A 'Current' Event

Joseph Fiennes ("Shakespeare In Love" (1998)) found himself "Against the Current" (2009) in this great independent film I just watched tonight. He played Paul, a man grieving the sudden death of his wife and unborn daughter five years earlier who decides to swim the length of the Hudson River to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. At the end of the trip, he planned to end his life, not feeling that his pain was ever going to go away. As he made his way through the cold waters, he was accompanied by boat by his sarcastic friend Jeff (Justin Kirk) and Liz, a lonely female friend from their local bar. They tried to make him see that he had a lot to live for and with more time, he would heal. Despite his sudden closeness to Liz, he felt he had nothing left to live for because his family (whom he thought of as his wife and daughter, but whom Liz thought of as his parents when they talked about 'family') were all gone. A discussion was had about whether donuts existed in Heaven or whether people who took their own lives even ended up there. Paul managed to have enthusiasm for life's little pleasures even when he knew he wouldn't, by choice, be around much longer. Jeff, acting on Paul's sudden craving, said to some local fisherman in one scene, "We're looking for hot dogs." The older fisherman said "I don't have any" and Jeff replied "Fair enough." This cracked me up. There was a lot of funny dialogue and moments in this movie, and some of that came from the great Mary Tyler Moore, in a nice cameo as Liz's eccentric and nosy mother. She babbled on about the large, grand houses in her neighborhood and the scandalous histories of the previous owners. She encouraged her single daughter to remain that way and not to be held down by marriage or a family, much like her own most well-known character, Mary Richards, on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." She pushed Paul to reveal his plans post-swimming victory, saying "People don't just do nothing. You have to do something." She also believed Paul was "gooing" on her when joking with her until her more aware daughter explained the word is "goofing." Not since 1996's "Flirting With Disaster" has Mary Tyler Moore been so amusing as a clueless mother. This was a great 'current' movie.