Thursday, July 22, 2010

Dumb but decorative


My friend Lizzie and I declared lastnight Take Your Mom to the Movies Night. Both of us took our moms to Movieland 8 to see "Letters To Juliet." We were joined by my niece Rosie and her mom, my sister Katie.

"Letters To Juliet" was sweet and the scenery was beautiful. Vanessa Redgrave was more beautiful and toned than I will ever be even though she is twice my age.

But one thing.

While I enjoy the many movies that glamorize newspapers and magazines, the young writer in this movie, Sophie -- that is she in the picture above -- was not convincingly smart.

Here she is trying to looks smart.


But she just seemed dumb, I am sorry.

They tried to make a joke out of all her "Omigods" and "awesomes" but smart people do not talk like that.

In movies this kind of thing always works like when you get a computer virus. Some thing blinks up on your computer and you are supposed to take it seriously and take some kind of action when -- what's that? A misspelling. There is always something to clue you in that it is a fraud.

Likewise with the young woman in this movie.

She is supposed to have gone to Brown University with a minor in Latin. Yeah, right. Especially when she all of a sudden says, "I used to lay in the grass when I was a kid and ..."

It's "lie," not "lay," honey.

It is like that other chick in that other movie who said "hung" and not "hanged." They try to pass themselves off as these brainiacs but something is always there that does not add up.

Bad grammar just gives you away. I used to notice with Leonard Pennario his grammar was impeccable. I am not saying mine is but I am not Leonard Pennario.

Also I do not go around like the woman in this movie trying to tell people I minored in Latin at Brown.

1 comment:

Larry said...

Grammar is a funny thing. My mother (RIP) and later, my aunt, used to stay on me about mine. I have a double whammy working. First, I know little about it, having just squeaked through high school and pulling out a 'D' in English. Second, I often choose to use my native 'Appalachian talk and slang' which is grammar at its worst but that is just who I am. What you see (and hear) is what you get, lol.