Les Misérables / Bright Pizzas

So Em's birthday plans got rearranged because we all got sick a couple weeks ago. She finally got to have her sleepover party part tonight. Awake over, really, I can here them as I write this, well past my own bedtime, and I doubt they're going to sleep any time soon.

So part of the birthday deal, I took Em to Les Misérables. She kind of got me hooked the other day with a concert presentation of the music from it she has on DVD.

We were early for the movie, and there was a Trader Joe's right there. I still needed toppings for the pizza I planned to make when we got home, so I went in to get them and Em and her friend stayed in the car. They said they were going to hijack my camera while I was in there, and I guess they kind of did.

Going into the movie, I grabbed a heavy stack of napkins, over an inch thick. Buttered popcorn inspires me to take quite a few, but I'm also getting over a bit of a cold so I figured I might need a few extras for nose-blowing. I had no idea.

The first time I found myself actively crying was when Anne Hathaway is singing after being reduced to selling hair, teeth and her body to save her kid. I was really surprised at my reaction, I kind of knew the story going in, after all. Then Em's friend was asking me if I could spare one of these napkins and I realized that not only was she crying, too, the man sitting next to me was also sniffling.

It's not so much the deaths that worked me over, it's the lives of the characters, the way they surprise me. The bishop who gives Valjean the stolen silver plus more, Valjean's willingness to sacrifice for Cosette, Gavroche's foolish bravado, these are all compelling characters.

But the reconciliation of Valjean to his true identity in the end, I couldn't maintain through that at all. Let alone the barricades in the end. I should probably resent having my emotions manipulated so wildly, but in the end I needed more napkins.

They should wait longer to bring up the houselights after a movie like this, some of us aren't tough enough to pull it together in a couple of minutes.

After, we came home and I made nukular green prosciutto, black olive, alfredo pizza and a purple pepperoni.

I'm still not sure what I think of Les Miz. Is it entertaining to sit in the dark and cry?