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Monday, February 16, 2009

M. Night is a buzzkill

Yesterday we had a family day. I know it sounds all domestic and white picket fence-y and sappy, but that's what it was: a day out, just us, not overly planned, let's-do-what-we-feel-like kind of day. They happen much more often when the weather is nice. Yesterday the weather was lovely, it was sunny and not very cold (at least not compared to how it's been) so we decided to do something with the girls.

We went to CMoM, the Children's Museum of Manhattan, which to me was a little boring, but the girls had fun. We had lunch at a place on the UWS called Celeste, where we enjoyed remarkably good pizza and caprese salad, but had to put up with a pretty rude waiter. We walked to the park to take the subway back to Grand Central from 81st, but then the day was still so nice that we decided to walk across the Park and take the metro from Lexington instead.

If you had asked me what my favorite place in the world was two years ago, I would have said Piazza del Duomo in Milan, or maybe the Cala Ginepro beach in Sardinia. No more. At the risk of being disowned by my parents, I'll confess that my favorite place is now Central Park. My husband used to say "why go into the city to have a picnic? We have parks here too". One walk through Central Park, and he stopped saying that. And this is a Swiss. Someone used to forests, lakes, and breathtaking scenery. But he had to admit that walking through Central Park is lovely and special. Even in Winter:

Anyway, so after a lovely day we got back home around 6pm and had dinner and so on. And then Stella wouldn't sleep, so I did what I usually do: turned off the lights, turned on Coldplay, put on the headphones and sat on the sofa with her, watching TV. She listened to Coldplay and cuddled, I watched TV: a movie by M. Night Shamalayan, his latest: The Happening. We saw all of M. Night Shamalayan's movies, and we were looking forward to watching this one, so we added it to our Netflix queue. The DVD had arrived the day before and my husband had already watched it, but I didn't even ask him if he liked it. I just assumed it would be a bit spooky but good, like his other movies (most of them, at least).

Boy, was I wrong. The Happening is not spooky, it's creepy. And it's not good. It's incredibly sad and depressing and pointless. It talks about a virus or toxin that starts spreading all of a sudden which pushes people to commit suicide, and it all starts - guess where? Central Park, NYC. That's right.

So my picture-perfect day and the mood that went with it were ruined by a depressing, creepy, bad movie. I tell ya, if I meet M. Nigh Shamalayan I will drop-kick him.



13 comments:

Kelly said...

Isn't Marky Mark in that movie? Didn't that make up for the suckiness?

Larissa said...

That is exactly how I felt when I watched the Happening! It was awful, and a waste of those few hours of my life.

kiki k said...

I love Central Park too :-) Definitely is one of my most favourite places to just sit on a park bench and watch life, people, trees, pigeons..anything really. My little one and I had a great time last time just sitting on a park bench eating candy whilst being serenaded by some young aspiring rap 'artist'! Only in Central Park! :-) p.s I know our Frogner Park here in Oslo is not as big as Central Park -but the statues at Vigeland's park ( a section within Frogner Park) is something you should come and see with the girls when you come over. You will love it!

audrey said...

My sentiments exactly after seeing The Happening. Totally creeped me out. Ah, Central Park. I wish *we* had a Central Park but we got nuttin even close in NW Minnesota!

Anonymous said...

I didn't bother seeing THE HAPPENING. I think I only like his "I SEE DEAD PEOPLE" movie the best. I MISS GOOD PIZZA!!

Shani said...

I also didn't bother seeing The Happening. I don't know if he's gotten lazy or his reasons for writing have changed (creativity vs. making a bunch more money), or what, but after Signs things started to go down hill!

La Mom-an American Mom in Paris said...

I long to visit NYC, but my husband can't stand the thought of it with 2 small kids. I have a Swiss in my family too. He's from the German speaking part of Switzerland and my in-laws give him a very bad time with his accent!

FoN said...

I would love to go to New York and visit central park. It's definately on the 'to do' list in life!

I think M. Night Shamalayan has been jumping the shark since Signs. Too bad, 'cause he can make some pretty rockin' movies.

teahouse said...

Yeah, I've heard that Mr. Shyamalan's having a lot of trouble getting funding for any more movies..he's like a one trick pony with his movies with "twists." It's getting really old, really fast.

Glad you had a good day, though!

Maura said...

Central Park is great. I would love to live in walking distance. Every time my husband and I look for a new apartment to rent, I always look first for someplace walkable (which is a pretty large radius for a New Yorker) to CP.

That movie WAS terrible. I thought Signs was ok, but the rest of his movies after the first one totally sucked.

OHmommy said...

seething w/jealously! that you are in a cool city right now.... so cool!

OHmommy said...

Did I comment? I was here and it;s not showing up!

Barbara said...

Yeah I just didn't get this movie... I actually stopped watching about 15 minutes into it... and then watched the last 20 minutes or so... just weird.

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