A friend of ours - having just finished an extremely sad movie - noted that she gained absolutely nothing from watching said film except for a bucket load of tears and a puffy face. She was referring to My Sister's Keeper, a film starring Cameron Diaz and that cute girl from Little Miss Sunshine. Adapted for the screen by Nick Cassavettes (also responsible for notorious tear jerker The Notebook) it basically details the raising of a daughter as an organ donor for another, very sick daughter. There are twists and turns of course, all of which are emotional torturous, and one ends up with those familiar end-of-sad-movie ruminations about how life isn't fair and we're all only human and how family is really important.
Well two movies that have been released recently - almost simultaneously we might add - have added to the tomb of films that shouldn't be viewed in public due to the extreme emotional reaction one is almost guaranteed to have from them.
The first is 50/50 and stars beloved nineties alien Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a 27 year old rare-cancer sufferer. The co-star is Seth Rogen so there are the requisite jokes about weed and utilizing cancer-sympathy for one-night stands, but man, when Liars and Pearl Jam play consecutively towards the end shit gets real.
UPDATE: Wonderland Magazine are obviously on the same wave length as us with this film (with more connections, obviously) as they talk to Seth Rogen about laughing one's way through sadness.
The second is a pretty mainstream turn for Gus Van Saant called Restless and sees Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper forming a relationship over lie-upon-lie until the truth - that Wasikowska's character has cancer and therefore three months left to live - is revealed. Could one make a plot sadder? Hangout Out --> Young Love --> DEATH. Right.
Man we thought Stepmom had exhausted these sorts of possibilities! The above are both beautiful, entertaining films, we just recommend being entertained by these alone, box of tissues and eye drops close at hand.
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