Good Will Ferrell Hunting

Sorry for my lack of blogging the past couple days. No excuses, just busy at work and such. Trying to firm things up for a big change in my professional life (more to come on that later, hopefully). Drove down to Orlando and back today to attend a Florida Association of Endodontics lecture/luncheon/meeting. It was interesting (and much better than being at work!). But back to the more important things...

I saw one of the best films last night that I will possibly see this year. Usually only one comes along for me, per year. For 2005, it was "Sideways". For 2006, it was "Thumbsucker". For 2007, (I think) it was "The Darjeeling Limited" tied with "Thank You For Smoking". For this year, I think it's going to be "Stranger Than Fiction", barring something doesn't come along in the next 6 months that just blows me away. I'm not exactly sure what draws me to this kind of movie, but I think I may have an idea. I won't go into excruciating detail about the plot because some of you may have seen it already, or are planning to, so I don't want to spoil it for you. But anyway, in a nutshell, this is another story basically of your everyday person undergoing a (sometimes-surreal) metaphysical journey/transformation. That's it. It's the archetypal journey/quest. I've tried to get Akemi on the same level with me on this, but she doesn't get it. Maybe it's a guy-thing. Some of that may due in part to the language barrier too (although her English is superb). But I'm starting to see this same theme running through other movies that I love. For example -- "Adaptation", "Being John Malkovich", "Thumbsucker", "Punch Drunk Love", "Castaway", maybe to a lesser extent, "American Splendor" and possibly "Crumb". Maybe, deep down, I have some great yearning for an unrequited soul-searching journey I have yet to take that I see reflected in these films.

There's still time.