Maybe this time

I caught the end of the movie Somewhere In Time yesterday, and I did that thing I always do. I started yelling at the screen, "Don't look at the penny!" But he did. Why does he always have to look at the stupid penny? (If you're lost, suffice it to say there is not a happy ending.)

I'm the same way when I watch Titanic. Maybe this time they won't hit the iceberg. No, don't turn! Don't turn! If you turn, it will scrape the side of the ship and sink you! Don't... oh, man, he turned again.

Or in Romeo + Juliet, every time he just narrowly misses getting the message from the priest that Juliet is alive, I am screaming, "Go back - you just got a letter! Go back!" Or later, when her eyes flutter but he's not looking at her, "She's alive! Look! She's alive!"

What is it about these movies that makes me watch them over and over and expect a different outcome every time? I guess I'm drawn to great tragedies. Of course, I knew ahead of time what was going to happen. As the story of Somewhere In Time progresses, before he ever does the time travel thing, you know that at some point he's going to get taken away from her. Unless you live in a bubble, you know that any movie named Titanic is not going to end well. Same for Romeo and Juliet. Of course, Shakespeare is nice enough to tell you up front that they're going to die in case you haven't seen it before.

Then there are movies like The Perfect Storm. No warning. Boom, everybody's dead. I know it's based on a true story, but really, why bother getting us all invested in the lives of these fishermen just to watch them die? I won't watch that one again.

How about Ladder 49? Same deal. You get so involved in the life of this character, and then, well, he dies. I understand the point, and I actually really liked the movie, but I won't watch it again.

Or Pay It Forward. Why does the kid have to die in the end? Stupid.

So what's the difference between the ones I'll watch over and over and the ones I dismiss after one viewing even though they were good movies? I'm thinking it's the romance. All three of the first movies have a payoff. At the end of Somewhere In Time, they're together (in death). Same with Titanic. And in R+J, the director uses imagery of the two together from earlier in the film to get the same message across. Even in death, there is hope. In the last three, they're just dead. The end. No hope there.

How about you? What movies make you yell at the screen?