High Anxiety

Yesterday I had a doctor appointment and I would love to tell you all about it but my husband recoiled and shuddered and curled into the fetal position when I explained it to him so I’m guessing you wouldn’t appreciate it either. Let’s just say it’s amazing what the human body can grow in out of the way places that can be removed with a little yank and then stuck in a jar to be studied later, and leave it at that. (The Dr. is going to study it, not me.)

Bob is on spring break and he came downtown with me yesterday and he wandered around while I worked and we met at the doctor’s in the afternoon. I took the rest of the day off so we could have some adventures. First, we went to Henry’s and had a snack and I had a beer.

Nothing tastes better than an adult beverage in the middle of a week day. I’ve said this before but it feels like I’m getting away with something and for about 3 minutes I wished my life could be like this all the time: wandering around having adventures and sneaking a beer in the middle of the day. But I realized if I could have a beer in the middle of the day whenever I wanted (which I suppose technically I could), it wouldn’t feel special or taste extra good.

The real purpose of this post is to tell you without spoilers, about the movie we saw, Match Point, which Woody Allen’s latest. I do not think this is a bad movie but I found it brutal to sit through.

I am an anxious person and go to a great deal of trouble to create a life with as little distress as possible. That’s why I like to be appallingly early to the airport, always put my keys in the same place when I come home and compulsively organize and tidy all my stuff so that I can easily find things.

This movie is a slow, steady burn, cranking up the tension one tiny notch at a time for two hours. I could feel my blood rusting behind my knees and my hair turning gray. This guy makes a mistake and then more mistakes and even more mistakes trying to fix the other mistakes and who’s going to find out when and how? Brutal. If I’d been watching at home I would have turned it off. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Just stop the tension, please. I can’t separate anxiety as entertainment and anxiety, period.

Now that it’s over I can tell you it is a brilliant film. Great writing. Fantastic acting. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (better known as the dreamy soccer coach from Bend it Like Beckham around my house) is especially good. But should you see it? I don’t know.

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