I actually feel like there are a lot of false notes in the trailer for The Big C, which I will see as soon as it comes out on DVD or I take a deep breath and sign up for premium cable:
But that one line, where Laura Linney says "I want to be the one to spill the fruit punch" (in reference to punch Oliver Platt spilled, while Riverdancing, on their couch) really got to me. I know that feeling, that intense desire to be a spontaneous person with the full knowledge that you're not, not remotely, and the sadness that comes with it. I don't actually really believe that a cancer diagnosis is the way you liberate yourself from that tension, that inability to jump, or that the cost to your family of finding spontaneity in this particular way can possibly be worth it. But in a week when I'm feeling intensely attuned to the things in art that ring true, or that feel terribly false, that line gets at an emotion I think is often unexpressed but deeply felt, the wish to be be more authentically, joyfully free in your behavior.