The Reel Life

As the years go by, our taste in movies tends to change. As a kid, I would watch Aladdin 10 times in one day, no matter how many times my dad would tell me to turn it off. After a while, I grew up and graduated to enjoy watching Citizen Kane every few months. I have to watch many movies as a film major, so I tend to like films that are thoughtful and different from the rest of the pack. Yet, like everyone else, I still need to be entertained. For a long time, I shrugged off deep and emotional films that bored me and loved any film that was smart but still kept me awake. Now, as a junior who just finished a semester abroad in Australia, I now have a much deeper appreciation for one film I hated at first glance, Lost in Translation. Now, anyone with a half-sized brain would laugh at me and tell me that Bill Murray goes through a very different situation than a Boston College abroad-er. He's alone and has no means of connecting with the people around him because he's in Japan on business, and I was in the same boat in a country that shared a different language and culture (I never adjusted to having to walk on the left side of the hall). Bill Murray suffered, and I celebrated, so why do I suddenly have a deep appreciation for this boring attempt at a comedy directed by a woman thanks to her bloodline? The answer is Scarlet Johansson, and not just because she's hot. The connection between these characters would not happen if they weren't in Japan; they are entirely different. Their similar situation allows them to connect with one another. Basically, their relationship grows because they feel like they are being understood, and then they go their separate ways. At the end of my five-month vacation, I now know how they feel. You spend time and bond with unlikely people because of your circumstances, and then you have to leave. Even though I rarely come to a conclusion in this column, I decided to bring change. (That's the theme in America now, right?) We shove off great films not because they don't fit our taste or because they're overrated, but because we cannot sympathize with the characters or even understand them. As we grow older and have more experiences, we should go back to the acclaimed movies we hated and see if they have a different impact on us-one did on me, and I no longer feel lost.