When is a tearjerker not a tearjerker?
, I returned to the trailer for Steven Spielberg’s latest film. I had first seen the preview last autumn when it was released stateside, filing it under “tearjerker”: a glassy-eyed Michelle Williams uttering that “movies are dreams that you never forget”, a twinkly, soaring score, rolling footage of family car-rides and camping trips, a dash of high school trauma, first love. At our screening, Spielberg introduced the film as “$40 million worth of therapy”.
At its centre is Sammy’s obsession with filmmaking. The movie opens with his first trip to the cinema to watchwith his parents. A scene of a train crash transfixes him: Sammy won’t rest until he’s able to recreate it with a toy train and a camera bought for him by his dad. The hobby, both obsession and calling, takes hold. After the family moves from New Jersey to Arizona, he enlists his boy scout pals to collect scorpions which they trade for money to buy film.
Spielberg’s therapy comment turns out to be apt. Many of the stories are so specific – falling in love with a girl who is obsessed with Jesus, to take one baffling example – it feels like we are in session with the filmmaker. Perhaps the film provided Spielberg with break-throughs. Other people’s breakthroughs are not always thrilling to watch. Details are good, essential even, but this singularity is jarring.
When a film fails in its ambitions to make you cry, it can be considered a failure. Perhaps the actors didn’t do their jobs, maybe the writers were feeling uninspired. The director had an off day. Some people, this writer included, go to the cinema for that moment: it’s dark, no one can see you in row D, why not? It feels good feeling sad. And the name Spielberg sets you up for that:
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