Last night I lay on the couch having just finished another episode of Netflix’s Daredevil and saying to myself that I feel like watching a movie. Uncertain as to what I want to watch I did what anyone these day and age do, I started scrolling through Netflix — the new channel surfing. Eventually I crossed paths with 3 Women, a film that I should’ve known was a poor choice. Not because it’s a bad movie, but because I know that in my current state a film that like would just not work for me. However, I did press play and an hour in I ended my suffering.
This is not a criticism of the movie, but of me (and us hopefully). I’ve always said that I don’t like to not finish a movie because deep down in inside, for lack of a better word, somehow I feel the movie has defeated me if I can’t complete it. If I finish and get to the end, like or dislike, I win. Why have I gone and made this small delineation into a game of some sort?
I saw this tweet over the weekend (whilst everyone was binging on Daredevil) :
Life Hack: You don't have to watch every TV show.
— norm sousa (@normsousa) April 13, 2015
This is something I’ve been ‘struggling’ with in the last few years. The concept of being happy with not seeing. There’s a part of me that obsesses with the fact that I haven’t seen some famous film that could potentially be a new favourite and it pushes me to see more every year. If I have a day off work I will stay in and watch anywhere from 2 to 5 films in that day. At the same time I’m becoming more aware that I’d prefer to watch just one calmly and consume it on a more intimate level. However, I’m still not there yet.
To bring it back to the beginning point of this article; that moment in which I hit the stop button on this movie, that I was not enjoying, is an important moment for me. It’s been a long time since I bailed out of a movie solely for my own purposes. Usually I’ll use the excuse that I had something to do, I was sleepy or that the remote gnomes took it from me. I’m not sure if this is truly ‘winning’ or not, but I don’t think I’ve lost.
PS. Still doesn’t mean I won’t try this movie again sometime in the future.
unashamed to admit that tonight I watched an hour of Altman's 3 WOMEN… bailed after that because the movie was boring me to tears
— Andrew Robinson (@gmanreviews) April 15, 2015
Based on the IMDB description it seems the rating is more reflective of its artistic idealistic end objective rather than its cinematic qualities. I wouldn’t beat myself up on this one..not everything is a good read and certainly not all films deserve to be watched to the end..although..that’s a generalization and i haven’t this one ;)