Allow Me to Digress

What would you do if you won 4 million dollars?

If I won the lottery (for the record I never bought a lottery ticket), or maybe if I were extremely rich, I would love to do what two characters from the movie I watched the other night did on their "date" - gave free rides to the metro, rented the entire baseball field for the children (and also giving each child free polaroid prints of him posing catching the ball), entered a restaurant and then announced to everyone that they will foot the bill. That would be a really great date, wouldn’t it? 

But then with or without a million dollars, surprising people with little acts of kindness will surely go a long way.  Miracles can still happen.   

The movie "It Could Happen to You" was one of those really nice movies that for a time I had forgotten I liked.  I remember watching it on VHS a long time ago.  (It was shown in theaters in 1994.)  Starring the very skinny Bridget Fonda and not-yet-so-bald Nicholas Cage, it was a story of a cop who tipped a waitress half of his lottery ticket, in case he would win.  Charlie (Cage) won 4 million dollars and as promised, gave half of it to the waitress, Yvonne (Fonda).  But of course there were conflicts in the story - Charlie was married and his wife Muriel wouldn’t just give away the money that easily. 

So what would you do if you won 4 million dollars?  Would that make you any happier?

Charlie chose to still become a cop, and Yvonne chose to continue being a waitress in the diner that she bought.  She used to be employed there.  They both continued doing what they love to do more than anything else in the world.  I envy them for finding their calling and their niche.   I can’t recall exactly how Charlie described Yvonne as a waitress, but I think he said something like Yvonne was an angel to all her customers.  Maybe the money made them happier and richer, but that was all just the "outside," "inside," they didn’t change. After all, the best things in life are free. (Ok ba? hehe… Reminds me of a song. But you have to pay for other good stuff

Instead of telling you the rest of the story (which you probably have already seen before),  I would just like to write about the things I loved in the movie. 

I like romantic comedies because of their witty lines, and because it balances the mushiness of romance through comic relief.  Here are the memorable scenes and lines from the movie for me:

On arranged marriages (I can’t find the exact lines but here’s what I remember):

Charlie was telling Yvonne about a couple who were married at the same time he and Muriel got married.  It was an arranged marriage for the other couple -it was the first time that they were going to meet then.  Charlie said that the couple didn’t even know if they’ll be attracted to each other or if they’ll have something to talk about, but 10 years later, they were still happily married with children while his marriage with Muriel, his high school sweetheart, was in shambles. 

Charlie on the differences between him and his wife:

"It’s like we’re two different channels:  I’m CNN and she’s the Home Shopping Network."

"A promise is a promise."  Charlie told Yvonne assuring her that he will keep his word.

Yvonne even had in her diner a table named after Charlie, for those who needed a little bit of kindness and who couldn’t afford  meal. 

It is a really nice feel-good movie.  Watching the movie again 12 years later was really fun.   

Last but not least, here’s a "new" old song that I really like from the movie. 

——————————————————–

Young at Heart - Frank Sinatra

Fairy tales can come true
It can happen to you
If you’re young at heart

For it’s hard you will find
To be narrow of mind
If you’re young at heart

You can go to extremes
With impossible schemes
You can laugh when your dreams
Fall apart at the seams

And life gets more exciting
with each passing day
And love is either in your heart
Or on it’s way

Don’t you know that it’s worth
Every treasure on earth
To be young at heart

For as rich as you are
It’s much better by far
To be young at heart

And if you should survive to 105
Look at all you’ll derive
Out of being alive

And here is the best part
You’ve had a head start
If you are among the very
Young at heart

And if you should survive to 105
Think of all you’ll derive
Out of being alive

And here is the best part
You’ve had a head start
If you are among the very
Young at heart…

————————–

For more about the movie: http://www.cagebypage.com/abouthismovies/reviews/it_could_happen_to_you.html

As for the rest of the money, I still have to think about what to do with it, in case I win a huge fortune but not from lottery perhaps. (Hmm… how can that happen then?)  Maybe I can be whatever I want to be and not worry about the money.  I will definitely travel!  Study! Something nice to think about in case you have nothing to do.  Who knows, it could happen to me, and to you too!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 at 12:51 am and is filed under Entertaining Stuff Other Than Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.