take me to the volcano! 

dinner at the pizza palace totally rocked last night. i cannot rave enough about their calzones. especially right now, because i'm eating the leftover half as i type this. yum yum yum.

i knew all day long exactly what i was going to order, but when lisa & mary held their menus and half-heartedly considered the calzone i of course egged them on to the point where they both broke down, weeping, under the pressure. mary wanted to know if she should also order a salad with her calzone and i said, "NO! the calzone is as big as your torso." the waiter laughed and agreed. it's damn big. a big, fine calzone.

during dinner we were discussing the word flibbertigibbet (probably because our server likely thought he was waiting on 3 of them), so of course into my head popped my favorite movie of all time, joe vs. the volcano. angelica (the 2nd meg ryan character) very boldly tells joe (tom hanks) that she is a flibbertigibbet, hand poised coyly at the side of her mouth.

i mentioned to lisa & mary that i've developed a yearly tradition for myself with joe, and i hadn't yet watched the film this birthday. lisa immediately suggested we finish our second pitcher of beer and go watch the DVD at my house. which totally thrilled me. seriously. i love this movie so much (i once got hired at a video store because i wrote it down as one of my favorite movies and the manager couldn't believe my moxie)... to watch it with close friends is really a fulfilling experience for me.

as a birthday tradition, the movie really kicks me in the pants. as soon as i start to mope, "oh shit, i'm getting old," i hear patricia (the 3rd meg character) say:

My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.

i try to stay awake. it's hard sometimes, though. for me, this movie reminds me to take a leap every once in a while. it also reminds me that everyone walks down a long & crooked road... but if you're lucky you get a jolt to help you get off that road. and onto a boat to the south pacific.

that sounds like total fruitcake psychobabble, i know. and it probably is. but even though the movie really works well on that deeper level (just look for the long & winding road; it appears as the sidewalk to the medical supply company, the cracks in the plaster in joe's house, the lightning bolt that strikes the tweedle dee, and the path up the volcano), it's also an utterly goofy romantic comedy. one of my very favorite character actors, dan hedaya, plays mr.waturi, joe's boss, who is heard yelling into the phone, over and over, "I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?" the sheer repetition of this line reduces me to giggles every time.

then there's ossie davis as joe's limo driver, marshall:

Marshall: What kinda clothes do you got now?

Joe Banks: Well, I got the kinda clothes I'm wearing.

Marshall: So you got no clothes.

lisa's favorite part is the luggage salesman (played by barry mcgovern):

Luggage Salesman: This is our premier steamer trunk. It's all handmade, only the finest materials. It's even watertight, tight as a drum. If I had the need, and the wherewithal, Mr. Banks, this would be my trunk of choice.

Joe Banks: I'll take four of them.

Luggage Salesman, solemnly: May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.

this film also features nathan lane, abe vigoda & lloyd bridges. why it never got more press is beyond me.

it's a total love-story/fairy-tale, but also manages to dig a helluva lot deeper. it's a really great film... and here's why:

joe says blearily, after days stranded on a raft, "Dear God, whose name I do not know... thank you for my life. I forgot... how big. Thank you... thank you for my life."

go watch it.

Posted by xta at February 24, 2004 03:37 PM | TrackBack