I'm Willing to be Surprised

This evening, I went over to my sister's house to hang out with her and my lovely nephew, Samuel. I called and asked her before I picked up dinner if I needed to bring any DVDs. Maybe a season of Scrubs or The Office. She definitively said "no", because she rented a movie that needed viewing before she had to return it. This was a movie that she stated had Alexis Bledel in it. I immediately huffed and puffed knowing that she rented the film because she's such a fan of The Gilmore Girls. Don't get me wrong, I think Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel are perfectly fine actresses, but that show is not quite my cup of tea. So, when she stated that ol' Rory from The Girls was in it, you'll have to excuse me if I was a little skeptical. She never mentioned the title of the film, so I was in store for a little surprise.

I got to her house and was happy to see Samuel running around the yard in his little swim diaper just having the time of his life. I proceeded in joining him...minus the whole...swim diaper part. We kicked a ball around. I chased him around for a little bit. By the time my brother-in-law's parents came to pick him up to take him to dinner, my sister and I sat down with our food and proceeded to watch I'm Reed Fish. I had heard of this film. I had heard of this film for the sole reason that an old high school friend of mine left a post on my facebook wall saying that I looked like Reed Fish. Not quite knowing what that meant, I went online to look up what I knew had to be a movie and lo and behold it was Jay Burachel playing the title character. My high school friend had once told me I looked like the same actor my senior year, when the show Undeclared was on for a single season. So, I responded back to her with a hearty "Haha", said a reluctant "thank you" and moved on. Cut three months later and I'm sitting on my sister's couch watching the beginning to this very charming film.

I'm not going to write a full review about it. A review might cheapen the experience of watching this lovely little movie. I'm not saying it's the end-all-be-all of films, but I was pleasantly surprised. This was a sweet, funny indie romantic comedy, which I found out had been made in eighteen days. Impressive for any full-length motion picture. I will say that if you haven't seen this movie and you're willing to open yourself up to something a little bit different, you might enjoy it yourself. I think what made this film work for me, personally, was that it took quite a different direction about half-an-hour into it. You think it's going to throw off the rest of the story that you had been watching up to that point, but you're sucked right back into it. It was an interesting move to make for the writer, whose name happens to be Reed Fish. I think, either direction he wanted to take it, I would've been perfectly fine. It could've been a completely linear rom-com and I would've still cared for the characters the same way. Maybe, in the end, I did care for the characters more so than the actual....wait....I'll just stop there.

This isn't, necessarily, a run-as-fast-as-you-can-to-rent-it kind of film. It's one of those ones that you just stumble upon and go along with it as you watch. There's no dire need for the three or four of you who read this blog to rent it, but if it you do happen to come across it in the back of your mind, do yourself a favor and give it a shot. The worst thing that can happen is that you waste an hour-and-a-half of your time and, in the end, there are a lot worse time-wasters than this.


Thanks, Court!