Because I spent so long at the garden this afternoon, I didn’t make it to a bookstore today. But, keeping in mind it was Indie Bookstore Day, I pulled up The Bookshop on Kanopy. What a mistake that was!

First up, let me say that the setting and the acting was phenomenal. However, what a bleak movie!

Which brings me to a larger, long-time musing of mine: Why do people want to watch movies (or read books) with depressing stories and demoralizing endings? I can see slogging through a gloomy movie if the ending brings a turn of fortune, a payoff galore for a character who’d persevered through wretched circumstances. But I cannot understand why you’d want that character to just … come to terms with being downtrodden. I mean, who wants to watch It’s a Wonderful Life if George Bailey goes to jail?

I know there’s the argument that it helps you come to terms with real life. What a crappy reason! Why would I want to come to terms with the idea that life is just going to keep sucking as much as it does at my lowest? Or that, hey, my life isn’t so bad, because it could be so much worse!

I watch movies and read books because I want to believe life can be better. That people can be kinder. That situations can be overcome. That circumstances can improve. If it’s just going to be all bleakness and “at least I’m not them!” I might as well just go to sleep instead of giving myself over to the story. At least that would get me some rest in my escapism.

Do you like unhappy movies or books? Can you shed some light on this?