spoiler alert

No, I'm not spoiling anything here today. Unless you were unaware that such flicks as The Crying Game, Million Dollar Baby and anything by M. Night Shyamalan have twists. I promise not to tell you what they are, however.

I like to catch National Public Radio whenever I'm in the car on the weekend -- make that, whenever I'm in the car and I don't have a wee one issuing a strong preference for kiddie tunes. We've expanded our Veggie Tales collection enough so that we don't go tomato and cuke-crazy listening to the same CD all the time, but it's still nice to listen to "adult" entertainment.

I would prefer to hear Garrison Keillor, but Car Talk is a nice diversion as well.
Sometimes, though, I hear something completely random that is often thought-provoking, and/or completely bizarre. One time it was a collection of voices, all giving their opinion or experience with abortion. Another time, it was the fifty thousandth iteration of something about intolerance toward gays. Oh, and how stupid certain Christians are about it. I'm not going to argue against that point, but it still really irked me to listen to it. The disbelief that ANYONE could be so INTOLERANT. Well, I don't know how I feel about it all, and darnit, I'm going to defend my right NOT to have a strong opinion. But I really, really get annoyed when people tell me what an idiot I must be not to have X opinion. Ooookay.

This weekend, in my four-minute drive to Michael's Arts and Crafts (I hit both lights -- darnit! but they did have the scrapbook stickers and frames that I wanted -- on sale!), the question was posed: What's the statute of limitations on giving away a trick ending? "Can we tell people that Rosebud's a sled?" wondered the editorialist. (oops, I DID spoil that one. But I didn't tell you which movie that's from, so HA.) She apparently got blasted by some viewer ignorant of the plotline of Million Dollar Baby, which she gave away in a previous on-the-air discussion. I was spoiled to that one by our local Express -- that's what I get for reading it.

What do you think?

Well, if you INSIST, I'll give you my opinion: There's really never a reason to give away any twist. Unless there IS a reason. Now, in the case of MDB, the issue at hand is a really controversial one, and NO I WON'T TELL YOU WHAT IT IS. So I can see a lot of interest and discussion being generated. I'm not even super sure how I feel about THE TWIST and THE RESULTING, UTTERLY DEPRESSING LAST ONE-THIRD OF THE MOVIE, though I will say I was pretty steamed when it happened. I wanted to see how things would go for her otherwise! Oh, well. Not my story to tell. And, as the radio lady said, it won last year's Academy Award. It's out on DVD. When is it safe to assume that whoever's interested -- and insistent on being kept in the dark -- has been there, done that?

(funny side note -- when my brother and I were in, oh, junior high or so, my parents took us to the Shakespeare festival in Ashland, Ore. Great time, nice little town. We went to see Romeo and Juliet. My brother didn't know how it ended, and didn't want to know... Weird.)

But I'm the type who loves to spoil myself, anyway. It's almost too excruciating to be on the wild ride of a movie in which you don't know what will happen. I wasn't sure I could handle the last half hour of Cinderella Man, and not because it was a long movie. Because I thought ... well, never mind. I'll leave you unspoiled 'til it comes out on DVD.