Saturday, January 24, 2009

Marvelous

I saw Revolutionary Road tonight and really enjoyed it. I didn't expect to, having heard a few accounts from friends I respect who had hated it in a way usually reserved for Nazis, or telemarketers. But the angst of the characters in the movie really resonated with me. I understood on some level that post-WWII need to do the right thing and how doing the right thing for everyone can feel completely wrong for you. I got their feelings of loneliness and of dreams abandoned. I wish I didn't, but I did. 

But mostly what I got from this film was an insatiable need to bring the word marvelous back into common parlance. The way the word marvelous just rolled off of Kate Winslet's tongue was so sophisticated and joyous. It's such a smooth word anyway, even in the mouth of an amateur, starting off with a gentle hum and ending like a kiss. Every letter in between is soft and luxurious, especially that "v" wafting in the middle. I want to say marvelous and mean it, without a weird glance from the guy I say it to. "Gee, Leonard, that is an absolutely marvelous shirt you're wearing!" I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, I might as well say 23 skidoo or something to that effect, but I'm going to do my part to bring the word back. And it's going to be a marvelous day when I do.

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