My response to a review of a random movie that I watched this morning.

 I read this article and tried to post this comment, but they wanted me to join their secret club to post. I didn't wan to, but also didn't want to have wasted my time writing it. Therefore it gets posted here. 

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-map-of-tiny-perfect-things-movie-review-2021

There was a time in my past that I wanted to write stories, People that read my stories encouraged me to pursue writing and when I was young I genuinely wanted give it a try. I realized later, however that I wanted to make stories that help me to escape my own reality. I wanted to write a hero, that does the things I wish I had the strength or fortitude to do. Does that mean that I like stories that give my own desires primacy? Probably. I am male. I like the idea of happiness. My vision of happiness includes the desire to experience a relationship with a person that cares about me equally. Does my happiness and my journey to achieve it somehow cancel my significant other's journey to reach the same? I don't know. Maybe it does. Can a story written from a male perspective be honest about what a male wants without invalidating what is wanted by his partner? I suppose I don't know the answer to that one either. Is it equally unfair to tell a story from a female perspective that gives her desires primacy?

I do know that I spent most of this movie secretly dreading what I predicted would be a tragic twist. Honestly, the happy ending was a pleasant and welcome surprise. People don't make pleasant happy-ending stories for adults as often as I think they should. Generations of critics have picked those stories apart and told us that we shouldn't like them. They have taught us how ignorant we are that we could be taken in by their inevitable predictability. Happy endings to happy stories are evidently unwelcome and don't reflect reality. These stories have no room in our current "I'm the smartest person in my own room" mentality.

What if, though we consume these stories honestly as the author intended. What if we avoid trying to pick apart their flaws? They may give us a glimpse of an idealistic reality, which might inspire us to emulate it in our own small way. What if the the repetition of old tropes reconfirms lessons that we forget when real life becomes a misery? I see characters in a happy story and I think to myself -I should be a better husband, I should be a better father, I should be a better man, I should care about others more than I care about myself. I interact differently with my family and the people that I associate with when I feel like I should be better. How many of us have lost sight of these things? This two star movie made me feel like being a better person. It has value to me.

I don't write. If I did, I would be tempted to write stories like this one and I'd try my best to earn that 2 star rating.