It was Friday night, so we had the typical shabu-shabu outing followed by a movie. Only this week it was Indy’s birthday and we saw Syriana. And honestly, none of us understood that movie no matter how hard we tried. Tell me, do I need to go into these politically-charged movies having prepared in advance? Where does one go about purchasing Cliff-Notes to Deep and Profound Movies, because I could seriously use a book like that.

Last week, Indy, Anatoly and I walked into The Matador completely unaware of what the movie was about and we were 1) very much able to understand the basic plot and 2) pleasantly surprised by our film experience. This time, although I tried very hard to believe that Matt Damon could possibly be that intelligent-sounding even some of the time, it was difficult to appreciate the film. Mostly, I just couldn’t keep track of all 30 characters and their intricate subplots. Maybe I was tired. Maybe it was Friday and I was just lazy and unwilling to think too much about Saudi Arabian succession and why they did not have a tradition of following primogeniture. Maybe I just wanted to be entertained by a movie slightly less depressing than Traffic that did not contain graphic scenes of violence towards an overweight George Clooney. *sigh*

I need an annotated hypertext version of Syriana so I can understand what I just watched, because I’m not planning on watching it 5 more timese to figure it out. I keep thinking people enjoy this film due to the “French is so beautiful” effect. Things are sometimes prettier because we don’t understand them.