vilakins | Two films and a meal

Entry tags:

films

Two films and a meal

...but not in that order.

We decided to try the local newish Malaysian restaurant after it was recommended to me by a Malaysian friend, so we went there last night. I'd forgotten--don't ask me how--that it's Chinese New Year, so the place was packed and overflowing out into the slightly cooler courtyard where our table was. It was excellent: a huge buffet with lots of things like satay and soup being cooked outside, and the topping was when Air Force jets flew over in formation, not for New Year but in practice for today (Auckland Anniversary).

The food was great and the staff very friendly. We're definitely going back--often.

Then we watched Sliding Doors which was on TV earlier this week and which we'd never seen. I enjoyed it with some big reservations:

It's a romantic comedy when one of her gets killed, presumably leaving poor James to recover from the tragedy?
But why was that James so bloody stupid and utterly gormless not to tell Helen about the wife he was getting an amicable divorce from?
And why do intelligent women who should know better (three of them in this film) get pregnant accidentally? Argh! I cannot express what a crap plot device that is.

Ocean's 12 tonight was more fun if a little confused, though the Julia Roberts joke went on far too long. BSG tomorrow night, I think.

Off to bed now--in 28C. The fan will be on all night.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And why do intelligent women who should know better (three of them in this film) get pregnant accidentally?

Because birth control is not 100% reliable, and because all people, even intelligent women, take impulsive risks. Happens in real life all the time.

Both / all three (depending on how you look at it) were in relationships where they should have been very careful not to get pregnant (one was the breadwinner, another was having an affair etc).

It's still a cheap plot device, as is the 'woman giving birth in a bad place or time' one which I'm glad was mercifully absent here.

I'm seconding

mistraltoes here. Yes it's a common plot device, but that's probably because it happens commonly in real life, and to plenty of women who are very intelligent and not really at a convenient point in their life to have a child.

I have a soft spot for 'Sliding Doors', not to mention that accidental pregnancy is the only feasible way to get certain of my characters to reproduce (in the combination I want them in anyway).

Gina

I'm going to second Vilakins; it doesn't happen at anything like those rates. That's a 75% failure rate, given that that's three out of four women, and that's not very realistic. I had the same issue when I saw it (well, that and how repetitive it started making the plot).

FWIW, I know a lot of women, and I've never known any of them to accidentally get pregnant, so I don't think it happens "commonly". I know second-hand of one, but no one's really sure if it was accidental on her part. The failure rates on birth control are just not high enough to make it common, particularly when most people use two methods.

I do wonder how many supposedly "accidental" pregnancies are in fact deliberate, whether consciously or subconsciously? If you're a woman who wants a child, but your partner doesn't, then there must be a temptation to conceive "accidentally".

I'm sure men do those kind of things too. Look at Carlos in 'Desperate Housewives' -- his tampering with the pills has to be based on someone.

Gina

Agreed, though I suspect that it is more common for the woman to want a child but the man not, rather than vice versa.

Not this one.

I doubt there is that temptation, frankly. Studies show that by far the number one cause of death for pregnant women is murder by their partner, usually one who's unhappy about the pregnancy. Single motherhood is also the greatest poverty trap. Women know both those things.

Studies show that by far the number one cause of death for pregnant women is murder by their partner, usually one who's unhappy about the pregnancy.

I'm astonished by that, given the medical hazards of pregnancy, which might be a lot less than they used to be but I would have expected still to be far greater a risk then murder. It's very depressing.

I briefly considered that. One woman was working two jobs to support a failure of a human being. One had just started a new company and had slept with a man she was only in a beginning relationship with once, maybe twice, circumstances in which people as intelligent as she is would definitely take the precaution of a condom, though yes, this one may no longer be on the pill or whatever she uses and you could put it down to carelessness and impulse. The third was a successful woman with a powerful job, she knew the man she was having an affair with was 1) not working, even on his novel 2) not committed to her 3) hardly the sort to want kids. And neither was she.

None of these three would choose to have children at such a bad point. You can lay carelessness and sheer impulse at the feet of one. Not all three. Women are logical beings too.

Women are logical beings too.

You mean you think that men are logical? You must have bought the propaganda. :) To be serious, I think that most members of both sexes are a lot less logical than they like to think they are. (That doesn't include us, of course. :)

I agree; I'd say the sexes are about even in terms of being logical or not. However women are usually portrayed on screen as much more prey to their emotions. I have to say that Sliding Doors showed both sexes being emotional and not particularly capable of clear thought

I've never seen the film, so I can't comment on it. The reviews were good when it first came out, and if it was on TV I might have watched it. But now you've succeeded in rather putting me off it, as I generally find it hard to identify with characters who act very illogically.

I'm sorry. It was actually very good (and Gwyneth Paltrow is excellent in it) and I enjoyed it until I got to the bits I couldn't swallow.

The blurb is "Romance was never this fun" which led me to expect a comedy. Actually it was all rather tragic, esp in the Greek inevitability sense.

I can think of three friends off the top of my head, whose babies were supposedly unplanned, plus at least two others who didn't carry the unplanned pregnancy to term for one reason or another. Not many women in this country use more than one method of contraception either, even in situations where they really ought to.

Plus my interpretation of the story was that only two women got pregnant because the theme of the film was that some things are inevitable no matter what path you take. The story of the man who gets both his spouse and his mistress pregnant at the same time is a fairly well-known urban legend/cautionary tale as well.

Gina

That must be a cultural difference, then, because it's extremely common for women to be on the Pill for pregnancy, and also use a condom for STD protection/additional birth control (often a spermicide-lubricated condom), resulting in several different birth control methods being used. But then, I think an unplanned pregnancy is probably harder to deal with in the US, whether you plan to carry it to term or not, because of a lot of the conservative social, legal, and welfare trends.

Yeah, I suppose the inevitability thing explains away one of them, although it does make for a really repetitive plot (I loved Sliding Doors, btw, but I do think the plot had some real problems right around that point). I'd never really heard that particular urban legend, though. All I could do was shake my head at the stupidity of everyone involved. I agree with Vilakins, it was the one part of that movie I found quite hard to take, almost verging on sexist.

I think it was sexist too, which is why I hate the 'woman gets pregnant / woman gives birth in jeopardy' plot devices. What, this biological function is so defining of us? The possibility of fatherhood is hardly a feature in films about men. And two of the little plot devices were killed off once they'd served their purpose.

Now I think of it, I'm not sure about how women having careers was represented either. One was fired for theft (office drinks supplies during her birthday celebration; big deal), one was a ruthless go-getter, one did very well with her own company only to get killed off. Hmm.

I can think of three friends off the top of my head, whose babies were supposedly unplanned

I can't think of any. I can think of lots--almost all my female friends, whether married, with partners, or with a succession of boyfriends--who have successfully remained childless by choice and planning. I can also think of around five who had a hell of a hard time getting pregnant; three have finally done so; two have adopted.

Mmm, Malaysian. What with the al fresco, the heat, and the crowds, it sounds like eating in Singapore.

I saw Sliding Doors a few years ago, and remember really enjoying it. In a floods-of-tears kind of way.

It was certainly very clever and well-acted. The lie that one tragedy turned on was so stupid though, and I just wouldn't call it a comedy. The blurb said, "Never was romance so much fun." Eh? I guess I was expecting something different.

And yeah, it was like being in Asia. There were very few non-Asians there and the party atmosphere was very cool. :-D

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Two films and a meal

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject