I took my own advice and watched About Schmidt again. It's been a few years.
And despite my efforts, I found myself wiping tears from my eyes. Embarrassing? Who cares. That last letter to Ndugu that Schmidt narrates (after all the ironic, hilarious letters thoughout the film) is just gut-wrenching and then when you least expect it, sheer happiness sneaks in, the yearned-for cure, and finally causes the man to break down and weep. It's powerful stuff via understatement and you have to appreciate it.
Which got me thinking about other films that cause grown men to revert to sobbing boys. I'm curious to hear what others have to suggest before I list a few that I love and that have affected me blubberingly over the years.
Confessions?
i know i'm not the only man who's cried during and because of a movie, but i'll post my lonely list anyway (excluding E.T. because I was a kid then):
ReplyDeleteReds (with Warren Beatty), The English Patient, About Schmidt, The Visitor (with Richard Jenkins), Truly Madly Deeply (with Alan Rickman), Up (yes, the Pixar film), and Terms of Endearment.
Strangely, 3 of those star Jack Nicholson.
and that final scene in The Return of the King when everyone bows down to Frodo and Sam. That got me all choked up. Ahem.
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