"You watch weird movies."

My sister is what I like to call a movie racist. She refuses to watch any movie that she doesn’t think she’ll like; in other words, most movies that are not romantic comedies. A few days ago, The Green Mile was on TV and I called Becky in to try and get her to watch it. “This movie looks horrible,” she proclaimed. “Why would you want to watch a movie about, like, violence?” I tried explaining to her that the fight in the beginning is important to characterization and future conflicts, to no avail. She left the room and went to bed at 7:30 (SEVEN-THIRTY. On a Friday night!). “Wait,” I said as she walked up the stairs. “It has a cute mouse in it!”

I will literally try anything to trick my sister into widening her horizons. I told her that Band of Brothers had cute guys in it (actually, that’s my main argument for getting her to watch most movies). I told her that The Godfather features a cute horse and the dad from Elf. These are usually very feeble ploys, considering the fact that they almost never relate to the plot or theme of the movie, but I always try. It’s not as if I don’t take her movie recommendations-I’ve languished through 17 Again, Dear John, and The Proposal, and that’s only recently. 

I’ve tried to tell her that life will not always be Matthew McConaghey handing you a bouquet before going on a quirky-but-romantic first date. Sometimes it will be Jack Nicholson running at you with an axe. In this way, I feel like romantic comedies are perhaps the most misleading movies of all. They usually take place in a realistic setting and have a normal protagonist, and in that they fool people into thinking that they depict what real life is supposed to be like. According to them, if you hate someone, chances are you’re really just in love, and no woman is complete without a wisecracking best friend who will later serve as the love interest to the leading man’s best friend. And people just eat it up and are disappointed when their lives aren’t like that. 

The reason I always try to get her to watch movies that she doesn’t think she’ll like is fairly simple. I just want her to broaden her horizons, because she may end up loving a plethora of the movies she once dismissed. My dad pressured me to watch Band of Brothers despite my squeamishness, and I’m extremely happy he did. It made me realize that gore does not always equal a bad movie. In many ways, it serves to intensify the message. If I hadn’t given that one miniseries a chance, I might have lost out on watching many of the movies I now consider to be my favorites, and I don’t want that to happen to Becky. 

It just irritates me when Becky doesn’t even give good movies a chance.