Tiny Dancer

There is an interesting little commentary on the AV Club today regarding the "Tiny Dancer" scene from Almost Famous. It's a pretty good movie, and that's a defining moment in the film. The comment basically uses the scene as an example of how powerful it can be when a song is linked to a (well-done) scene in a movie.

Of this I totally agree. Even when it's obvious; the scene in Say Anything is like the grand dame of this kind of movie moment.

But it's interesting to look in the comments to the article and see that, while popular opinion tends to skew about 70-30 in favor of Almost Famous (or that scene in particular), there are plenty who found it hackneyed, trite or falsely uplifting.

Which brings us to today's lesson! Movies that have "moments" or are geared towards pulling on certain emotional responses are routinely savaged by critics or various hipster idiots (like myself). Mostly this is because it is difficult to create genuine emotion in that way, without resorting to slimier tactics--and music with an obvious emotional element can be one such effective tactic.

But the effectiveness of a movie's attempt to create a "magical moment" is two-fold: one part director's skill and one part audience interpretation. The audience's capacity for being moved is just as important as the director/actors ability to create the right moment.

That's why some movies, which suck, can still move some people to tears, even while I sit there wondering what time it is. Those folks, for whatever reason, are more open to such sentiment and won't mind how ham-handed the delivery happens to be. A good example of this is the movie Hope Floats, which while supremely boring, has one particular scene in which Sandra Bullock's daughter breaks down as her dad leaves. It's tough, and the scene is almost pulled off because the actress really gives it her all. It did not move me greatly, but some people were just weeping openly.

This is a long-winded way of saying that while a movie can be "bad" or "good", the effectiveness of any given scene is as dependent on what the viewer is bringing to the table as it is on the quality of the film. If there's some movie that everyone seems to love but you can't stand, consider that perhaps it's you, not the movie.