The Groomsmen

Liz and I had roommate time Monday and I also like to think we simultaneously celebrated Columbus Day...I mean not the spread of disease or rape of foreign lands but the excitement of a whole new world and learning about different cultures.  I like to think of myself as a cosmopolitan, worldly person so we decided to learn about the culture of men.  I really only watch The Bachelorette so that I can see the last 45 seconds where they show the dudes being all man-like and weird in their natural habitat.  So I am always up for more of this kind of thing and we settled on the 2006 film noir The Groomsmen.

p.s. Film Noir does not at all apply to this movie....I took a film class or two, I'm wicked smart, but I thought I'd use that term to blow your cultural mind, but the jig is up because some uppity hipster is going to correct me.

Now if you like your Ed Burns like I do, a lot of him squinting and being sexy, then this is the film for you.  It also stars Donal Logue (touch it), Jay Mohr (eh not so much, did you know that he married a girl with the last name Cox AND that he took her name to hyphenate with his...yeah), Matthew Lillard (aka the dude from Scream) and John Leguizamo (No touch).  Each of them is grappling with the same life change while also dealing with a personal dilemma.  They're supposed to be between 33-35 and living in Long Island (blegh) while preparing for their friend's wedding (Hottie Burns).

I'm not going to give away any plot lines...ok yes I am: someone is gay, someone is trying to relive his youth through music, someone is infertile, someone is wholey immature and urinates in a vehicle (that's not a plot line but you know, interesting) and lastly someone is deciding if the life they're about to enter into is one they are prepared for.  Good stuff all around and you can see for yourself which story goes with which character. If you're smart and figure it out early on and are pissed that this was a spoiler well A. it is still a good movie so suck it up and finish and B. GET OVER IT, I'm a ruiner ok? Sometimes I like to tell people things because I cant hold it in.  My grandmother will be the first to tell you that, because I did it to her, once at 5: I told my grandfather we had an ice cream cake for his birthday and she has never let me live it down.  But we have plenty of time to examine my unhealthy relationship with my French matriarch, back to bromance central.

Some of my friends and I are fascinated at how men interact with each other, like the physical fighting  to solve an issue is one example.  I did once think about starting a fight club, but feared someone might hit me in my face and I didn't want that to happen because well...it's my money maker.  Besides, I think girls are better suited to gossip and back handed compliments.  I do wish we could be more upfront when there is an issue afoot but I certainly wasn't raise to slap a bitch (although I do sometimes wish I was)...and I do not hang out with girls that do that.  No one I know thinks it is classy to pull hair and choke someone out....I do know men though who would like that though.

I will be equal opportunity and admit women like to see men fight too, so I guess we are both pretty fucked up? Good then, onward and upward.  Where was I?  Oh right movie synopsis, I don't know let's see, there is a pretty sick band in it,  if that is  really John Leguizamo singing,  then he definitively could have a career as a musician.  But everything isn't all drum solos and fishing trips, there is more.  

I think there is something easy about watching someone work their problems out onscreen in less than two hours.  It makes you feel like you too are in a good place at the end of it.  Things aren't perfect but you can work on it.  I was telling my coworkers at trivia Tuesday that I hate a happy ending.  What I mean by that is that I dislike when everything is wrapped up with a full explanation and a big bow, hand delivered.

Life isn't like that and while I do watch movies to escape, I like to be able to picture myself in those circumstances too and I know that at the end of 2 hours, or 2 months, or 2 years, I might not have the answer. But you keep working on it and you keep putting the pieces together until you get your own ending, in your own story.  Either a life married with kids and a golden retriever where you fight over wanting to want to do the dishes, or ending up some bad ass starving artist who sleeps with their muses until you become an aged wise-man in a local bar.  VERY different paths but each with their own benefits.  That is what each of these characters is facing in The Groomsmen.  Deciding which ending is really going to make them happy and realizing that the conventional path doesn't have to mean settling.

You like that? I told you, I got some film classes under my belt.  Anyway get your own take on it if you have Encore OnDemand and take in all the awkwardness for yourself.