“You look like you just went to a funeral!”
I didn’t doubt her for a second. My mother was looking into the face of her sobbing daughter, blubbering uncontrollably with a runny nose and unchecked streams of tears as she tried to come to terms with what had just happened.
I was about 12 years old, and I had just watched Titanic for the first time.
It wasn’t the full film, mind you; my mother managed to keep me sheltered from on-screen lovemaking for a little while longer. I didn’t feel like I had missed out, though. I was still crushed by the ending, and as a girl so incredibly removed from the situation the characters were in, physically and emotionally, it reinforced something I was learning.
Terrible things happen to people in love.
Maybe that sounds like the wrong conclusion with this blog entry’s title. Maybe I should’ve learned more about the importance of passion and the strength of love. On the flip side, maybe it’s that I’ve developed unrealistic expectations (but really, who hasn’t after — here comes the name drop — watching absolutely anything involving Nicholas Sparks?).
It’s true, though. When I feel far away from wars and other horrors, movies built around romance can pinpoint a relationship, real or representative, and remind me that not only are there individuals being affected by disasters, but couples who build their lives around one another. It isn’t always done gracefully or tastefully on film, but when it is, it provides the human element that all stories need if we are to understand what’s going on in the world.
And rom-coms? Well, those are a lot more fun, but they occasionally have their own lessons. First impressions are often terrible, even if these first impressions are born of honest discussions on a Chicago-to-NYC road trip followed by years apart. Starting a relationship with a womanizing coworker is a terrible idea, even if he isn’t deterred by your “absolutely enormous panties.”And of course, John Cusack is always the right choice.
I still haven’t seen Titanic’s love scene. I can say that the movie isn’t worth watching again, that the cheesiness of Celine Dion’s operatic vocals are too much to bear or that teen heartthrob Leo doesn’t do anything for me. All of those could be true, but they can’t hide what I know beyond a doubt.
If I watch Titanic again, I’m gonna need a box of tissues.
