The Disney Version

Last week, I went to go see the movie "The Help" at the ancient Alpine movie theater in Bay Ridge. I read the book and was excited to see the movie.  It was top on my "Summer to do" list.  After the movie, the age old debate of "reading the book vs. seeing the movie" got heated as I exited the theater with my college bestie (a former English major, now book editor).  She loved it but I was upset about how the movie left out all the important controversial parts about race and human behavior that were the premise of the book.

The director had managed to tie up all the ugly truths with a nice, neat bow.  It bothered me and it wasn't until a few days later with the help of a co-worker, that I was able to put my finger on the word that best described my feelings.  Disney-ified!

That's how I feel about about what happened today when I met up with my ex-boyfriend who I haven't seen since we broke up two months ago.  He finally came by to pick up a box he had left behind.  The meeting went fine.  And after it was over, I felt the same way I did when I left the Alpine last week  - Disney-ified.  The ex had managed to tie up all the ugly truths of our relationship into this amazingly, lavish, big pink bow.  I'm not sure why he did it.  Maybe he had the same reason as "The Help" director.  He knew that the audience couldn't handle seeing the truth on the big screen and he wanted to walk out the movie theater believing that everything was going to be ok.

It was no Oscar performance or low budget love story but I got to hand it to the kid, it was artfully done.