CCCXXXVIII: Away We Go

I've enjoyed this lazy and sluggish Saturday by myself. I slept in until a bit after 11am, did a couple loads of laundry, went to two classes (voice and yoga), and watched two movies that have been waiting for me on my PVR. (Why is it always 88% full?!?!?)

One of the movies I saw was Jane Eyre from 1996 starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt. It was quite bad. I guess I can't ever expect greatness from film adaptations of books, especially of such a wonderful book. They basically removed huge chunks of the plot while also sacrificing most of the moments that show the closeness (and tension) between Jane and Mr. Rochester. Disappointment. I am so tired of movies that jump from the characters' introduction to understood love. The audience needs to know why characters love each other. They need to feel it themselves. Kissing alone doesn't make it real--there has to be something communicated from one to the other in words, actions, and glances.

I was redeemed, however, by Away We Go, a low-key 2009 movie directed by Sam Mendes and starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. I didn't know much about it but PVR'd it because someone had mentioned it to me last year (so I had no expectations). It started a bit slow but had some cute and funny moments. At one point near the beginning I was thinking of giving up and deleting it since it didn't seem to be going anywhere. But I'm glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be quite special and heartwarming, and the plot is both familiar and original in a good way. It's about an unmarried couple in their thirties who are expecting and want to be the best possible parents they can be. Since they're not tied down to the city they're currently living in, they decide to move around the country to find a city that fits them so that they can settle down and be a family. In the process, they reconnect with friends/family in those cities and realize how they do and don't want their family to be. In the meantime, you can see the chemistry between the couple, why they love each other (!), and have a few laughs along the way. The ending was nice as well.--it gave me something to think about in my own life, and I expect it's something I'll ponder for awhile.

That being said, I don't know if most people would respond to Away We Go the same way that I did. It's a quiet and subtly endearing love story with some honest moments and insights into the idea of "family". It helps that John and Maya bring genuineness to their characters.

If you take today's two examples and apply them to daily life, it should reiterate the notion of spes humilium (my self-coined Latin version of "low expectations"), and further extend it to believing that no expectations (spes nulla) is key. This is one of the reasons why it's better not to know your future or have any inkling of what is to come. Because if it doesn't happen the way you were expecting, you'll be sorely disappointed.

That means you, film adaptation of Jane Eyre.