Chasing Meaning

A couple of months ago, I came across a list. This list was in honour of Miramax closing down and listed the best movies that had come from the company in the last few decades. Of course, when I hear "best movies", I think that they are going to be good, and so I found a couple of them and have been watching them over the course of the last few months.

Now, to be fair, I haven't watched most of these movies and a lot of them, though I have heard that they are good, just don't appeal to me. But the few that I have watched I haven't been particularly impressed with. Today I am going to look at one of these movies, and that is Chasing Amy.

I have never been a huge fan of Ben Affleck, and him being in a movie is not a particular draw to me. In fact, I was quite surprised that a movie with him as the lead character was in the list of top 15. It's not that he is a BAD actor per se. I have just never seen him as a serious actor. He is in romantic comedies and dramas, but serious and him just don't gel well in my books. Anyway, I figured that I would give the movie a chance regardless.

The movie was a little predictable from the start - man (Holden) falls in love with woman (Alyssa), woman rejects him, woman comes to accept him, best friend (Banky) tries to come between them, yada yada yada. Not what you would call new ideas. There was a little twist though in the fact that Ben Affleck's love interest prefers women. That throws a bit of a spanner in the works, but not too much of one as she realises that, by limiting herself to falling in love with women, she is closing herself to the opportunity of falling in love with a man. And closing herself off to the opportunity of love is the last thing that she wants to do. And so, they get together, and things are hunky dory for awhile until, predictably, the best friend and business partner steps in and messes things up by dredging up her past, making Ben not trust her anymore. This is where the concept of Chasing Amy comes into play, with an appearance from Jay and an uncharacteristically Unsilent Bob, who explains the concept of losing a girl because of judging her on her past. One thing that I did find to be a little unpredictable was that, after this talk, the movie does not come to a happy ending, but ends with Holden having a deep conversation with Alyssa and Banky and suggesting that the only way to fix their problems is for the three of them to sleep together. That's right. The solution to relationship problems that involve your best friend is to have a threesome. This idea ends his relationship with Alyssa and his friendship with Banky, and that is that.

I didn't hate this movie. I was surprised that I didn't hate it considering the explicit sex talk and the impromptu dialogues that are supposed to be soul revealing but end up making me want to smack the actors in the face because they just don't fit in with the rest of the movie. No, I didn't hate it. I didn't particularly enjoy it though. I have very neutral feelings about it, and though it doesn't feel like I wasted my time watching it, it doesn't leave me with a sense of fulfilment or enjoyment or anything else. It just leaves me empty and not knowing what to do with myself. Should I laugh? Should I cry? No. I should just walk away and forget that I ever watched it as the movie slips into the back of my mind along with the other droll that I have watched over the years.

Overall, I would have given the movie a 3 out of 10. It isn't low enough to hate it, but it isn't high enough to recommend to friends as anything - not a fun movie, not a serious movie, just nothing. I cannot for the life of me understand why IMDB has it listed as a 7.5 out of 10. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly isn't something that I would watch again, certainly isn't a 7.5 in my books and certainly shouldn't be listed under the top 15 of Miramax's achievements. Then again, neither should Heavenly Creatures. But that's a story for another time.