Britain's Cutest Sap

I went to the movies last weekend. First I saw Imagine Me & You, the lesbian Brokeback Mountain. Well ... not really. There are no cowboys and it's set in London. It's a cute little film. And it's gratifying to know, I suppose, that we have become accepted enough that they're now making formulaic, mundane romantic comedies about us.

I'm not saying it was bad. I was entertained. It's just incredibly predictable.

It's your basic love triangle with a climax featuring contrived urgency and a callback to an obvious set up earlier in the story.

At least we're finally moving past what I call "Homo 101 Stories," where the whole film is spent explaining the characters' sexuality. Refreshingly, in Imagine Me & You the characters' sexuality are taken for granted, as it should be.

In stark contrast, the next night I saw the new Woody Allen movie, Match Point. I like Allen's writing very much. And what makes the film particularly enjoyable is that Allen himself appears nowhere in it.

This is one of those rare movies where half way in, I still had no idea where it was going. Even at the climax he keeps you guessing. And what a climax!

Match Point had a powerful effect on me. I was so drawn into the story, that I was quite surprised to find my heart was pounding in my chest during at the end. I can't recall a single other film having this effect on me ... ever.

I was quite amused to see, in both films, in the very same theater only one evening later, the same British actor, Matthew Goode.

Even more amusing was that he was playing essentially the same character, right down to the mannerisms and facial expressions ... the charming, lovable, handsome, clueless bloke who has absolutely no idea his wife is cheating on him.

What a sap.

Well nevermind. When you're this cute does it really matter if you're dumb as a box of hammers?

Methinks not.