Penelope

Awhile ago, I wrote a post I never published titled "Senior Year Bucket List". It was comprised of several lists, one of which was titled "10 Movies to Watch". It included:

1. Garden State
2. Jeux d'enfants
   
3. Paris, Je t'aime
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. Penelope
6. The Godfather II
7. Rent
8. Slumdog Millionaire
9. Juno
10. La Vie en Rose

As it turns out, I've been able to knock off two movies from the list since Friday.

Despite its flaws (such as when Penelope, who is supposed to be good at French, said "Quelle heure a-t-il?" instead of "Quelle heure est-il?"), I liked Penelope. I have a soft spot for fairytales that feature a heroine who has her own mind. I liked "The Prince and the Goose Girl" by Eleanor Mordaunt and was fairly disappointed when I realized the original book she wrote is out of print. Turns out the nearest copy is at Northwestern University.

But I digress. The idea of Penelope was appealing -- a girl with a physical deformity that has forced her parents to shut her away from society. Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, and Reese Witherspoon all played likeable roles. What I didn't really like were parts of the storyline. At the end, Penelope's mother unintentionally makes a very hurtful comment, and soon after, Penelope leaves the Wilhern mansion for good. Personally, I didn't see why it was necessary to leave the relationship between mother and daughter broken. Yeah, there were times when I wanted to hurl something at the mother. But I didn't think breaking things off between them was entirely necessary.

Anyways. I'm in one of those depressive moods again. I have so many things to do and yet I don't want to do anything. This is a terrible mood to be in when I have a five-page essay on Kafka due tomorrow.