zeldafitz

Friday, March 10, 2006

Movie Night

This movie blew us away last night, “I am David.” I ordered it specifically with Nick in mind, but I just had this feeling that it was going to be something, and it was. And I don’t know if that is just because it really hit a home run with me in terms of where I have “been” this past week or what. I JUST LOVED IT. And Nick was absolutely, purely and completely blown away by it.

He went in skeptically, and what I love about Nick is, he honestly admits when he was wrong at the beginning—he doesn’t hold on to that stubborn kid thing of refusing to like something even though he didn’t initially want it.

He loves Netflix because I think more than anything it is a symbol of special time with his parents. We have had “movie night” with him on Fridays for several years now. At first it was a great solution for carving out time with just him when Ian was a baby, and now it is our steady way of carving out time just for him now that there are two little imps competing for our time and attention.

We get to revert back to the module we used to be, before the Invasion of the Bambini, and we all love it.

The movie is a coming of age movie, in a way. You have to suspend your disbelief, and it is slow in parts, but I gave myself over to the whole thing, fully. Yes, it’s implausible, all of that. But hello! The symbolism overrides that. At the beginning of the movie the kid manages to shinny up a ship’s mooring and stowaway and MZA chided Nick and said, “He’s a pretty brave boy. Could you do that?” And Nick said, “No. But he’s fighting for freedom and that is worth it. So I think I could do it if that’s what I was fighting for.”

No more chiding, eh?

I could see the parts that affected Nick the most were the flashbacks of the boy’s mother and father. The movie reaches this gorgeous crescendo and then out of the beautiful silence comes Damien Rice singing “Cold Water,” and kids, I thought my gentle, Irish heart would pierce through my being. No, seriously. I felt like I had just been blown through time and vapor and I could just feel the tears EXPLODE out of me, but in a nice way.

It has Joan Plowright in it and she will forever remind me of my mother because my mother LOVES HER and ALWAYS refers to her as “That MARVELOUS actress who was married to Lawrence Olivier…you know, Lele…”

Well, I got a strong indication last night why my mother is so daffy for her. And her character reminded me of my mother too, in her ability to observe and laser in on certain people that need a little help being drawn out. She’s really good at that. She gains the boy’s trust and I don’t think any of those messages were lost on Nick.