252: the x factor

I am not sure I am using that term right. I'm thinking it means that undefinable factor that makes something work, no?

I was watching Mystery 101 tonight. It's a Hallmark mystery.

I've been watching a lot of Hallmark mysteries lately, courtesy of Frndly TV (for the first time ever, I can watch Hallmark NOT on YouTube??). And I've noticed something.

Those characters give eye contact. A lot. They give each other their full attention. I mean, they hold that eye contact when any normal person would look away.

It's not realistic. At all.

And yet.

Have you ever interacted with someone who actually looked at you when you spoke? Whose expression said that they were completely focused on you and understanding what you were saying? Not just understanding, but listening to you, your soul.

And not just giving you their full attention, but liking what they were seeing?

It is rare. I think it must be a personality mutation that only a few people have, to be able to give that full focus and bestow that feeling of worth.

And that's what some of Hallmark's actors capture through much professional labor and experienced directing by the makers of theatrical romance.

But, is it possible that we could bottle up just a little bit of that fake focus and actually employ it in our real lives? Because you don't have to have movie makeup and hair stylists and be a model to make someone feel like they are the most valuable person to you right now.



via GIPHY

Movie Review - Frozen II

Brace yourself for an unpopular opinion.

First, I liked the song about everything changes but some things stay the same. As believers we know that through all the dispensations of life, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I thought Olaf's song was hilarious--when I am older and wiser, I'll know EVERYTHING! I really liked the snowflakes and ice-related stuff. Like the little flurries above the Tangled-esque lizard (who totally was not explained). It was fun that many of the songs were in the same genre as the original film. I loved Elsa's outfit, at least the collar part.

But.

I had two big issues with the movie. Well, one BIG issue and one "meh" issue. Two ways that the movie veered from the original.

I'll start with the less HUGE issue--the romance. Frozen was lauded for not being about romance. Sure, there was romance--one of my favorite songs from the original talks about Anna stuffing her mouth with chocolate because she's nervous over seeing a guy--but the big message was sisterly love overcoming all odds. While that concept definitely continues in Frozen II, a side romantic story line weaves through a good chunk of the movie leading to a very silly, yes, SILLY, song by Kristoff that had me laughing out of disbelief. Like, surely that was supposed to be funny. It was too much like an '80s or '90s music video. Someone tell me if that was supposed to be funny. I also thought the line in the song where he says he doesn't know who he would be without Anna a bit unhealthy? In a dating relationship, we need to have a foundation that is not dependent on another person.

Now to the BIG issue. In the first movie, we learn Elsa has magical powers. I'm not too crazy about movies with "magic," but I kinda felt you could excuse it in the first movie. It was more "magical" than MAGIC. A fairy tale-esque world where magical things happen like rocks who sing about Kristoff's desperation for human hugs.

***SPOILER ALERT***

In Frozen II, the movie starts with a story about an Enchanted Forest guarded by 4 spirits: earth, wind (or was it sky? air?), fire, and water. Something happens to anger the 4 spirits, and the Enchanted Forest is shut off from the rest of the world. That is the background for the whole movie. 4 spirits of Nature. And possibly a 5th spirit. They make a point of saying that Elsa's powers are not magic but rather Nature's gifts.

In this it crossed the line from simply "magical" to actual spirits. I thought it was interesting that it didn't stick to the old Disney theme of potions, magic spells, and witches. Instead, it had more of an animistic feel. Either way, it wasn't any less contrary to a Biblical worldview.

(By the way, after thinking about it, I realized the "spirits" are probably  the lizard (fire), Gale (wind), Elsa's tamed sea horse (water), and the earth giants.)

Elsa hears the 5th spirit calling to her. So she pursues it and sings a song asking the voice/spirit to come and show itself to her. She has been seeking for something her whole life, and she thinks this is it. Show yourself to me.

That scene made me very uncomfortable. I do not want any children I know being taught to ask unclean spirits to reveal themselves. Hugely creepy and dangerous song there, Elsa.

Then, she finds out in tears of ecstatic amazement, that she is the 5th spirit. That which she has been looking for her whole life is herself. Humanism?

Also, interestingly, the way Anna and Elsa interact with the spirits is simply an acknowledgement of their reality, but no consideration that they may have any responsibility towards these powers. It reminded me very much of our cultural agnosticism--yeah, God may exist, but what does that have to do with me? Not that I WANTED Anna and Elsa to show obeisance, but it was interesting.

In the end, the movie was way too much about spirits for me to endorse. Spirits and how they give you things and how you are seeking them out and how they are angry and how they are keeping you from doing things--that crosses a line.