2012 Movie Recap

For the last few years during the cold or unpleasant weather, I walk over to my movie theatre and treat myself to the first matinée. One of my mom’s friends says he saw 56 movies last year and can probably list the day and time with the appropriate title. When I look back to the movies I saw in 2012, they are in a few categories:

•  I remember watching it!
•  I wanted to see it but not sure if I saw it. Did I see the trailer and it FELT like I saw the movie? Did I blink and the movie was no longer showing in the theatre? Did it just not show at my theatre? How did I miss these? Perhaps, the weather was good and I just wasn’t going to movies when it was released. Yes, that MUST have been it.
• The one that made me walk out

Understand that I go to movies to escape, mostly, and will just recap what I did see. Some of these movies came out 2011 but I saw them in the theatre in 2012. 

I remember watching it!

• Living on One * Lincoln * Silver Lining Playbook * The Impossible 

• The Hobbit * Jack Reacher * Flight * Ted * Skyfall * The Avengers 

• The Twilight Saga – Breaking  Dawn Part 2 * Argo * Moonrise Kingdom 

• 21 Jump Street * Magic Mike * Men in Black 3 * Seven Psychopaths 

• Hitchcock * The Vow * American Reunion * The Lucky One 

• To Rome with Love * Man on a Ledge * Hyde Park on Hudson

• The Three Stooges *  Safe House * The Campaign * Dark Shadows 

• Taken 2 * Trouble with the Curve * Premium Rush * Big Miracle

• Wanderlust * War Horse * The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo

• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close * We Bought a Zoo

• The Dark Knight Rises * Jeff ,Who Lives at Home * This Means War

• Les Miserables

I find them everywhere throughout the year!

Of the above movies, there are a few that have personal meaning to me. A close family friend worked on The Hobbit.  The frustration built as I witnessed people lollygagging in front of me while the credits were scrolling down the screen.  People, I have a name to see, move it! 

Lincoln was important to me because he represents my state.

Les Miserables was the last movie I saw in 2012. As a child, my mom took me to a musical every year to celebrate my birthday. We saw that one twice!  I promptly bought the sheet music for the whole score and the book still sits on my childhood piano. Enthusiastically,  I learned “On My Own” and could play it without thinking. I liked seeing it on the big screen because it allowed me to finally understand the story! 

Speaking of miserable, I went to see Living on One with a good friend of mine at Northwestern’s Law School last fall.  The four college students went to Guatemala for 56 days and lived on $1 a day. They are traveling around the country to college campuses to enlighten that market on poverty. Definitely puts things into perspective. 

I saw The Impossible last month. This movie is about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The morning that tsunami struck, I received a phone call from one of my honorary auntie’s asking if I had heard from my mom who was in India at the time. I hadn’t seen an email in a while and did not have her itinerary. 

I immediately called my dad and my brother and we spent much of the day trying to track her down. I went to her place to get into her email to secure her itinerary and find other clues.

The itinerary indicated that she was in Pondicherry. That is one of the areas struck by the tsunami. I sent emails to family and friends alerting them to the situation. I know it was a very dramatic email but at the time, it was a real possibility that she was in the tsnuami’s path. 

My brother was able to leave a message with the travel agent but since it was a Saturday we didn’t know when she would pick up the message.

12 hours later, I get a phone call from my dad who shared that my brother had just called.  It turns out that my mom was in her private taxi and the driver was referring to a tsunami but she thought it was one from a long time ago.  

For no reason, she had decided to leave Pondicherry and move to her next destination which was inland, a day early. The driver received the call from the travel agent and she promptly called home, oblivious to our scary day back here in the states! 

Needless to say, I felt like my family was in a movie that day.  It was one full of emotion, suspense, riveting script with excellent acting might I add…  Since then, my mom eagerly provides the itinerary for every trip and writes wonderful musings about her travels and sends them via email while she is away.