I have been very poor at this entry writing thing lately. I attribute this to many things including: not a whole lot of excitement in my life and a new obsession with crimelibrary.com . Not good excuses, but there they are.

I was inspired to write this entry by a couple of movies I watched recently—The Missing and Mona Lisa Smile. I was definitely moved by both of them and greatly enjoyed watching each of them for very different reasons, though they shared some key concepts.

The Missing was set in 1800’s New Mexico and the movie was entirely filmed there. Cate Blanchette (I think I got the right one—I always confuse her name with Winslet—but it not the one from Titanic) played a healer who lived on a desolate ranch with two daughters and two ranch hands—one of whom was her somewhat covert lover. Well, a band of Apaches sweeps through and kills both the ranch hands and kidnaps one of her daughters to sell in Mexico. Enter Tommy Lee Jones who plays Cate’s estranged father. Together, Tommy Lee, Cate and Cate’s remaining daughter travel in search of Cate’s kidnapped girl. Now, I cannot lie—some of the movie bordered on cheesy, but the cinematography was beautiful and some of the scenes were wrenching. I was mostly struck by a notion brought up by Cate Blanchette in one of the interviews about the movie. She talked about how these pioneer women weren’t necessarily seeking happiness, but rather survival. I kept thinking about how hard that would be to want to survive with no expectations of happiness.

Strangely enough the idea came back to me as I was watching Mona Lisa Smile. Julia Roberts plays an art instructor who comes to teach at Wellesley in the 1950’s. She struggles to help the young women in her classes understand that they have more to gain from their educations than a Mrs. degree. Kirsten Dunst played Betty, a very mean spirited traditional student who gave Julia’s character trouble at every turn. As it turned out, Betty’s mother seemed to think that her daughter should just settle for survival and a nice house and husband rather than seeking happiness.

Both movies had such extraordinarily strong female characters who really ignored the societal norms of their times. I feel lucky that I don’t face the pressures these women faced and I am fairly free (despite the burden of school loans) to seek happiness as elusive as it may seem sometimes.

Love to all.