This post is a
Beautiful Film Week Post.
It is about a mom, a boy, an issue, a creative solution and and a really happy ending.
Okay, cartoons on commercial tv aimed at kids over 7. Have you seen this stuff? There is a ton of real Crap out there. I'm sorry, I am a true animation fanatic and I love unconditionally some pretty marginal stuff, but acting Truly Idiotic and Gross is not as funny as they seem to think. My boy was sucked right in. He was talking like these truly appallingly stupid characters, and he thought it was funny. I thought it was pathetic, obnoxious and quite beyond annoying. I nagged... but I wasn't getting through. His Dad nagged...Not registering even a slow down in the "duh" levels at the house.
Seriously- This is why we don't have "TV". (By TV, I mean cable or any way to receive "broadcasting"... The television machine does reside at our house and we watch tons of movies. My son became infected just by viewing at other people's houses. That is mighty Potent Lameness. )
But Back to the Point: I decided that Jake really needed to be exposed to smart humor. Stat. Cleverness. Cary Grant. Audrey Hepburn.
Charade. Suave, wisecracking, and well dressed, our hero and heroine face murder at every turn ... with minimal mushy stuff. We hit paydirt. Jake loved it. The next time we were looking for a dvd rental he asked "Are there any movies like Charade but maybe with a robbery or something and chases?"
Sure, why not
To Catch a Thief?
We started watching all kinds of old movies together. His dad is not into it and I was very glad for the company. The "duh factor" was ebbing. For my birthday I got three Audrey Hepburn movies, one of which is my beautiful film # 1:
Roman Holiday.
I am just going to assume you have seen it. So fantastic. The intrigue, the adventure, the double cross and a princess playing hookey. Jacob was really into it. When it finally comes to the end of the movie, he watched the scene with Gregory Peck and Eddie Albert
at the formal press reception with his knees up under his chin. He giggled when she got the pictures from Eddie Albert and then when everyone is gone except for Gregory Peck, I noticed it seemed like he was holding his breath a little and as Gregory Peck walks slowly out of the empty hall, he cried out:
"Wait! Isn't she going to come out? That Can't be the end! How is he going to get back to her? It's not Over, Is It?"
That's my boy.
Best ending to a movie ever.
