I've been stalking Ruby Sparks for months now.
Walk into almost any business that sells videos, and I'd glance to see whether they were carrying it. If so, whether it was at a miraculously cheap price.
Though I didn't want my third viewing of my #1 movie of 2012 to be a rental, I did take note at nearby Video Ezy of when it might leave the new release shelves and become a weekly rental. That would mean a lowering of the price to $1.90 (it's otherwise around $5) and a whole week as opposed to only three nights (and only one night when it's brand new.)
And so it was that I was in Video Ezy this past Tuesday, and it was finally gone from the new release shelves. Two of the three copies could now be found in a spot reserved for new weekly rentals, the movie's last stop before its final destination in the comedy section. (At least, I assume the comedy section is where it will belong.)
The third copy? For sale as an ex-rental, for only $9.95.
Ooh.
I had it in my hands. I was really going to buy it.
But then I thought about how I still don't have a job, and how our reserve of cash is seriously dwindling. I figured I'd have a lot easier time selling my wife on her first viewing of the movie if it cost me just under $2 rather than just under $10. And I didn't want to give her any external cause for carrying a bias into her viewing.
So I did something I rarely do: I rented a movie I knew I was going to one day buy.
That's alright. If I'm moving back to the U.S. in two years, I'd rather have a copy that can play there anyway.
Now that I could get the movie for a whole week, that made it a perfect candidate for our Valentine's Day viewing three nights later. Ruby Sparks may not profile as your typical Valentine's Day movie, but that's kind of what made it the perfect choice -- in the neighborhood of what a typical couple might rent, but far more challenging and intellectually stimulating.
It was one of those weeks where it was just one thing after another, one small defeat following on the heels of the one before it, and by Friday night we both seriously wanted to open a bottle of wine. It was hard to tell whether it would resemble anything like your typical Valentine's Day, with my wife only six weeks removed from a Caesarian and neither of us thinking of any of the usual Valentine's Day activities.
Well, I started things off on the right note with this ...
... (that's heart-shaped meatloaf, in case you're wondering) ...
... and after an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine (a fairly romantic episode at that), it was time for Ruby Sparks.
I must admit, I was nervous. Nervous like you get when you are finally putting your money where your mouth is. What if I showed this movie to my wife -- trying to avoid those surreptitious glances, constantly assessing her most minute reactions -- and she didn't like it? And had to strenuously find nice things to say to endorse my #1 ranking? Let's put it this way: I feared that high soprano lying voice. "YAA-uh. I LIIIked it."
Well, my reputation for recommending films is safe for one more day. "I really liked it" was her immediate reaction. It wasn't the "I loved it" I was hoping for, but you don't add the "really" if you don't mean it. Unless it's a soprano "really," but this wasn't.
Having talked about it for ten minutes afterward, she may have been tiptoeing toward "loved it" territory.
At the very least, it went nice with our wine.
Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours.
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