Too many dark movies

So I've been watching all kinds of movies this week... The Prestige, the Illusionist, Pans Labyrinth... A lot of dark stuff, I wouldn't say the Illusionist is actually all that dark, but at the end it feels like they did something pretty sinister. The Prestige was really messed up. Not heartbreaking, just disturbing, even the wife that hangs herself in the studio, doesn't break your heart so much as disturb. Hugh Jackman's character ends up being the worst, so drivin by revenge he will sacrafice anyone to it, even himself in a sense, all those clones were probably just like him... He killed himself over and over again. Why? What is the purpose of the story? To be dark and clever? It certainly is clever, but I didn't care about any of the characters, accept the little girl, and just a little, we didn't get much of her. She was the only thing Christian Bales character wouldn't sacrafice to the secret, but everything else, even his own brother... I guess it was kind of like one person with two bodies. In the end he gave up his second life.

But Pan's Labyrinth was special. It had some very precious and beautiful characters who I grew to love deeply and characters (well, one really) that I truly hated, The Captain. It was gratifying to see him injured and to see him die and on top of that with that stupification after Mercedes delivers the most powerful line in the movie. Fuck yeah! Destroyed by the two women he dismissed! They were two of the strongest characters in the movie. Definitely gruesome, I closed my eyes a good deal, but the sound effects were quite suggestive and gross, like they made a point of making the noises as gross as possible. Really helped my imagination along. Eh. One thing from that movie really hangs around in my mind, that baby devouring wasted looking naked nonhuman beast thing with the eyes in its hands. Her fantasy world was just as dark as the real world she was escaping sometimes even darker, and so dangerous.

I guess I thought I might have more in mind to say, but I don't... I just keep thinking about how important Pan's Labyrinth is to my brother, which is why I went to see it. He said the heartbreak and the pain reminded him that he was alive, that he came back to the movie three times just to see her (Ofelia) living. I got to talk to him a lot about the movie, but there was one question I never got to ask. Why did the heartbreak and pain make him feel so alive? I think that is one of those things I only vaguely understand with my mind, and don't grasp with my heart.