some reason I just don't like Katherine Heigl either. I don't know why, it's inexplicable. She isn't believable to me as a straight laced business woman. I felt the same way about Knocked Up, a movie I like to say I loved "in spite of her" being in it. I did still enjoy The Ugly Truth, but as much as I like a far fetched love story, but these characters have attributes that I don't want to see changed. Love requires some compromise, of course. But if you're a control freak who has a checklist of criteria you want in a man - you go girl! That's not a crime. And if you're a super hot stud who wants to bang the hottest chick he can find? Go for it. Not that neither of these people will never settle or change their beliefs, but this movie progresses too quickly from one to the other, based on nothing besides looks. Yes, it's a movie. I know how movies work. But if Katherine Heigl's character were played by a dumpy overweight brunette who wears glasses, but had the exact same personality, Gerard Butler's character wouldn't have given a damn about how quirky she is.

Shutter Island

I just loved it. Ignorance alert: I didn't know that it was originally a book. I consider myself pretty intelligent but I can't possibly know about every book out there can I? I think Leonardo DiCaprio is awesome, but I'm about done with his accents. We get it, you're from Boston like 85% of the time. I find that most actors have a hard time committing 100% to accents, and annoyingly particular people like me will notice.

The first scene of the movie also caused me some annoyance. A giant boat is taking Leo (Teddy Daniels) and his new partner Mark Ruffalo (Chuck) to a mental hospital on an island reminiscent of Alcatraz. The scenes from the upper deck of the boat look fake. I had visions of an SNL skit where they are clearly standing on a fake ship bow in front of a blue screen with an image of water behind them; pretending to sway back and forth. I was scared this was a sign of things to come so I lowered my expectations, but I really enjoyed the movie. You know there is going to be a twist, but in my opinion, and as someone who had never heard the story before, I didn't think it was what it was. I guessed Chuck was bad, that Dr. Cauley (the hospital's psychiatrist) was bad, I pretty much assumed everyone was bad, but I didn't predict what happened.

It is a tragic story. And I think it would make any of us insane. Right or wrong, if your spouse kills your three children and seems downright unaffected by it, I can get on board with the murderous feelings you would have for them. I haven't struggled with a serious mental illness like that myself, and I won't presume to know what it's like inside someone's head who is seriously disturbed, but I can tell you I'm not sure I would have much sympathy regardless of their mental state. You killed my kids, I think temporary or prolonged insanity will ensue. That's what happened to Leo whose real name we find out is Andrew Laedddis (an anagram of Edward Daniels - the identity he assumes). He was driven so insane by his wife's actions that he retreats into a special world inside his mind, where this hasn't happened to him. His wife was tragically killed in a fire, but he never had children, so he can't feel the pain of losing them.

There are other great elements to the story as well. He also creates a woman whose name is an anagram of his dead wife's. THIS woman killed her three children in the fashion that Teddy's wife did, and got herself locked up for it. Dr. Cauley as well as Dr. Sheehan (who was masquerading as Teddy's partner Chuck to help him) really do want nothing but the best for Andrew. They are trying everything they can to snap him out of his paranoid delusion so that the powers that be won't perform a lobotomy, as Andrew's delusions are often so violent he has nearly killed other patients. It's unclear to me at the end what happens to Andrew. It appears that he's back to himself, and realizes his name is Andrew, his children are dead and he killed his wife. Dr. Cauley explains this has happened before and that Andrew still reverted back to Teddy. But maybe this is it? However when approached by Dr. Sheehan, he calls him Chuck and the nod is given to call in the death squad. I suspect that Andrew didn't return to his fantasy world, and simply prefers to have the lobotomy to stop the thoughts in his head all the time. Every minute of every day he lives with the fact that his wife methodically drowned his three young children, an that the killed his wife for it. After years of suffering maybe a lobotomy to remove all those memories (what he's told will happen) is a gift. Just my theory, but I think it's not unreasonable.