Bliss!!!

It's one day late and only mentions 9 years, but it's still relevant. Happy 15th Anniversary Sweetheart - I love you!!!

Two!!!

Joe. Vs. the Volcano

This is my second movie post. Mike probably stopped reading at the title, but for anyone else who is interested, this one is for my sweetie who has been having a pretty crummy time at his job lately.

I loved Moonstruck when it first came out, so when I heard that John Patrick Shanley had written another movie, I was very excited to see it. Although Joe Vs. the Volcano was slightly reminiscint of Moonstruck in certain ways it was definitely a movie experience unto itself. Like other great, but peculiar movies that I would see later in life (hello Cohen Brothers), I enjoyed Joe Vs. the Volcano the first time that I saw it, but I don't think I truly appreciated it fully until I saw it the second time. And the third. And the fourth. And god knows how many times I've watched it since then.

After the fairy tale opening, 'Once Upon a Time...' we follow a long, dreary line of workers slogging their way into a grim looking factory. On the way in, we meet the very pasty and downtrodden Joe Banks (played by Tom Hanks). The factory on the inside is essentially a hell-hole (as I recall, their main product is a rather distasteful version of petrolium jelly.) Joe lives in a drab, grey world full of unhappy people and life-sapping flickering flourescent lights. The only bright spot in the office, literally, is the hula lamp Joe keeps hidden in his desk. Unless, of course, you count the office's sweet, but asthmatic secretary DeDe played by Meg Ryan, who clearly has a soft spot for Joe. Joe's boss is a hilarious, toad of a man who lives to torment Joe. With all of this to contend with, it's probably not too surprising that Joe is either chronically ill or a hypocondriac.

Joe pays one of his regular visits to his doctor who tells him that he has a 'brain cloud'. Surprisingly, Joe seems relieved by this ominous news. He KNEW something was wrong. Of course, he doesn't know what a brain cloud is, but who cares? It sounds bad and that's good enough for Joe. His doctor tells him he only has a short while left to live and he needs to think carefully about how he wants to spend his remaining days.

Here is where the movie does it's first 180. As soon as Joe leaves his doctor's office, everything is different. People are friendlier, the world's a little brighter. Joe goes straight back to his work, tells off his belittling boss, quits his job, kisses a shocked DeDe and invites her out to dinner. She says okay and they have a great romantic dinner, including an inspired mariachi band. Everything seems to be going Joe's way until he tells DeDe that he is dying and just like that, the moment's over. DeDe just can't handle Joe's illness.

So...Joe spends the next few days dilly-dallying around his apartment until a strange man appears on his doorstep. This is Samuel Graynamore, a filty rich industrialist with an unusual proposition for Joe - he will give Joe all the money he wants up until Joe's death if Joe is willing to sacrifice himself by jumping into a volcano on a small island called Waponi Woo. There's a lot of mumbo-jumbo about super conductors and stripping the island of some precious mineral and arranging for a sacrifice to appease the gods, but the important thing is that Joe used to be a fireman and this is his chance to live big and then die doing something meaningful.

Joe leaps at this chance - literally and figuratively. From here on out, Joe meets with a series of fascinating characters, including a laconic taxi driver and two vastly different sisters, both also played by Meg Ryan. He picks up everything he needs for the trip - including the world's greatest set of luggage, hops on board an incredible ship and sails away with one of Graynamore's daughters, Patricia. They fall in love over the course of their trip, but when the boat gets caught up in a storm, Patricia is knocked overboard and Joe leaps after her to try to save her. The boat gets hit by lightning (one of the many reoccuring motifs in the movie) and sinks before Joe's eyes, but the crazy awesome trunk that he bought floats up to the surface and he is able to make an amazing makeshift raft out of it for himself and his konked out beloved.

I won't go into too much detail here, except to say that this is my favorite part of the movie and that it involves an umbrella tent, golf clubs, an incredible moon and a ukulele. I should state here that to appreciate this movie, it probably helps to have a fairly high tolerance for whimsy. It can be a bit twee if someone chooses to see it that way, but I think the quirky characters and unique dialogue paved the way for a lot of my favorite tv shows and movies (Northern Exposure, The Big Lebowski, etc.) and over time, I have come to see it as a pretty good analogy for life. No matter how much you love your job, it can feel at times like it's sucking the life out of you and that you're not quite sure what the purpose of it all is. Life does sometimes feel like a scary, funny, strange adventure. And love...well, what could possibly be a better analogy for love and marriage than taking another person's hand and saying, "Okay, I'm ready, let's jump into the volcano together,"?

Which brings me to the end of the movie, which, I know is completely absurd. I remember thinking why is Fish from Barney Miller dressed up like a cannibal from the Jungle Cruise and why does everyone on this island drink orange crush? This whole segment is ridiculous and I can see why it turned a lot of people off, but I think it is all just a shaggy dog story leading up to the moment when Joe heads to the volcano and Patricia tries to stop him. She mocks his brain cloud and together they figure out that Patricia's father paid off Joe's doctor to find some poor schmuck and tell him that he was dying. Still, deep down inside, Joe is a hero and he promised to jump into the volcano so that's what he's going to do. Patricia isn't going to let the man she loves jump alone, so she takes his hand and whoosh, they jump...but a blast of hot air propels them up out of the volcano straight back out into the sea where Joe's handy luggage pops up again. As they sail off together into the moonlight, Patricia lovingly grumbles, "It's always something with you Joe, isn't it?"

There are so many amazing things that I've noticed about this movie on repeat viewings. The set design is incredible and there are all sorts of beautiful and creative repeating images - most memorably the colored lights that appear in the Mexican restaurant on Joe and DeDe's date, in the apartment windows, in the panoramic view of Los Angeles at night and later in the lanterns on the boat. I'm not sure about this, but I think all of these are related to Joe's hula lamp at the beginning of the movie. I also love that the same actress plays all three of the main female roles. Both Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan can grate on me at times, but for some reason I completely fall for them in this movie. I'm not 100% sure if this is what John Patrick Shanley intended, but I love the idea that when you love someone over a long period of time, it helps to look at it as if you're meeting them for the first time and falling in love with them all over again. Mostly, I just appreciate this movie as a reminder to let some of the small stuff in life go and to remember to look around and enjoy the adventure.

Patrick, if you've read this far, I love you very much and if I had to jump into a volcano with someone, your hand is still the one I would want to hold. I just hope we pick up some really good baggage along the way.

Boat!!!

The Boat

Maybe the eyes of a dragon or goddess
glare from its prow.

More likely it leaks, loses an oar,
and reeks of rainbows awash on a sheen
of gutted salmon and gasoline.

If it’s a liner, we lash ourselves
to whatever will float or sell.

No matter which. We choose. We’re aboard,
icebergs or no, as we plow
through the songs of the siren stars—

one boat, black water, dark whispering below.

…………………..

by Paul Fisher