A Must-See Movie

By Karen O’Connor –

I love the movies, I have to admit. A good story with drama, action, some love-interest, and an intriguing plot that inspires and entertains is just what I look for when I want to spend an afternoon at the cinema.

I like to talk about films with friends too. We trade stories and opinions about what’s hot and what’s not and then recommend our favorites or pan the ones we didn’t like.

As I get older, however, it’s getting more and more difficult to keep the names and storylines straight. The more time that passes between films the less apt I am to remember what I want to share with a friend.

That happened one day years ago before I had access to the Internet. I knew my friend Jane likes historical fiction so I was sure she’d enjoy one of my favorite movies. But as I started to tell her about it, I couldn’t recall the title. So I did the next best thing. Decided to name the female lead, but I couldn’t think of her name either. So then I tried to think of the name of the man she’s married to but his name escaped my memory, as well. Surely I could recall his sister because she was a famous actress a couple of decades ago and she’d written a few books too.

Well, neither of us got very far in the conversation because every time I tried to nail a detail, it dropped out of my mind. Finally, I gave up and promised to call her when all that information came back––even if it at was three o’clock in the morning!

Sure enough, the next day I remembered the female lead’s name. Annette Bening who is married to Warren Beatty whose sister is Shirley MacLaine, but I still couldn’t pull the title of the film. So I drove over to the video rental store in my neighborhood and asked for help.

The clerk, at least forty years my junior couldn’t remember it either, though he seemed to know the movie I was referring to. He then pulled out a book listing all the films available on video within the last two years. We checked under Annette Bening’s name but the list did not include the movie I was looking for––at least I don’t think it did. But then come to think of it, if I didn’t know the name how could I expect to recognize it on a printed list? Oh my, these senior moments are getting the best of me.