Look, I never said I would actually be good at blogging. Or, you know, post punctually (alliteration FTW). To be fair, I've been pretty busy with the new job, and I'm not terribly eager to look like I'm doing something so obviously non-work-related when partners in the firm stroll by. But, you guy(s). I watched the most unexpectedly enjoyable movie over the weekend. I'd warn you about spoilers, but let's be honest, one person who will actually read this watched the damn thing with me, and the other person (hi, Daddy!) would fall asleep before the end anyway so this is actually going to be doing him a big favor.
The movie, as you may have divined from the title of this post, is About Time, starring Domhnall Gleason and Rachel McAdams. You already know this is a win, because I had to look at the first dude's name like five times just in order to spell it correctly, and Rachel's dimples practically render any actual acting ability completely unnecessary.
I DVRd this one after seeing it pop up on the guide, since I vaguely remembered seeing a preview for it looking cute when it came out in 2013. First of all, I had no idea it involved Bill Nighy. I've never actually seen an un-enjoyable movie featuring Mr. Nighy, and this one did not disappoint. He played Domhnall's (can I just call him Dom? I'm SO sick of having to look up this name, and let's be honest, you just KNOW he goes by Dom anyway) adorably kooky dad, who shares with Dom - who, for the record, might be a ginger but is kind of cute in an awkward, British kinda way - that all of the men in their family have an ability to time travel. They can only travel into the past, and only to times that have actually happened to them personally.
On a side note, I would find this IMMENSELY helpful. I'd travel right on back to age 8 before I consumed approximately 1800 cheese balls and changed my vacation that year into the "Summer of Fat."
Our buddy Dom, rather than using his newfound power for evil, uses it to assist him in coaxing the lovely Rachel into going out with him, and they eventually fall in love. Along the way they have a couple of babies, and oh my goodness, the delivery scenes. Okay, look, with the clear understanding that all of my eggs are dying by the second, and my pitiful womb cries out in the throes of imminent death and the misery of emptiness.... I cried all of the tears. Just all of them.
THEN... then Bill Nighy gets sick, and oh my God, more tears. So many tears. There really wasn't any major climax to the movie, honestly; at least, not what I expected. I thought for sure Rach was going to find out about Dom's ability and it would somehow drive a wedge between them, or Dom's obviously mentally ill sister would end up dead (it was touch and go there for a while, oi vey), but the climax was imminently sweeter and heartbreaking than that. Essentially he has to finally say goodbye to his dad forever; without going into too much detail, going back to see his father before his death was going to change his youngest child each time. AND SO MANY TEARS.
Seriously, this was the sweetest movie I've seen in a long time. It was sad, it was beautiful, it was heartbreaking, it was uplifting, and in the end, what Dom figures out is that he needs to live each day as if it were the only time he could live it (ie. just like the rest of us schmucks), and it enables him to see the beauty in all the normally mundane details of life.
This movie broke me a bit, and changed me for a little while afterwards. I didn't have the heart to delete it off of my DVR yet; it might require at least one more watching.