Since one of my bi-monthly Monday brunches with my Gathering Girls pals
fell on Labor Day we moved our date to Tuesday and near a movie
theater. Tuesdays are cheap movie days and we took advantage of that fact to
see Crazy Rich Asians. After seeing
the trailer for the film I wasn’t interested enough to see it with my Movie and
Lunch Club last month, but for five bucks I was curious as to why
the reviews from the club members varied from, “It was the best movie I’ve seen this year” to “It was cute” to “It was okay but I wouldn’t recommend it.” Professional
reviewers, however, were not all over the map. They pretty much all agreed on a
four star rating.
IMDb describes the storyline this way: “This contemporary
romantic comedy, based on a global bestseller, follows native New Yorker Rachel
Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family.” What that synopsis doesn’t mention is the
fact that the boyfriend failed to tell Rachel that his family is one of the richest
families in Singapore---old money and power. Another review says the film
was a “visual razzle dazzle” and that sure was true. The glitzy sets, glamorous
people and over-the-top parties certainly were the very definition of crazy
rich and it boggles the mind that so much money is spent just to entertain a
bunch of party goers. Half way through the movie it made me sad/sick to think that some
people actually live that way. Yup, I know that money spent filters down to the caterers,
florists, entertainers, transportation companies---helicopters, limousines---private
island rentals, party ship rentals and endless service staff, not to mention the clothing and jewelry the guests buy before arriving at those glitzy parties supports A-list designers and shops. But underneath it all this is an age-old fairy-tale plot of a woman and a man from different social classes who overcome an obstacle and living happily ever after. Cinderella and the Prince but in
this version Cinderella is smart, educated and has a job that doesn’t involve
sweeping floors.
So would I recommend the movie? I don’t have an easy answer to
that. For five bucks on a leisurely afternoon seeing a movie like this in a
nearly empty theater where we could make wise cracks like, “I was hoping he’d
be naked” (when the leading man hopped out of bed) was fun. But for full price
in a crowded theater it would have been a different experience. The redeeming
message of the movie was a good one---that prejudices based on centuries old
class distinctions and habit can be changed. And judging by the wedding of
Prince Harry to an American last summer I’d say that’s happening in real life as well
as in fiction. If you saw this movie and want to
compare favorite scenes, mine was when the song, I Can’t Help Falling in Love
with You, was playing at the wedding which makes me a hopeless romantic, I
guess. And I'd be remiss if I didn't add that there's humorous bits sprinkled around the film that made us all laugh.
New topic: Two of the eight houses on my cul-de-sac are up
for sale. Good neighbors are going and we’ll start the dance to learn nuggets
of information about the new ones. One of the neighbors moving out---a
couple---have been kicking the idea around for a couple of years. He wanted to
downsize and she was the hold out. The other neighbor is a woman with severe Parkinson’s.
Both her sons went away to college this year so I shouldn’t have been surprised
to see an army of volunteers working to pack up her house ending with a ‘for
sale sign’ in the yard. It would have been hard for her to live alone given the
fact that she’s starting to hallucinate and her prognosis isn’t good. Her move was a spur-of-the-moment decision that she made happen in a whirlwind. She had to do it that way, she said, so she wouldn't overthink the decision. Boy, do I need to take a page out of her playbook. I'm the queen of overthinking.
They left a mountain of stuff by the curb that the city won’t
pick up and people have been picking through it. I wasn’t going to do it but
when my lawn care guy said he was going down to check out some pails I went
with him and I came back with, of all things, an Anna of Green Gables doll in
perfect, boxed condition. It went directly into my donate-to-Goodwill box. Waste
(trashing usable things) and blatant consumerism (like in the movie) bothers
me. The earth is crying over our disrespect for her land, water and air. And
the older I get the more I regret my own contribution to the world of consuming
more ‘likes’ than ‘needs.’ Yet you won’t find me joining the Tiny House
Movement even though the idea intrigues me and I can't stop reading about it. (I still love my stuff!) In my
defense, I dare say there aren’t many children of Depression Era parents who
could develop the minimalist mindset to that extreme. It would give me a panic
attack or hives or both at the same time to live in a 100 to 144 square feet shoe box. ©
Movie Trailer
