Good Luck, Chuck

A few nights ago, I took the family out to the movies. A couple of points come to mind when I think of this little outing:

First, both the wife and I were absolutely flipping exhausted Saturday night. I wanted to take a bath and watch some TV and be asleep by 10 p.m. Didn't happen that way. The kids wanted to go to a movie and, well, I'm a softie. So, we went. As always, you regret more the things you didn't do than those you did. Very glad we went to the movies because we all laughed our butts off at Dane Cook in Good Luck Chuck.

Second, let me give a little synopsis of the flick:

Dane Cook plays a bachelor who was "hexxed" by some little Goth girl when he was 10 years old. During a knock down, drag out game of spin the bottle, Dane's character got placed with a girl who he wasn't at all interested in kissing. When she got rejected, she used her powers to hex him into never finding love. Yet, the strange thing was, after Dane's character slept with a woman, the next man she'd meet would be her true love. Hence, Dane's adult character had gaggles of women lining up to sleep with him...not because of he himself, but because they wanted to find their dream man. So, Dane's character, Chuck, is going at it like a rabbit with hundreds of women....until, as in all good love stories, he finds a girl-THE girl. He then realizes all the casual sex he's been having isn't fulfilling and wants to get with "the girl"...but how do you hook up with her when tthe hex is in place? Of course, if he goes too far with her, it means the next man after Chuck will be her true love. Oh, the dilemmas!

When we got home, Marvelyne and I were discussing the movie. She made a good point that led to an interesting discussion; Dane/Chuck found out he wasn't satisfied by all the casual sex, but there was not point 1 made about it being wrong or emotionally harmful or anything less than, well, just sex.

In our world, morality is kind of a sliding scale. We can't place our morality on other people or else we're not being accepting and understanding(or so some would have us believe) There was an entire scene where Dane's character is just making it with woman after woman after woman...and the worst thing? It has nothing to do with Dane/Chuck as a person, nor is it about the woman as a person-it's a means to an end. The women want to get past Dane/Chuck...some so quick that they have dinner plans with someone immediately after they do the deed. Dane is just enjoying it, but is really looking for something more. So, it's the typical case of using another human being.

One may argue that Dane's character and the women are all adults partaking in consentual, safe sexual relationships. And one may be right. I still have to wonder if it's healthy emotionally(and yes, I DO realize this is a fictional movie), but it's not so different from how some people live. Is it emotionally healthy to try to rack up as many partners as possible? Is it emotionally healthy to use another person, for either party? Is it emotionally healthy to bolster one's ego like this?

I'll let Dr. Drew or Dr. Ruth be the judge of this. Or other experts who know human psychie better than I. Still, interesting food for thought when you're spending a Saturday night at the movies.