We rent movies every week. We rent them, we watch them, we take them back. And when I say "we", I mean "me," because more often than not, Chris uses this time for a healthy nap. I kid you not. That is why we rent, rather than seeing the movie on the big screen. There's nothing more embarrassing than when other movie-goers glare over at my snoring husband, while they are trying to enjoy the movie. He'll deny it, but it's true. In the ten years we've been together, I think he has only successfully made it through four or five movies. I rent the movies, because if I let him do it, he'll bring me stuff I've already seen. He has no idea what we've already rented. He never gets to watch any of it.
I don't let this stop me, though. My faithful guy sits next to me anyway, even though we both know he'll never truly enjoy the movie. I don't have to watch it alone... even if he is asleep. I love him so. I should send him flowers or something.
Anyway, I rented "Bug". I thought it would be an alien movie with bugs somehow trying to take over their bodies. And if you haven't seen this movie, this is the time to click out of this blog. Yes, I'm going to tell you what happens. I got through about half of the movie with a slight boredom. There's no real action that takes place, mostly dialogue. And that's fine, it's just not what I had expected. The real drama involves the personalities and minds of the characters in the film. I finished the movie in shock and disgust. I can't say I liked the movie, but I couldn't pinpoint why (other than the bait and switch of the trailer.) I can't stand it when they hype a movie to be something it's not.
So I let this one marinate for awhile. It's been over a week and now I think I know why I don't like it. I keep thinking back to Ashley Judd's character and why they made her out the way they did. Basically, she's an extremely reclusive person. She lives alone in poor conditions. It's clear from the beginning that she lives her life scared. So I kept waiting to find out why.
Apparently, she'd lost her son. She'd been shopping and turned away. Suddenly, her son vanished. They never truly make it clear, but you kind of have to chalk it up to the fact that he'd been kidnapped. She never sees him again. Her ex-husband is an abusive convict that just got out of prison. He makes an appearance (gotta love Harry Connick Jr.) but his character never really makes all that big of an impact. So all this combined makes this woman a shit-scared pathetic mess.
In walks the drifter. Sigh. So this drifter somehow works his way into her life. Turns out he's clearly unhinged, believes that he's a medical experiment with bugs in his body. So what does the woman do? She believes him. Yeah. I know. Somehow she gets herself all worked up in HIS delusion, so that now it's HER delusion, too. At the end, they wind up dousing each other with gasoline and lighting themselves on fire. Ya know, to get rid of those pesky invisible bugs.
From a psychological stand-point, you'd think that I'd like this film. I have to admit that the fact that she gets involved in his delusion is interesting. But from a woman and a mother's stand-point, I'm disgusted. They paint a picture of a woman, who's been through a lot. She's been abused. She's lost a son. The writer uses the pain of that experience to show that she is somehow weak and more prone to falling into this delusion. THAT is what disgusts me. They could have picked any type of character, any type of situation, any type of personality for this woman, but instead they chose to use a child-less mother. As if that mother is somehow not as good as a normal mother, as if she is somehow defective in her mind to be more susceptable to this. They actually USE this experience to involve her in the delusion of bugs.
Even though it's just a movie, this type of judgement that the writer used to form this character is the same type of judgement people use on a daily basis. And I know that they never say her son is dead, but it's the loss of the child that is so painful. You know, it probably wouldn't have bothered me so much if I didn't face this shit anytime someone found out I'd lost a child. There is that mixed look of shock, horror and disgust that flits through a person's face when I tell them, but ultimately it ends on pity. And I know it's hard to judge how one should react to such news. To tell you the truth, I never saw any of these underlying tones to people before it happened. But when a woman says they'd lost a child, I guarantee that one of the FIRST things a person thinks is that somehow she is defective, whether biologically or the fact that maybe she is not a good mother. And you know what really gets me? "Do you take anti-depressants?" No, I do not fucking take anti-depressants to get through the pain. Yes, people have said that to me. Honestly, I don't think people really think about what they say sometimes. But it's that judgement that bothers me. I don't know if people know they do it, but it's there. And it's there in this movie.
I am not defective. I am quite sane. I do live a happy life. I am strong. And I am just one of many other woman that have lost children that are quite fine. Just because a woman has lost a child or been abused does not mean she will start believing there are bugs in her body. Honestly, this was the most poorly-written excuse for a character I've ever witnessed. But the movie did live up to its name in one aspect... It did "bug" me.
