Out of the Fog

Connor took a date to see Stephen King's "The Mist." Me, I am not a scary flick kinda guy. The thought of the kid dating is scary enough.

I drop off. I pick up.

They saw Beowulf the week before. Connor didn't like it. He wouldn't say that to his date in case she did, but he told me later.

Connor and his sister are quite the movie critics. They get into all kinds of stuff from writing to lighting and acting and direction. If they are any indication the animation techniques of Beowulf are not the wave of the future. However, I think they may have more discerning tastes than the average teen.

So, I was looking forward to the Stephen Kind review. I was a tad concerned that the review may suffer from the classic strategy of choosing a scary flick for a date as a reason to sit comfortingly close. It may however be that Connor likes dates because they involve movies more than movies because they involve dates. I don't know.

Anyway I need not have worried. I got a heated review.

He hated the ending. Ranted about it as soon as he got into the car, her views not withstanding. So after we dropped her off and he escorted her to the door while I discreetly turned the car around I got the details, movie details, the date is their business.

Seeing how I'll never see the film, he explained the movie on the way home. You may see it, so I'll skip over the details. Suffice it to say it turned out that Connor was of the opinion that the father didn't defend his family up to Connor's standards. "I would fight for my kids!"

I got to thinking about how a 14 year old comes to that opinion of fatherhood. Maybe all the bad times, struggles and tears standing up for proper care of his diabetes in school left a mark. Thinking back through the fog of that time I remember thinking about that. Maybe this turned out not to be the scary movie I was worried about.

The idea of dates is still a bit unsettling and I still don't like Stephen King but the movie review was a nice Christmas present.