Writer's Block: Soul together

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Well, I could go into a whole long thing about invasion of privacy, not doing something to someone else if I wouldn't want it done to me, etc. but I think I'll just stick with:

OH HELL NO.

The Resident

I told Chris before we started watching The Resident that since I've seen a bunch of freaky movies, if this one could honestly manage to disturb me I'd be impressed.

I'm impressed.

Because AUGH now I'm going to randomly freak out at the sight of electrical outlets. Not to mention bathroom mirrors. NOT COOL.

I loved it a lot, really, because of how they played the creepy-stalker-guy thing out. And just when I thought I couldn't love Jeffrey Dean Morgan any more, he goes and gives a performance like this. I'm adding this movie to my Why Didn't She Just Leave reel (aka, the movies I'm going to show the kids to hopefully prevent our victim-blaming society from ever fully getting its claws into them).

Watchmen is another one. I know a lot of people don't like the comic/movie because of the whole "Woman Falls in Love with her Rapist" trope. I didn't see the storyline that way, and I'll explain why:

I'm not entirely sure if Sally had a crush on Eddie before he attacked her, but they did seem to be friends. She had no idea what type of person he really was-- you could hear it in her voice after she slapped him to warn him off and then realized he wouldn't be warned off, that this was about to turn into a bad fight.

She didn't know. And the person who made Eddie stop-- I don't remember everything exactly from the comic but I don't think he even helped her up. Just told her to get herself cleaned up. He clearly thought she was to blame, and he'd been right there to see the blood and bruises.

I think that Sally blamed herself for not realizing what he actually was sooner, and the cold shoulder from the one other person who was there couldn't have helped. And I think that, more than "falling in love with her rapist", is what influenced her to sleep with him later. I think it was her way of gaining control back. He was 'kind' to her that day instead of hurting her again, but in the back of her mind there had to have been that memory, that worry that if she said, "Okay, it's been interesting to see you again, now get out" . . .

And that idea, the whole thing that Creepy Guys will not walk around with tattoos on their foreheads announcing what they are, is the thing I loved about The Resident, too. Because aside from the snippets from Max's point of view, the beginning of it plays like a romantic comedy. You've got the Career Woman Heroine breaking up with cheating slimeball ex and finding a new place to live, Charming New Man is her landlord, they keep it generally professional at the apartment and then Meet Cute at an art gallery, she asks him to walk her home . . . there's even the Comedic Best Friend who gives Juliet the quintessential "he's hot, go for it" speech/grin.

Then it all goes wrong. Which is how things like that happen in real life, not through the bad guy obviously being a bad guy right from the start. And that's why this one and Watchmen are both on my reel, because they both give fantastic examples of why victim-blaming is such a stupid, crappy thing to do.

So, in conclusion: love The Resident. Love Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Going to watch a comedy now because yikes.