Maybe the happy ending is… just moving on.

Whatever your initial feelings were about He’s Just Not That Into You, you need to let them go. This movie is good eatins’ and it wasn’t until I saw it the second time that I realized that fact. The movie, which has the most amazing cast ever, follows the romantic travails of the following women:

• Mary (Drew Barrymore): A writer who finds difficulty with dating in the age of modern conveniences such as MySpace, texting, email, and caller ID.
• Beth (Jennifer Aniston): A woman who has been in a long-term relationship with a guy who loves her but claims that he does not want to get married. Ever.
• Anna (Scarlett Johansson): A gorgeous and trampy girl who falls for a married guy (Bradley Cooper–delicious) and commences an affair, confident that he might be “the one” and will leave his wife for her.
• Janine (Jennifer Connelly): The wife whose absolutely perfect husband who would never do a dang thing wrong, noted above, has an affair, and the best friend/horrible advice giver/moral supporter of…
• Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin): The hopeless romantic who gave me the line for the subject of today’s blog. My favorite character, Gigi dates and dates and dates and never loses hope that she will find her guy, regardless of all the dating trash she goes through. Love her story line.

So there you have it. I admit that the first time I ever saw this movie, I hated it. I had just gotten divorced, had just been on a string of dates with a few guys who seemed to really like me, but ultimately did not call. I had been broken up with (twice) via text message, and the guy I had been pining after for a pathetic several months made out with me (which was the most unpleasant NCMO ever, FYI), took my rice cooker, and disappeared.

Despite all of these things, however, I was hopeful, and it took this movie to teach me that it wasn’t happening. I was angry that the movie hit on so much that was going on for me personally at the time that I vowed I would never see it again.

Then I got over it. Then I watched the movie again. And then I loved it so much I purchased it and watched it three times in a row. I was still not in a good place as far as relationships are concerned. I still pretty much hated guys, but the difference was I had done what Gigi never does in the movie. I had given up. I had decided to just play the field the way guys do. I went on a bunch of dates. I made guys feel like I really liked them and then splat! Cut it off. Phased them out. Whatever.

So when I saw the movie again, I felt like I was seeing it from both sides. Some men are just lame. Some men are just clueless. But if they aren’t making an effort, it’s probably for the best. But that doesn’t mean we need to sit and gripe about how awful life is because we’re not with someone. (A good friend of mine just said, “The only thing I’m missing out on by not being married is sex.” She travels, has an extensive education, and a great job. Love this quote/her!) The most rewarding and satisfying point in my life was the point that I realized that being in a relationship with someone because you feel like you need to is never a good idea.

If you’re going to be in a relationship, go ahead and be in a relationship, but make it a conscious decision. Be in a relationship because you and that person have something to offer each other and you are happy with your(single)self, and not because being around them makes you feel the inner num-nums. I think that being in a relationship just to make yourself feel good is the worst reason to be in a relationship ever. And so selfish. Which brings me to my next point (I promise the soapbox portion of this blog is over.)

My favorite part of this movie is the very end. The skeezy guy who cheats on his wife never learns his lesson, and his wife goes on to grow from the experience and discover who she is, and I can only guess comes to love who she is as a one woman show. The long-term relationship but no commitment folks get married. The girl who fell for the skeezer pursues her dreams on her own, and the chronically-dumped-via-MySpace meets someone face to face in a coffee shop. Then there is Gigi. Gigi, poor hopeless little Gigi who dates exactly the same way that I do and doesn’t compromise herself to be someone she’s not just so someone will like her, finds someone who can appreciate her horrible dating ways and it’s all happy and tied up nicely, a la Hollywood.

So if you are one of the millions (I’m sure there are that many) women who saw this movie and wrote it off as being the worst movie ever, I might suggest that perhaps it was the worst movie ever because it was so gosh darn awful and you RELATED to it. I didn’t like it either… until I acknowledged that my faults in the dating world were mine to own up to. When I watched it the second time, I had gotten to a point where I knew I had a lot to learn, and guess what? I did. It’s the perfect wakeup call for the chronically bad dater (such as myself).

And that’s that.

You will definitely want to stay tuned for the next review. Stephen has to watch High School Musical and write a glowing review. It’s going to be so good, I’m looking forward to it like it’s Christmas.

We can hold hands under the table.

So we decided to do a combined review for the three Charlie Brown movies on our list. These movies raise not a few controversial questions sent in by fake readers that we are going to now fake answer for all of you:

Which of the Peanuts gang do you feel you relate to best and why?

Brittany: I wish I could say Lucy. That girl’s got sass. In reality I am probably more like Schroeder. I don’t talk to people. I want to be left alone pretty much all the time. But I don’t play the piano as well.

Stephen: I would like to say the great Snoopy; however, I’m not that cool. I’d say Linus. He’s got the kind-hearted-I-know-things kind of attitude that I have.

The character of Charlie Brown is based on the life of the creator of Charlie Brown, Charles M. Schulz. Isn’t that interesting?

Brittany: Yes.

Stephen: Yup.

A Charlie Brown Christmas contains some of the best dance moves to ever hit the big screen. Or small screen. Really, any screen. Whose dance is your favorite?

Brittany: My favorite dancer doesn’t have a name but it’s the kid in the yellow shirt and the buzz cut who does a fabulous rendition of an Irish jig. I wish I could do it. All the boys would come to my yard.

Stephen: I say Linus, not because I think that I’d be him but because it makes me giggle.

If you were to date any one of the Peanuts gang, who would it be?

Brittany: I would absolutely go for the underdog. I would date Charlie. He’s the depressed brooding type that speaks to my heart. I like to save people from their miserable lives and slowly make them even more miserable.

Stephen: I’d go for Marci. She’s got the potential to one day achieve the hot secretary look. I also like girls with glasses. I don’t know why but it does it for me.

If you were Charlie Brown, would you give in and date Peppermint Patti or continue to pine after the nameless and ambivalent redheaded girl?

Brittany: Charlie just needs to let go of the girl with the red hair. I mean what’s this business about her giving him the cold shoulder in the Valentines Day movie? It’s just not right the way she treats him. Peppermint Patti will love him forever. Although annoyingly. And Patti has red hair too. Charlie shouldn’t be so vain.

Stephen: I would give in and date Patti. She is the controlling girl that he needs. She also has faith in him when no one else does. She likes him for the guy he is and truly nobody else does.

You are watching Lucy pull the football out from in front of Charlie Brown. Do you sit and laugh at him or punch Lucy in her crap lousy face?

Brittany: It’s a tough question because you’re pitting my hero (Lucy) against my fictional, brooding, animated love crush. In the end, however, I am always going to err on the side of meanness. Laugh it up. That stuff’s funny.

Stephen: Having been in poor Chuck’s shoes, I feel that punching Lucy in the face would only yield temporary satisfaction and not the psychological damage she deserves. If it were me I’d wait until I grow-up and become the virile man I’m destined to be (still waiting btw) and then ask her out and stand her up without notice. Just leave her waiting at her house and then drive by and honk with a more attractive girl by my side. Brittany, we have to drive by a couple of houses tonight.

Brittany: I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.

Why do you suppose that the adults in the Charlie Brown movies don’t have actual voices or faces?

Brittany: It’s probably because Charlie Brown movies are no place for adults. I once heard a theory that when Charles Schulz created these cartoons, the adults were dropping the F bomb and talked about sex pretty much all the time so they decided that in order to cater the movies to a younger audience, they just wouldn’t have any adults in it at all, or would make the adults voices a series of “wah wah wah’s”. But that’s speculation.

Stephen: You just made that up.

Brittany: You’re right.

In It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Chuck makes a ghost costume but puts too many holes in it. Your buddy makes a ridiculous Halloween costume. Do you make fun of him for it or keep your mouth shut?

Brittany: Make fun of him for it. Definitely the way to go.

Stephen: You make fun of him for it unless he’s me. If you make fun of me I have the wit and speed to come up with some pretty awesome come-backs. “Where did you get those clothes? At the… toilet store?”

Brittany: It was the jerk store, actually. And they’d like you to come back because you were their #1 seller. Zing!

In A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown has people coming over for Thanksgiving dinner but doesn’t know how to cook other than toast (but can’t butter it himself) and popcorn. Describe the worst Thanksgiving dinner you ever had.

Brittany: One time my whole family went to California for Thanksgiving for a soccer tournament my little sister was in. I decided that I was not going to give into Courtney-worship and I stayed home. I lied and told my parents I was spending Thanksgiving with a friend. (I did debate calling one of my friends and inviting myself over last minute, but I didn’t want to stoop to Patti’s level when she invites herself to Chuck’s in the movie.) I wandered the streets of my hometown like a homeless person, peering in all my neighbors’ windows. It was sad.

Stephen: In Mexico there is no Thanksgiving. I missed it. Twice.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is all about Charlie Brown & Co. discovering the true meaning of Christmas. What does Christmas mean to you?

Brittany: Homemade donuts. I’ve never had homemade donuts on Christmas but it seems like that should be my new Christmas tradition.

Stephen: Amen to what Brittany just said. That sounds like my kind of Christmas.

WILSON!

Cast Away

So this is like a day late in coming so I hope you forgive me.

I like this movie despite it’s longness and that the supporting role is played by a volleyball. I know that hearing that makes this movie sound like it’s a little ridiculous but fear not because it isn’t.

Tom Hanks plays a successful task master like executive for FedEx. He travels around making sure  that the different… stations I guess you could say, are running efficiently and on time. He has zero tolerance for any sort of tardiness. Which is made abundantly clear as soon as you meet him. Despite his slave-driving, workaholic-like demeanor you still tend to like him. He’s a nice guy and he loves his girlfriend very much and it’s very apparent.

So the movie goes down like this, guy goes on a business trip after having Christmas with his potential in-laws and the airplane goes down. He survives and finds himself washed up on the shore of a completely isolated island. He’s completely alone. I say completely because you can’t make an eating type of crab your pet. They can’t fetch and I imagine that trying to teach it to speak would be an uphill struggle.

He finds a bunch of the packages that were on the company delivery plane that he was on and starts keeping them and then realizes he may never get off the island and starts opening them to find something he can use to aid his survival. Another thing to note is that you sit and watch the film and if you’ve seen it before then you know that it’s just a series of waiting for something else bad to happen to him physically or otherwise. It gives me the shiveries just thinking about some of the stuff that happens to him.

Fast forward 4 years. He now has the body of a meth-addict and the hair and beard of a hippie.  I’m not going to tell you anything more just in case you haven’t seen it. It’s a gooder and I think that if you haven’t seen it then you should definitely pick it up and give it a shot. It’s interesting to see the mental and emotional anguish one might go through upon being found completely powerless and alone in the world. Literally not metaphorically.

Well that’s all peace out. I’ll see you guys after Catch and Release. That one’s Brittany’s turn and that’s going to happen shortly. Peace out everybody.