One False Thing

Tonight at dinner my dh told us about a movie he watched while on the treadmill, One True Thing.

The conversation was funny in itself because it went something like this:

"Oh, this movie had William Hurt in it and that actress.. What's-her-name."
"Who?" I said.
"Oh, you know.. she is really good and female."
"Oh, I said, that narrows it down."

(at this point Bryan is smiling to himself)

"You know", dh said, "she is that good actress."

"Humm..." I said, "I am not sure."

"She plays the mom. Her daughter is played by that other actress. What's-her-name." dh said to me earnestly.

"Um." I said.

Bryan can't help grinning.

"It doesn't matter, Dad, I won't know them anyway." he said patiently

"But Mom will."

"Um." I said.

"No, the actress that played the daughter, she was the wife in Cinderella Man."

[At this point, I could see her face and felt the same frustration dh had a minute ago.. oh, what IS her name?]

I got a flash....

"Rene Zellweger!" I said.

"Yes!" he said.

We gloated a bit and smiled at each other. Bryan and Stephen were shaking their heads, at least if not outwardly surely inside. Oh, we are pathetic.

"Now, who played the mom?" I asked.

Dh thought... nothing.

"Bryan, go get the movie box! It is on the floor of the bedroom next to the T.V."

Bryan ran out of the room and brought it back to the dinner table.

Dh held it at arms length.

"Dad can't read it. He needs his glasses." I proclaimed.

"No, that is not the problem, " dh said while stretching his arm as far as he could and pulling his head back to maximize the distance. " The library label is over the name of the actress."

"Please give it to me."I told Bryan who passed it around the table.

"See, her picture is on front." dh said.

"Oh, I see.." I said as I held the movie at at a distance. "Is it Glenn Close?"

"No!" Dh said.

"Um. It looks like Glenn Close to me." I said.

"No!" he said.

I looked at the back and found her name in small print.

"Meryl Streep!" I said.

"Yes!" dh said. We both looked proudly at each other.

"Gosh she is getting old," I commented.

The boys were about to lose it. Gosh what goofy parents.

Well, then dh told us about the story line. It started out ok. They actually sang Oh Holy Night as a family and Meryl Streep as a homey kind of mom. But then she got cancer. And real sick, and was in pain and dying.

"Guess what they did?" Dh asked us.

We knew it was probably something really dumb by his tone of voice. And we knew Hollywood. We had just been talking about the culture of death, especially as I have been sharing my Friday night scrutiny sessions with our RCIA group. We have always come back to the culture of death as we discuss what we pray God will deliver us from in the world.

We were all silent. I thought a minute and then said.

"Oh, they put her 'out of her misery', I will bet." I said.

"Yup." Dh nodded solemnly.

We then talked about it a bit more. He shared when his uncle had cancer and how they all were with him. Dh told us how the Hollywood movie showed it as a blessing, and how really it was not even needed for the plot.

Ok, now we not only have gratuitios sex and violence but now death as well.

We talked about praying for our world, our poor misguided world. This movie did show us something. One FALSE Thing.