Silver Linings Playbook

We walked into Walgreens, me slurping the remains of an Italian ice I found in the car and Jesus berating (to himself) the parents who left their three small children unattended in their van outside. Two other couples stood ahead of us in the movie line, and we tiffed about what we should rent.

"Let's just go home and find Pain and Gain. Give it twenty minutes, if you don't like it we can watch something different," Jesus said.

I stepped out of line and started walking through the grocery aisles. "I already did give it twenty minutes. I didn't like it. I'm hungry. We're hungry. What do you want?"

He led me towards the frozen pizzas.

"No," I shook my head and walked away again. "I told you, NO frozen pizzas. If I'm gonna do pizza, I might as well make it at home."

Jesus followed, sighing. "I don't know why we're pretending we're not getting the sushi." He grabbed the party platter out of the refrigerated display case and we walked back towards the Redbox.

"I'm not eating sushi," I said. "I want something cheesy."

"Then make yourself a pizza at home, right?"

I nodded as we started paging through the movies. After taking away the Blue-Ray discs, copycat B movies,  and ubiquitous horror flicks, we were left with a sparse field of options.

"It's like the same three movies that have been in here for weeks," Jesus said.

"I'm not in the mood for muscles or guns," I said.

"Are we gonna watch Step Up: Revolution?" Jesus asked, already selecting it on the screen.

I groaned. "We've seen that already."

"I've seen it. You've not."

"No, we don't want that tonight."

By this point, the line had regenerated. Jesus glanced over his shoulder, sighed and punched the screen to select Silver Linings Playbook. It had been on my To Watch list since it came out, and all too frequently my To Watch list becomes Jesus' To Watch list. He reached for his wallet, defeated, but before he could swipe his card I selected "Use Credits."

"I got this one." I swiped, using the free movie Redbox gave me after the snafu of last weekend. "Don't be annoyed at me all night."

"I'm just tired. Today is rest day."

We drove home, where I made my pizza and Jesus had his sushi; I ate one piece. We started the movie. Jesus feigned disinterest as it began: "I hate this family. Why are they so dramatic? These parents annoy me. She cheated on you, bro, this marriage is over."

As the movie progressed, he quieted down. We started guessing at what would happen next--for those of you who haven't seen it yet, Pat (Bradley Cooper) was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and just got out of a psychiatric hospital after finding his wife in the shower with another man and subsequently beating the man nearly to death. He moves back in with his parents and tries getting his life back on track, with the goal of winning back his wife. Then he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a newly widowed woman also trying to get her life back on track. She agrees to help him reconnect with his wife if he enters a dance competition with her.

We did end up guessing the main plot line, but the journey the movie took us on was still enjoyable. The movie was funny, and after eating our moods improved greatly. We found the silver lining of a night that started off with two grumps, one hungry and one tired. Thanks, movies!