A Movie Recommendation (Best Taken with a Grain of Salt)

Yesterday, when all our friends were seeing Frozen and Saving Mr Banks, we stumbled upon The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  Ryan and I have the worst luck at choosing movies to watch in the theater. We know it and we sort of accept it.  It seems like whenever there is a blockbuster out that everyone raves about, we either stay home and wait for that to go away, or we choose the one playing at the same time opposite it.

It has become a joke to us that if we are actually paying to see it, it's bound to be bad.  It all started back when we were engaged and we actually went to see Naked Gun 33 and 1/3. (I know. Awful! I almost broke off the engagement.) With the exception of a rare few--mostly the  Lord of the Rings movies--we have been on a bad streak ever since.

We don't go out to movies very often at all, so when we do, I can get my hopes up that it will be worthwhile.  It's funny, we don't play the lottery but I guess when it comes to movies we tend to gamble.  I honestly don't know why. When you take the number of movies we've coughed up the money to see and then divide by the number of disappointments, we have a quotient of like 1.2. I'm slowly learning that reviews are my friend.

At the top of that list of let downs would have to be Water World.  We actually paid to see Water World, people! As poor newlyweds who didn't get out much due to living in a small, Texas town, duties to Uncle Sam, and empty pockets, our one and only movie experience that year was Kevin Costner's colossal flop.  But it lives in infamy in our "date" annals.

Also, we have seen such masterpieces as 50 First Dates, Crocodile Hunter--The Movie, Star Wars Episode 3 (midnight showing, mind you), The Aviator, Matrix Reloaded (would love a refund on all of those) and once ,when on a date by ourselves, when we could have chosen anything, we went with Hotel Transylvania. The first movie we took our kids to was VeggieTales' Jonah.  (It had potential but...no.)  So awful was our record, that when Napoleon Dynamite came along, we liked it so much we actually paid to see it THREE times.  (Does this tell you anything?)

So, yesterday, when we plunked down our money and said "Walter Mitty"  instead of "Mr. Banks", I wasn't hoping for much--maybe just a little entertainment and a couple of mutual laughs with my husband.

But it was fun ALL the way through.  I found myself smiling at the screen, just happy to be there. I felt all the years of being a Date-Movie-Loser slip away as I took in the story and the humor and the beautiful cinematography.  It was a great blend of story, humor, action and adventure.  Ben Stiller was terrific in it (no surprise to my husband). And now there is really no reason for me to get him confused with Adam Sandler ever again. (My husband is shaking his head.)

As the movie came to an end, we were both grinning through tears.  Tears not completely due to the story.  We were struck with disbelief and gratitude.  Ryan leaned over to me and whispered, "I think we just broke our streak."