Digital Sextant

So Jenny and I tried to watch Happy-Go-Lucky last night and we just couldn’t do it.  I usually enjoy character development movies quite a bit.  I love Station Agent and Rushmore.  One of my favorites is Searching for Bobby Fisher.  But Happy-Go-Lucky, despite its bouncy main character, has little to no plot to speak of.  It aches along glacially, and we just couldn’t take it anymore.

Ten more minutes, then we're turning this off.

Judging by the cover, the part where the main character starts taking driving lessons forms the crux of the narrative, with the cranky driving instructor acting as a foil for her cheerful attitude toward life.  But we were done and turned it off just as she got in the car.  So some thoughts:

• I’m trying to remember a character-development movie like the ones above that features a female protagonist; and then I have to have enjoyed it.  I didn’t really like Fried Green Tomatoes or Then She Found Me, and I generally avoid the weepy movies about death by disease or heartache.  (Death by fantastic violence, I enjoy.)  I guess the closest I can think of among movies I really like would be Home for the Holidays.
• I can see the attraction of the eventual plot — cynic versus optimist — but it took too long to get there.  Perhaps a page out of the non-linear playbook would have worked to start the movie.  A little teaser of what will come.
• What I saw of the casting was excellent — the film has a breath of realism that makes it seem genuine.  At the same time, that’s part of what I didn’t like — it felt like I was watching moment after moment after moment of somebody’s day.  And really, conversations over breakfast are nice and all, but something’s gotta happen.
• My reaction to the film surprises myself.  I have always wanted to see My Dinner with Andre, but I now wonder whether I could stand it.

So two questions for my readers:

1. How often in the last year have you turned off a movie (or walked out) without planning to finish it?  This is the first for me this calendar year, I’m pretty sure.  It’s a shame, because intellectually, I recognize that this is a far better movie than Johnny Sunshine, and I sat through all of that (though I watched a bunch of it at 2x speed).

2. If you saw this movie, how does my discussion compare with your own thoughts?