Suck it up, sponge-face!

So.... let's talk about being a grown-up. Or more accurately, let's talk about being a grown-up in the film Revolutionary Road... because apparently it is the worst, most horrible, most soul-sucking experience known to man. Mere mortals go insane at the mention of doing dishes or laundry for the rest of their lives, and let's not even start talking about taking out the trash or mowing the lawn! It's just too much to handle!!! Please, Leo and Kate, save us from the mediocrity of our trivial lives!

I HATE films like Revolutionary Road or The Hours or any other movie that focuses on the horrible oppression felt by the middle class suburbanite. I find myself wanting to scream at the movie screen "Yes!! Yes, doing laundry sucks! Yes, cleaning toilets and washing dishes and mowing the lawn and taking the dog to the vet and paying bills is boring. Nobody likes cleaning or taking out the trash. But you know what? That's life. That's REAL life. And it's not pretty and it's not always exciting...... but unless you want to exist in a pile of your own filth, you have to do it. Or pay someone else to do it. But get OVER yourself! Quit whining!" 

I can't decide what is really to blame for this attitude-- but I have a theory based on action-adventure movies. In the typical action movie (I'm thinking The Italian Job or any of the Bourne movies or ANYTHING starring Colin Ferrell) there is never any dirty laundry. There is never a dirty dish or a mortgage. They don't live anything even CLOSE to a real, really real, life. And I'm not saying they should! Action heroes can't have their dirty laundry hanging around when they are saving the world. And while I'm on this little rant, romance movies are also probably a part of the problem. I mean, this is reaching back a bit now, but that's what drove me insane about The Bridges of Madison County: what you experience in ONE three-day weekend is more important and more "alive" than your twenty years of marriage. Marriage, love, adult life.... it's complicated! It's challenging! It occasionally sucks! But it is what it is.  

Look, if you want action and adventure and incredible romance...... rent The Princess Bride. But don't be upset when the unending tedium of everyday life gets you down. Take up a hobby. Read a book. Take a trip. Learn a new language. Whatever. But don't make a movie whining about how you hate to do the dishes and take out the trash.