Tuesday, December 05, 2006

tragedy or comedy?

I saw the movie "Stranger than Fiction" over the holiday weekend when I was in portland. LOVED IT! it's been a long time since I've seen a movie that didn't make me feel stupider for having watched it...especially poignant because I came home from PDX and quickly rented "American Dreamz" during which movie I wished I were just a little bit dead. Stranger than Fiction however was literary, smart and well acted. I didn't even really mind will ferrell. That was a shock.

My favorite part of the movie was when Harold Crick was trying to figure out if he lived in a tragedy or a comedy...he took a notebook with him to work and tallied up the experiences that could lead him to believe that he was engaged in either genre. 1 comedy tally for a joke that he told to his love interest, 1 tragedy tally for the joke failing miserably and so on and so forth.

Here are a few of MY plot lines...are they comedy or tragedy????

Ninny's body in denile that it is really healthy. Fingers heading toward senile old lady arthritic claws. Can't get out of bed on time for the life of her. Eyes will not open. I think tragedy, but kind of comedy if you get to watch me groping around in the morning to hit my alarm.

Ninny can not have dairy products or artificial sweetners or REAL sweetners in an attempt to stop claw hand development. NO DIET COKE AT ALL. NOTHING EVEN REMOTELY YUMMY YESTERDAY. tragedy. tragedy. tragedy.

Ninny's new ipod goes missing. Thinks it has been left in the laundry room on Saturday while rushing around. Begins to weep and be pissy because she has waited so very long for said ipod and WHY GOD WHY??? Finds ipod in drawer right where it should have been after a full day of kvetching and dramatic angst. comedy. sheepish sheepish comedy.

Ninny and friend Scottish Mark (who you will recall receives free stuff at the underground subway) sing "Baby It's Cold Outside" at ward christmas party. They forget some of the words which normally embarrasses me (tragedy) but ended up being funny about it, so I think it came out COMEDY!!! in the end.

Ninny realizes that her teeth are flipping over on themselves, thus ruining the three years of painful surgery and braces to have the most delightful smile this side of the atlantic. Wearing retainer to bed becomes painful necessity. In the morning, Ninny wakes up with no retainer in her mouth and finds it unceremoniously thrown across the room, evidently rejected by her body in the middle of the night. She must now wear her retainer to work. comedy and tragedy all rolled up into one because will probably get own tv show called Ugly Ninny and it will be a hit.

4 comments:

M.A. said...

I also enjoyed Stranger Than Fiction very much. A lot of pretentious reviewers claimed it was cheesy Charlie Kaufman light, but I don't agree at all. I thought it was great.


You know, the retainer would have made the Halloween costume even better.

Anonymous said...

Keep the retainer in you don't want the family chompers back do ya? ROTHFLOL..... Just too white and nerdy.

Marie said...

The performance was definitely comedy (laughing with you, not at). Well scatted, m'dear. That Ninny Beth is a jack of all trades, and a master of most.

I can relate to the creeping senility. It's beginning to get embarrassing, and I'm still so young! Ask Sharon how many times I've left my keys and/or wallet at the post office in the last 6 months. Yowzers.

Sarah Bellum said...

i just found your blog via urban princess, and you're my new favorite thing!