Date Night

Tonight, we tried again to date at home (who are we kidding? It is more like we both sit in front of a screen together, wondering if the night will actually go off without a hitch.). My goal was to have both little guys in bed by 8 p.m. At 8:10, I was still cleaning up the kitchen, the front room was a disaster zone of toys and my hubby was on the phone with his mother. Somehow, we managed to get them through their routines and into bed by 8:30, but then hubby wanted to shower (the nerve of the guy - wanting to be clean for a date after an afternoon of picking up garbage and sticks on our property - there's two more blogs I should write). Finally, at 9:10 we were seated in front of the screen, pushing PLAY.

The movie I had selected last week (or was it two weeks ago?) from the library was one called "Proof," starring Anthony Hopkins (whom I love), Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhaal. It is the story of a young woman who has been caring for her brilliant, but demented, father. Her father had been a mathematical genius and she had hoped to go to school in the same field, but had to leave school to care for him. He left behind many notebooks and one of his students is hoping to find something important in them.

I guess the thing I liked most about this film was the exploration of relationships. Caring for anyone, no matter how much you love the individual, is often taxing and stressful. I enjoyed watching the relationship between father (Hopkins) and daughter (Paltrow). I enjoyed the tensions between the daughter who has cared for her father all this time and the daughter who has been out of the picture and comes in to make sweeping decisions at the end. I liked that the story was developed gradually and built with intensity. I am always interested in the way brilliance often brings with it forms of mental instability (not that I'm claiming to be brilliant, those of you who are reading this, thinking "she's a bit mentally unstable" - smile).

As for our evening? Ah well, we tried. I don't know if hubby liked the movie or not. Little guys fussed a bit in the background. ES decided that he had to be on the computer (which is purposely kept out in the family viewing area) - so he was seated directly next to the television screen. About 40 minutes into the movie, our DVD player began to freeze (a problem we struggle with from time to time). Unfortunately, it happened just as an intimate moment was unfolding (the movie is PG-13, but hey, he's not 13 and we really don't want him viewing that). My husband was trying to fix the problem (which I felt only drew more attention to the screen). In frustration, I opened the player and removed the DVD and began to get out our portable to connect to the TV. We forwarded it, by scene selection, to the point just prior to this scene and told ES he needed to brush his teeth and head to bed. Of course, just as the scene picked up again (and on this player, it will only FF to the next scene), ES came out to whine about having to head to bed so early, claiming it is, technically, still spring break. By the time the movie ended, it was close to 11 (even though it is only 99 minutes long) and hubby had been up since 5 a.m., so he muttered, "I'm heading to bed." I felt like saying "I had a good time, too; we should do this again." I held my tongue.

It would be really nice if I could send my hubby and our three boys off to Chuck-E-Cheese's with Andy and their 5 kids, so that Renee and I could sit and watch this together. Not that I'm wanting to date Renee instead of my husband, but she would have enjoyed this film with me. Of course, that would mean that they would have to drive down to IN again. And that the husbands would have to be willing to watch the kids. And that everyone would have to be in good health. And that we would actually have a working DVD player to use. What are the chances of that?