I Am Legend

Not me, the movie. I finally saw it yesterday (lame, I know) On Demand. It was well worth the $5 I put into the slot machine. The whole theme of the movie was quite appropriate for the weekend I was wrapping up. I took Thursday and Friday off work (personal days) to do absolutely nothing, and it was amazing. I hibernated on Thursday, and then caught a movie (Smart People with SJP) and a museum (the New Museum on Bowery) solo on Friday. My much-needed time alone was nothing in comparison to Robert Neville’s (Will Smith) three years alone in Legend, but it (the film and my weekend) served to remind me of how important human interaction is in my (and everyone’s) life.

The basic plot (which obviously intrigues me or I wouldn’t be sharing with you):

After the spread of a lethal virus, Will Smith’s character (a U.S. Army virologist Lieutenant Colonel) is left (three years after the outbreak) fearing he may be the last healthy human in not only New York City, but possibly the entire world.

By the end of the first year following the infection, more than 90% of the planet's human population died; over 9% were infected, but did not die. The remaining 1% (around 6.7 million), were immune to the virus, but were hunted and killed by the infected, killed by fellow survivors or committed suicide due to isolation.

The isolation Neville experiences is broken only by the companionship of his dog Sam, interaction with mannequins he has set up as patrons of a video store, and recordings of old news and entertainment broadcasts. His attempts to facilitate the human interaction and reaction that he desperately missed and longed for (and fundamentally needed) struck a chord with me.

No matter how good you get at being alone, it will never make you feel as good as being part of a real human connection. As you might have gathered from my last sentence, my recent/current attempt to feel my feelings has been mildly successful. And I’ve learned that when you don’t allow yourself to feel for a while, it’s quite difficult to discern what you’re feeling when an emotion seeps through the cracks of the wall you have created. Needless to say, I haven’t been feeling like myself lately.

I must say it feels good to feel again. I just wonder how long this phase is going to last. Surely it’s not permanent. As always, we shall see.

For the record…

Commentary on Smart People – SJP wasn’t very believable as the love interest of Dennis Quaid (who is looking ROUGH), but Ellen Page saved it with her great one-liners and portrayal of a Young Republican/over-achiever in suburban Pittsburgh. I guess Page, and Ashton Holmes, who plays her (cute, in the suburban kind of way) brother, was worth the $12.

Commentary on the New Museum – Amateurish. That’s all I got. It felt like parents night at my elementary school, without the HDs (hot dads). That $12 was ill-spent. Oh well, they tried. Well, at least I did.