One of the perks of working from home is that I can throw on a movie while I’m sitting in front of my computer. Last night both The Deep Blue Sea and The Gospel of Us DVDs came in the mail. While debating between bonus features and Tom Hiddleston versus something new with Michael Sheen, I realized I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else if I played either one, so I turned on the TV while I settled the morning housework. So much for being productive. Dreaming of Joseph Lees was on, so I sat and was useless for an hour.
I cannot not watch this movie. I love it so very much and nobody I know has watched it so I can’t talk about it. I need someone else to see it so I can have a conversation. It’s not on DVD for some reason but it’s on cable a lot and you can get it on iTunes and Amazon Video. Made in 1999, starring Rupert Graves and Samantha Morton. Set in 1958 England. He’s her second cousin and she’s been in love with him forever. She’s given up and moved in with a charming yet unstable local boy right before she meets him again. It is complicated and miserable. There are no easy depictions of love and commitment. The music is beautiful, the secondary characters are all very real. I wish I could cry as gracefully as Samantha does. The last five minutes kill me every time and the ending isn’t straightforward. I usually like my romances a little happier because if I wanted disappointment I’ve got enough of my own, but I get sucked in every time. It reminds me of The Deep Blue Sea in that post-war British feel, and also Jude where I fell in love with Kate Winslet and Christopher Eccleston, but that one's so sad I can't watch after a certain point, and The Whole Wide World, with Renee Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio. Maybe I do have darker movies in my collection than I had thought.
Anyone else have movies that depress the hell out of you but you've seen more than once?
