They don’t get me down. In fact, I love rainy days. They are comforting in a way I can’t really explain. And I’m a secret fan of Mondays, although I suppose that means I like my work just a little too much. But that particular insanity isn’t the point. The point is that what really gets me down are movies about animals. Those feel-good ones with the sweet dogs or tigers or penguins or whatever the hell that are supposed to tug at your heart strings and make you all warm and fuzzy inside.
But no. They don’t make me feel warm and fuzzy. They make me cry my eyes out. Movies where people get maimed or killed or left alone to wander aimlessly? Fine. Whatever. A movie where a little bear has lost his way and can’t find his family? I totally lose it.
I was reminded of this when I walked upstairs last night and glanced at the TV. Eight Below was on, and while I have never seen it, I recognized it instantly. Here’s what happened in my brain. “That’s the dog movie I don’t want to see ever! Some of them die. And the rest are cold and hungry and alone and why would anyone make a movie like that?!” I somehow managed to walk in at a part of the movie I least wanted to see, where one dog is down for good in the snow and another is sad and… forget it. I’m not describing it. I couldn’t even if I wanted to, because even though I hadn’t seen the rest of the movie, had no emotional build up to the scene at all, I immediately started tearing up and had to look away.
Yes, because of a fictional dog in a fictional movie that I wasn’t even watching.
P. was watching it, so I couldn’t just change the channel. I tried not to watch any more of it as I worked on my laptop. I did, however, manage to cry twice more and curl up in a little ball with my hands over my eyes once. Why do people make movies like that?
Two Brothers was worse because I watched it in the theatre. And sobbed and sobbed like a teenage girl watching Titanic. So much death and pain and sadness and torn apartness (which isn’t a word but perhaps should be). And don’t even get me started on that March of the Penguins. What was so heartwarming about that? I don’t think I spent a minute of that movie not crying.
I’ve decided that I’m going to just avoid movies that feature animals or have animals in them or that claim to be “for the whole family” or “feel-good” or “miraculous.” It’s just not worth the pain.