Anybody else feeling really weird energy these days? It’s been strange here in NYC. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like a light is out. Yesterday I was working in this creepy warehouse doing this freelance project and I was all alone with just a couple of spotlights on. I put on some creepy music to further creep myself out and after I finished the project, I decided to go down into the even creepier-crime-scene-from-a-horror-movie-looking basement with my cell phone as illumination. Big mistake. I walked not even five feet and bam!, I slammed my head hard on a low pipe and was knocked to the ground. Thankfully, I was not knocked unconscious because no one would have found me. Shit.
In efforts to avoid going to sleep and dying if I had a concussion, I went to see the newest Zac Efron movie playing up the street. I brought my sewing machine as my date and saw the matinee, head throbbing, but feeling nice against the theater seat. The theater was whack and the overhead lights kept going on and off and the only other couple in the theater kept tallking audibly, but The Lucky One, shot in Louisiana was super cute. I now also like Zac Efron, who I had never seen act before and who I thought might still be a teenybopper with a squeaky voice and no chops. He was actually good, charismatic, attractive, believable, and an alright choice for a leading man. Taylor Schilling, also adorable was an ugly crier, but earnest, strong, and mature. Neither of the stars seemed like obvious Hollywoodleading people, in my opinion, and so I liked that. I liked that they seemed a little off-kilter, not too pretty, too mesmerizing, or too out of their element in the roles they held. Taylor, as Beth was a young mother and manager of a dog kennel flanked by sleepy Southern trees, barefoot in the kitchen, running with 6 dogs in the early am. Zac, as Logan, was a traumatized former Marine, bent on finding the woman who’s picture he found while at war. A weirdo “drifter”, he walked everywhere with his dog Zeus and was a borderline homeless man. I believed it. I think the thing that often takes me in movies or tv shows is, do I believe them? Did I believe that High School Musical pretty boy Zac left the Marines harmed and broken and was a destitute loner and hard-worker who didn’t talk or smile much? Yes.
I loved the Southern scenery amidst cypress trees, ponds, and a gorgeous dog kennel plantation. Nicholas Sparks loves boats and romance. Romantic feelings = boat. In The Lucky One, there were two boats, a rowboat for that quintessential, “we-are-finally-realizing-our-feelings” moment, and there was a tugboat representing Zac Efron’s committment to Taylor Schilling, his fixing it a sign that he could be counted on, even after being banished from the picture.There were some weird parts, as most huge Nicholas Sparks-penned romantic movies tend to have, but overall it was a nice story with a bad guy, strife, and hearts ablaze in the end. I also thought that Blythe Danner as Taylor Schilling’s grandmother was great casting. They look very similar. No matter how much I’d like to pretend I don’t like this kind of movie, I can’t. I avoided The Notebook for years, but totally watched it like 4 times over after finally seeing it. This shit is candy and I have a sweet tooth. I rolled my eyes a few times, but come on, love stories are nice to see, especially when there’s so much sad in this big world.
Now, I hope my head feels better.
