Sunday, December 14, 2008

"Gregory's Girl" : loving movies and life


Yesterday I saw two movies on tv, first I saw "Wanted" a typical new action movie with a million gimmick shots and CGI sequences. It was fun and ok. And then I happened to run across "Gregory's Girl" on cable. And I realized why I love movies.

"Gregory's Girl" was movie written and directed by Bill Forsyth, a Scottish director, who made some of the 1980's most wonderful movies. "Local Hero", 'Comfort and Joy" and "Housekeeping", before disappearing from the phase of the earth. His movies were about the small things in life, about the little moments. His movies contained no great, bombastic scenes to try to capture you. They had small scenes that added up and charmed you.

My favorite Forsyth movie is "Local Hero", but I love "Gregory's Girl', a movie about teenagers that is not about getting laid, but about finding someone that likes you and maybe love you. Gregory, an awkward kid, develops a crush on a girl...but she has other (wonderful) plans for him. There are so many priceless moments here: Gregory realizing that the girl has actually accepted his invitation for a date. His scenes with his younger sisters are truly great as she gives him advice on what girls like. These moments are sweet and touching. And I love the two guys that realizing that girls do not like them, make plans to travel to Caracas, where the women to men ratio is 8:1 (or so they think).

"Gregory's Girl" is kind of technically clumsy, which works brilliantly in a movie about the most awkward and clumsiest time in anyone's life. I love this movie. It reminds me of my teenage years and, most important, of the fact that life is about the small things. It's not about the bombast, but about the whispers.

Catch it on FLIX this month.

1 comment:

lostfoundagain said...

That sounds like a really sweet movie. Very different from the sensationalist and over the top exciting kinds of movies of today.

I watched Garfield last night. I'm a sucker for animated kids movies. More the Pixar type than the Disney type though.