SPOILERS

Another afternoon at the cheap (although $1 more expensive than before!) theater.

My dad and I seriously DISAGREE about this movie. My parents liked a lot of it, thought it was worthwhile, thoughtful, etc. (Although Dad agrees with me about the ending. I think.)

I thought it was sooooooo heavy handed and ridiculous. Most of the scenes between Eastwood and the girl next door (particularly the one in the truck) were, to paraphrase myself, straight out of “The Mung People for Dummies”. (When I said this to Dad, he said “Nooooo!!!”)

There’s a huge difference between “thinking some particular people might be OK” and “realizing that your racist attitudes are bullshit” and Eastwood seems to have filmed the movie thinking he has persuaded you of the latter when in fact he BARELY makes the leap to the former.

I was not impressed. The dialogue was horrible, stiff and sometimes idiotic. C. and I were OFTEN laughing at things that likely were not meant to be funny. It was such a thin attempt at addressing racist attitudes. THIN. And not well done, if you ask me.

I can’t quite put my finger on what made this palatable to my pops and not to me. I think it’s some combination of 1) age: I found Eastwood’s character so annoying and such a perfect picture of what’s WRONG with so many old people you run into; how they expect you to just be fine with incredibly rude behavior on their part that they would FREAK OUT if a young person treated them with the same disrespect; and 2) exposure to Asian people in general?and perhaps a more shall we say rare Asian culture in particular? That’s my guess anyway.

I really thought it was not a very good movie at all.

And the ending? Hello, suicide by provocation? It almost pissed me off as much as another ridiculous ending recently (THAT LINK HAS SPOILERS). Then he uses himself crooning (and playing piano) over the ending credits? COME ON.

I’m glad I didn’t pay more than $4 for this because I would have been pissed if I had.