Match-disa-Point and Hustle & Whoa!

Two movies that I felt certain I knew were about one thing but turned out to be the complete opposite: Match Point and Hustle & Flow, both Oscar nominees by the way. (Dear reader, while this is not a spoiler per se, if you want to experience the thrill of not knowing at all what a movie is about before you see it, please don’t read the rest of this entry and just head straight to the theater or video store immediately.) To add to the surprise is the fact that they are thematically inverses of one another. I didn’t read much about either of these movies before viewing them and only had the previews to go on, which is very likely why I was so astonished. The opening of Match Point promised that it would be Woody Allen’s attempt at the sweet treacle of a Wimbledon II, but it turned out to be “the feel-bad movie of the year” according to moi. (Sorry, quoting oneself in an article is a journalism no-no, but this is my blog, so who cares.) I came home from seeing Match Point and realized that I desperately needed to see some movie about bunnies or some other cutie-pie antidote, because I was afraid of slitting my wrists it was so depressing. (For some reason Scott and I started watching Bram Stokers Dracula, I can’t tell you why, but I put an end to that and snuggled up with the New Yorker instead.) It turns out I should have watched Hustle & Flow, but I wasn’t clued into that at the time. Hustle & Flow seemed like it would be one of those hour-and-a-half train wrecks in which you grind a millimeter off your tooth enamel waiting for the shit to hit the fan because, you think, how could a movie about a destitute pimp/rapper and his herd of dirty little whores turn out well? But, no, in fact it was downright heartwarming, and I mean compared to, say, It's a Wonderful Life! I cried from the sweet sappiness of it all. Go rent it immediately!

[Image from: http://regencymovies.com/movieRunDetail.php?theaterId=10&movieRunId=1147&movieId=265]