Movies that suck, but only for me

In the past month or two I've gotten around to seeing a pair of films that my friends have been after me to see for ages. I didn't particularly care for either. And this is a sufficiently unusual occurence that I thought I'd blog about it.

The first was Garden State. On all the usual technical levels, it was a perfectly decent film. True, I didn't flip over the soundtrack, probably because I wasn't previously familiar with the bands involved. But that's a minor quibble. Mostly, it just didn't resonate. I couldn't empathize with the main character, couldn't imagine myself ever doing or feeling any of the things he did.

He comes home to discover that all his friends are basically the same even though he's drastically different. Meanwhile I've found that it's usually quite the opposite - my friends have changed even more than I have. He exhibits a near-total, and understandable, inability to function in normal society - and simultaneously an uncanny insight into people. The hell? As far as I'm concerned it's basically the same skill. I thought I was a disaffected loner at one point in my life. But it apparently doesn't hold a candle to some of you, dear readers, if you saw yourself in this catatonic idiot.

And then there was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I've loved all of Charlie Kaufman's previous works, and like all the rest, it was endlessly inventive, both visually and narratively. And yet.

It suffered from what Roger Ebert calls the "idiot plot": the plot won't function unless otherwise seemingly intelligent people make unbelievably stupid decisions. I cannot for a moment believe that any rational adult would make the choice that the two main characters do in this film. It goes way past the point of comic farce and lands somewhere near disgusting psychopathy. It strains my suspension of disbelief way past the breaking point.

I also took away a very different impression of the ending. Most reviews I've seen say that it's hopeful: even knowing how it ended the first time, the couple decides to try their relationship again. Yet the whole message of the film, repeated over and over in the secondary characters, is that those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat it. I don't have the slightest doubt that their relationship will end the same way the second (third?) time. It's Romeo and Juliet on a tape loop.

So yeah. Two critically acclaimed films that didn't win me over in the slightest, because I couldn't for a moment picture myself in the characters' shoes. Yeah, that's not the only way to make a good movie, but it's an important one...