First and foremost, I’d like to pat myself, Revis Edgewater, and Superbitch on the back for reaching this, our 500th post.  I started this blog on my own server, just as a side project to see if I could, in fact, host my own blog.  I did so, but had to move it here when my ISP objected to my use of their service for hosting a website.  I kept the blog going here because I found that I actually enjoyed writing.  I then invited my brother, Revis Edgewater, and my wife, Superbitch, to contribute, and we’ve been pumping out top quality content ever since.  Or so I believe.

On to the topic at hand, I surprised my wonderful wife yesterday with a trip to our local movie theater to see a movie she really wanted to see, a movie which she was resigned to seeing with her friends as she assumed I would not take her to see since it’s a chick flick.

I had no idea whatsoever regarding her desire to see this movie until Friday, when she put out an open call on Facebook to her girlfriends to watch the movie with her.  I decided yesterday morning to phone my mom and ask her to watch Baby C for a couple of hours so I could take her to see it.  Little did I know that I’d be surprised in return, as I actually somewhat enjoyed the movie.

I expected to see a movie filled with unrealistic happenings, where a man and a woman have a surreal storybook romance and all ends happily.  What I actually saw was a heart-wrenching drama that eventually does end happily, although you don’t think it will until the very last moments of the movie.

This movie dives into the drama very quickly as Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige (Rachel McAdams) are heading home from a theater amid the snow-covered streets of Chicago.  They stop at a red-light where Paige unbuckles herself and jokingly tells Leo that the chances of conception increase when procreating in a vehicle.  She didn’t use those exact words, but you get the gist.

Anyhow, no sooner than they, uh, start to get busy, they are rear-ended by a huge truck that was unable to stop.  Their car then crashes into a telephone pole, sending Paige through the windshield.

Leo, having been buckled, was relatively unharmed.  Paige, on the other hand, was in the ICU for quite a while.  When she finally awakens, she has no memory of the last five years of her life, a time during which she had changed into a completely different person than she was five years prior.  Also a time before she had met Leo, her husband.

From there, the movie follows both Paige and Leo as Paige tries to remember what has happened in the last five years and Leo tries to help her remember who he is and that they were very much in love.  Leo, however, is a complete stranger to Paige, and Paige’s parents swoop in and try to pull her back to her old life; the life with which she is now familiar since she cannot recall the last five years of her life.

The Good

I was pleasantly surprised to find many laugh-out-loud moments in what is otherwise considered a drama, and was also surprised to find out that this movie was somewhat enjoyable.  The acting in this movie was superb, and Sam Neill does an excellent job of playing the affluent, asshole dad who you love to hate.  Scott Speedman does an excellent job ensuring you loathe him as well, playing the ex-fiance who tries to win Paige back.  Tatum and McAdams do very well in their roles, Tatum’s character struggling with the life he now has with a wife that no longer knows who he is and McAdams as the woman who is upset that she keeps disappointing Leo because she can’t remember their life together.

The Bad

I have shockingly little criticism of this movie.  There were parts of the movie I didn’t like, but they were parts of the story, not the movie in general.  For instance, I loathe Paige’s dad, but that’s the idea.  He’s such an ass that you’re supposed to hate him.  I also had a problem with some of the ways Leo tried to help Paige remember their life.  That, however, is because I would have done things different and been slightly more sensitive to what she was going through.  These things don’t negatively impact the movie, but those are just foibles of the characters.  We all have foibles, and they do not detract from the enjoyment of the movie overall.

Overall

I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good story, but only to watch it once.  Maybe twice.  I don’t normally watch dramas as I like to be entertained when watching a movie, not saddened.  This is definitely a sad movie overall, but a movie with happy moments sprinkled in.  This is definitely more of a drama than a chick flick, but it’s still worth one watch.  If nothing else it makes you wonder;  what would you do if the one you loved could no longer remember you?  What if you could no longer remember the one you allegedly loved?

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