Matchy Matchy

In 500 Days of Summer, JGL’s love for Zooey really stems from 2 things: she’s cute, and she likes The Smiths. One of the reasons I like this movie so much, and sometimes get frustrated watching it, is that I relate. If a girl is cute, and has good taste, I’m done for.

In a perfect world, I’d see a cute girl wearing an AD shirt sipping on some bubble tea at a Radiohead concert and boom, match made, the deal is done. Maybe I’d ask her opinion about her favorite Wes Anderson movie or make sure she hasn’t seen Cats, but generally speaking, I’d consider us compatible.

Unfortunately, loving the same music, movies, books and/or food doesn’t mean we’d love each other. It’s a hard thing for me to face because liking all the same entertainment would be such a fantastically convenient quality in a spouse, and I love convenience almost as much as I love Radiohead. And I love my media, and sharing it with others, so being with someone that didn’t like what I like, well, that’s a hard pill to swallow. But, sadly, media preference is a shallow criteria for a relationship. What if Radiohead breaks up? What then?

I was out with a ladyfriend the other night and we ended up doing dinner and a movie. Cliché, I know, but if there is a pair of activities I like better than eating and watching movies, I don’t know what it is. Or I do, but it’s not an option. In any case, the movie bit was fairly impromptu, so we hadn’t chosen something ahead of time. So we show up at the theater and perused our movie options. Incidentally, yes, I have made fun of people before who just go to the theater, hoping to find something that tickles their fancy. Do your research people! As previously stated, this was impromptu.

Because I was not on a date with the female version of myself, Paul and Sucker Punch were out. And because she wasn’t on a date with the male version of herself, Hop and Soul Surfer were out. I’d mentally prepared myself for Source Code as a compromise film, but surprisingly she suggested Hanna. To be honest, I don’t think she knew anything about Hanna, and maybe thought it was a sister film to Pollyanna and Annie. So I should have explained “little girl assassin techno soundtrack.” But I’m a bad person, so I took advantage of her selection and we watched it.

Turns out, we both liked it quite a bit. While I can’t say it’s a great movie, I can say it’s an interesting one. And I’m not saying interesting patronizingly, as if to spare the film’s feelings. It was actually a pretty interesting movie. And while I might not have drawn the comparison if they weren’t by the same director, but it was a very similar movie to Atonement. The only thing I remember from Atonement are the visuals (and I’m including Keira Knightley under the category of visuals) and the music. I found the plot pretty secondary. The plot in Hanna is pretty secondary as well, but the visuals and music were great. The film looked beautiful, was frequently funny, featured competent to good acting, had some great action and some nice structural symmetry. It’s hard to ask for much more. A worthwhile story and better editing would have pushed it into greatness.

So it was a happy ending. Not necessarily in Hanna, but for the evening. Two sets of fairly disparate interests, overlapping. I would love for the circles in our venn diagram to completely overlap, but this will likely never be the case. Because my circle is not a circle, but a somewhat cynical octopus of far-flung eccentricities, never to be replicated. It’s a fingerprint, as is everyone’s. And our fingerprints will never match up. But even though fingerprints are never identical, hands can be held.