The Simpsons Movie and a Lesson Learned

My wife and I were crazy enough to stay up till 2 am last night in order to be among the first viewers of the Simpsons Movie, so dadgum if I'm not going to get some blog mileage out of it.

First things first: The movie was GOOD. I myself am a dyed-in-the-wool Simpsons fan, and even my towering expectations weren't able to completely overwhelm this long-awaited project. And the fact that the Simpsons series has been getting consistently less funny over the past 5 years actually made the movie seem more hilarious. The plot was epic, the gags were a non-stop alchemy of satire, slapstick and silliness, and the overall look and feel of the movie was very satisfying.

Disappointments: The effort to include virtually every minor character in the movie resulted in no significant contributions from any of them. In fact, everything minor about the film was so minor as to be practically imperceptible. There were two subplots, one about Bart beginning to prefer the fathering of Ned Flanders to that of Homer, and another of Lisa finding the "perfect boy". Both of these subplots would have been lame, even for a regular episode, and the latter introduced a love interest so flat that the Irish musician/environmentalist who caught Lisa's eye might well have been made of cardboard.

Shocks: The creators of the Simpsons do take the liberties afforded them by the PG-13 rating, and lay out a manic scene of Bart skateboarding naked, on a dare. The action is jaw-dropping, as we witness a breakneck series of visual near-misses. I won't tell you everything about the scene, but I would recommend that highly impressionable viewers of all ages sit this one out. I must say, though, it is amazing how the well-timed on-screen appearance of three lines for two seconds can suck the air out of a movie theater.

The best shock, though, was one of the most brilliant sight gags I have ever seen in a movie, animated or otherwise. David Edelstein, movie reviewer for NPR and the Los Angeles Times, said it made him gasp, and that "You could write a whole sociology dissertation on that five-second gag."

It happened when an ominous shadow descends over Springfield, and the entire city is staring skyward in confusion and terror. We see a bird's-eye view of the church and the bar side-by-side (which is new) and people running out of the front door of each. As a group, they gape helplessly at their doom from above, and promptly switch buildings.

Something in me wants to write a blog post about this one gag, but honestly, I'm not sure what I would say. I will, however, digress enough from my movie review to say that this joke definitely rings true to me. Religious people often foolishly turn to alcohol for comfort, while alcoholics may simultaneously (and at times foolishly as well) seek a "higher power". If you want to suck all the charm and wit out of the gag, I suppose you could call it the "grass is always greener" syndrome. Pastors will proclaim that Jesus is the answer, while the bartender claims that Alcohol is the answer. But far too many who have taken the bait remain only mildly convinced... as evidenced by their desertion at the moment of greatest fear.

I guess I would be the wrong guy to write that dissertation. But if I were to take one thing away from this poignant moment, I suppose it would be to recognize that the things we cannot believe in a crisis, we do not believe at all. So here it is again, in memorable quote form:

"The things we cannot believe in a crisis, we do not believe at all." -Ryan Wiksell