When my group of very good friends — now scattered across the country — has the opportunity to get together, it’s not uncommon to hear, “Tell the one about…”
We each have our “greatest hits,” stories that we’ve told again and again, and we all love to hear them. It’s one of the things that bonds us together.
For me, this habit started in childhood. If I liked a book, I read it over and over…to savor the ‘best’ parts of the plot, my favorite lines.
If a movie captured my imagination, I went back to see it. (Of course, they were a lot cheaper then.) I can remember seeing “Witness” seven times at the theater and “Princess Bride” so many times, my friends almost scheduled an intervention.
But according to the reviews for “Inception” — which opened this weekend (and I haven’t seen yet, so don’t ruin it for me) — repeated viewings are necessary to grasp what’s going on….and even then, you probably won’t ever get it.
Well, that’s just annoying.
I want to watch a movie again and again to appreciate the finer details. To marvel at how they visually accomplished a scene. To enjoy dialogue that I might have missed the first time around.
Not to sit with a note pad — or with my iPad, to be trendy and 2010 — and try to figure out the parts of the plot that made no sense the first four times I watched it.
I appreciate director Christopher Nolan making an intelligent film — “The Dark Knight” was also amazing — but if he really went this far off the charts to just play with our brains for the fun of it, well, that wasn’t very nice.
I had to work this weekend, so “Inception” wasn’t in the cards. I’ll be there this week though, Mr. Nolan, to check your work.
And if I end up going back…
…it better just be for the fun of it.
