I went to see No Reservations with a friend last night and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The plot isn't exactly original, but it was done so well that it didn't even matter. And it's a remake to boot. But this post isn't really about the movie as much as it is about one particular scene. Just to set the stage, here's a blurb about the movie from the Yahoo! Movies website: "A top notch female chef's life is turned upside-down when she must care of her niece after her sister is killed. She now has to adapt to a different lifestyle and uses food as a means to express her roller-coaster life."
On to the scene I want to talk about. Kate (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) is the "top notch female chef" and Zoe (played by Abigail Breslin) is her niece. One of the ways that Kate and Zoe bond after Zoe's mother dies is to play a game of Monopoly. For the record, Kate's love interest was present in the scene too, but that doesn't really matter for the sake of this post. As I watched the scene unfold, and saw Kate land on Free Parking, a scene from my own life flashed before my eyes. My Dad used to play Monopoly with my sister and I on the weekends. My parents divorced when I was young. So, sometimes my sister and I spent time with Dad on the weekends.
He had this "house rule" about landing on Free Parking. If you did it, you got all of the money in the middle of the board. The money came from the sale of property and the paying of taxes and fees. So it was sort of like hitting the lottery that was funded by the bank. We had so much fun over the years wishing and cheering for a certain number to turn up on the dice with the hopes of landing on Free Parking. And much like Kate and Zoe bonded over the simplest of things, Dad bonded with my sister and I.
I haven't thought about any of that in years. This is one of the many reasons I love the arts so much. When art is done genuinely, it not only reminds, but it also validates, and encourages, and speaks deeply to all who will listen.
