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One too many “Nights in Rodanthe”

Last night was a “date night at home” night so we decided to get a pizza and rent a movie for the evening.  Evenings like this are rare which can make it difficult to decide which movie to choose.  After scrolling through our options, watching trailers, and going back an forth on possible picks, we decided to go with “Nights in Rodanthe.”  Primarily because we like Diane Lane and the first movie we saw on our honeymoon was actually a Diane Lane flick (Under the Tuscan Sun).  So, we got  our popcorn, tea, and settled in.

remote

menu

press “On Demand”

scroll

press “buy”

confirm

title credits

regret

deep regret

shocked disdain

mocking hysterical laughter

anger at $4.99 rental fee

more mocking

praying for rapture to end human suffering

end credits.

Need I say more?

Actually, yes I do.  This movie was cinematic ipecac (drug used to induce vomiting after accidental poisoning).  I have never witnessed such needless, mindless, and pointless sentimentality with virtually no plot.  To call it “sappy” would be a step up.  The acting in this film was about as convincing and riveting as St. Millicent’s Parochial School for Girls’ 4th-grade production of “Dead Man Walking.”  I can only imagine what directions the director was giving while filming this:

“Look sad.”

“Walk on the beach and look sad.”

“Read the letter, look sad and cry.”

“I’m not really sure what this scene is about but look sad, cry, rant a little, hug each other, and then look sad.”

All this to say, avoid this film!  It will sear your soul void of any legitimate sentiment for those you love.  This movie is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

By the way,

Richard Gere’s character dies at the end.

I’m sorry but I felt that was necessary.  You’ll thank me one day.

Movie Review – Last Chance Harvey

It is hard to turn away from a film that has two actors of this caliber.  Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson haven’t disappointed me in the past and they’ve proven themselves again.  While this may not be a box office hit or appeal to the mainstream, it was still an endearing film.  What’s nice about this romantic comedy is that it involves two middle-age-plus characters rather than your typical twenty-somethings that prove to be predictable.  We see two people that have weathered life and show the worse for wear.  The characters, Kate and Harvey, live life with a defeated resolve and handle situations and relationships with a quirky awkwardness that can only be the result of years hard knocks.  In the end, they prove to be each others last opportunity for normalcy and happiness.  What I loved about this film was watching the intense subtlety of Emma Thompson’s and Dustin Hoffman’s acting ability.  While the script may not have been the film’s greatest strength, Thompson and Hoffman certainly masked any deficiencies in the writing. 

What was most interesting was that at one point Thompson’s character confesses that she prefers to live with disappointment because it is predictable and she doesn’t have to risk getting hurt.  By choosing to be disappointed, she knows what to expect. 

How true.

How many times have I seen people choose to live in disappointment because it involves little risk.   It’s safer. 

If we expect to be disappointed by life then we will never fully give ourselves to it.  We will walk with a reserve that always holds some part of us back which leads to disappointing results and so the cycle continues. 

We are never promised that everything will always work out the way we want and, in fact, it won’t.  But we must never let the disappointments of life keep us from embracing life.  If so, we will be robbed of so many things the Lord has for us and we will never experience His fullness.  Life is worth the risk.

Book Review: The Culturally Savvy Christian

I have to admit that whenever I see a book that talks about relating to popular culture from a Christian perspective, I tend to cringe in expectation of what I’ll find. To be honest, I find that most of the authors are young and cynical and their point of view seems to promote a message of compromise rather than influence. That isn’t the case with Dick Staub. Staub is a seasoned veteran of broadcasting and writing and speaks with authority when addressing the topic of culture and Christianity.

One of the things I appreciated about this book was the “gloves off” approach to addressing Western Christian sub-culture. We live in an age of “Christianity Lite” where truth has been tamed in order to become more seeker-sensitive or sentimentalized to the point of rendering it ineffective. Staub states that Christianity has become “’moralistic therapeutic deism,’ in which people are promised that therapeutic benefits, such as a happy life, can be achieved through good, moral, kind, nice, pleasant behavior.”

The author also speaks candidly about Christian culture’s definition of excellence in art. I truly appreciate his plea for artists to produce art and not just religious art. Too often, we have excused a lack of commitment to excel in artistic skill and accepted artistic contributions that are often mediocre at best. This is often why popular culture looks at the artistic Christian sub-culture with a mocking contempt and has so little influence. Stuab proclaims a message that all artists should give themselves fully to a deep relationship with the Lord and strive to excel in their craft and prove themselves to be authoritative voices in popular culture. He states, “True artists push ahead, find a way to make their best art, and, if unable to pay the bills with their art, find a way to earn sufficient daily bread in other ways.” An artist must give themselves fully to their art regardless of whether they ever receive any compensation or notoriety.

The strength of this book is that Staub spends a significant portion discussing the need to have a deep and abiding relationship with the Lord before ever being qualified to influence or properly understand culture. It is an excellent message of the need to effectively relate to current culture without sacrificing a mature relationship with God. This is a must read for pop-culture enthusiasts and anyone desiring a fresh perspective on relating to and influencing today’s culture.