The Descendants

We saw this movie last Saturday at our new favorite theater, The Colony. CJ liked this one after we saw The Princess Bride there. I was thrilled when she texted me at work and asked if I would be interested in joining her and her friend to see this movie. It is on my list of movies to see despite the fact that George Clooney (not a big fan of his) is in it. She even texted me ‘you know, George Clooney is in it’. ‘That’s OK. It looks good anyway.’

It ended up that the rest of the family would go: Tim and MiMi. I told CJ that she and her very cool BFF (who loves the Song of Fire and Ice series) could sit separate from us and of course, she did.

We armed ourselves with goodies: CJ with popcorn and drink; MiMi with popcorn and drink, along with Tim and me with my cabernet. When I went back for my second glass, I had a pay-it-forward moment where a man bought me my glass of wine. I stood there for a good 30 seconds in stunned-but-awed silence as he left it there on the counter, turned to me and said “Happy New Year”. Wow. It moved me beyond what words I’ll be able to write or express.

While I basked in the glow of having had such generosity, apparently, Tim had something less than a pay-it-forward moment. I didn’t know the details until after the fact but this is what took place:

The movie ended.

Tim walked up to someone _across_ the aisle. I thought he found some friend and was saying hello until I heard him say “if you touch me again, we’re going to have a problem”. WTF? More heated words are being exchanged and I hit my Mallory moment. If you are familiar with the movie Natural Born Killers, then the two main characters were named Mickey and Mallory. They stick together, through thick and thin. So I didn’t need to know anything – I was going to make sure that man would pay for whatever occurred between Tim and him.

So I managed to show my disdain for him with a few words. I can’t remember what they were but we started walking out and the man said to Tim ‘You are just an angry man.’ “Who you calling ‘angry’?” was one of my retorts. As we walked into the lobby, I immediately honed in on his yuppie wench, standing there with a flushed face and wide eyes. Ah…an easy kill, I thought to myself…so I walked up to her “YOU got a problem TOO?!” Just as I thought…she had no Mallory in her…she squirmed and squeaked a “No. I have no problem”.  When I made it outside, she started mumbling something because NOW she can be brave, and I stood by the door giving her the stink eye…saying something else to her…just daring her to speak one iota to me. But she didn’t. She didn’t stand by her man.

What we found out in the car was: Tim was apparently shaking his leg. He has (truly) some sort of shaking-leg-syndrome as this happens in his sleep. Whatever. This man – a stranger – walked across the aisle (not in the same row, nor in the row in front of us or behind us…but slightly ahead of us ACROSS AISLES), came over and put his hand on Tim’s knee to make his leg stop shaking. He said something to the effect of ‘this is driving me crazy’. Seriously? Who the fuck does that?

Tim boasted on himself, telling me ‘see how I waited until the end of the movie to have words with him?’ ‘See how I didn’t hit him?’ He was very proud of himself for showing restraint but jesus, the nerve of this guy. And then to call Tim an angry man…and quickly hide in the men’s room when we walked out with him. 

Fucking asshole.

So, a shame that my pay-it-forward moment from a cool dude had to be tarnished with some OCD fuckwad who had a problem with a stranger shaking his leg. What if Tim had parkinson’s? As a friend of mine said when I retold the story.

Now, the movie itself: I really liked it. Of course, you know George Clooney did fine in this movie because it’s the same character he plays in every movie. He has no depth except for O Brother Where Art Thou? But the kids in the movie were funny. MiMi enjoyed the young girl flipping the bird at everyone.

Clooney was a character that had Hawaiian blood in him and he pulled off being a native well. It was fun to see them take their shoes off before entering the homes – I mentioned that to the kids later, that in the Philippines, they’ll have to do the same thing.

I cried a tear or two – it wasn’t boo-hoo bad but the storyline is tender enough, and well-acted, that it touches the heart. At least my soft heart. J

(Yes. I am being ironic.)