do you believe in destiny?

i watched 'letters to juliet' last night, and it wasn't much to write home about. amanda seyfried is all kinds of gorgeous (how do people that beautiful even exist?) but that doesn't make up for what was ultimately a flimsy story. this movie had the scenic vistas and rolling hills of tuscany going for it and really makes you want to go to italy. amanda and the man she is supposed to fall for had no chemistry whatsoever and their hating each other when first meeting seemed so cliché to me. i guess that's why i'm not in the habit of watching too many romantic comedies. The best and most tender scene had to be when Vanessa Redgrave’s character, Claire, was brushing Sophie’s (Amanda’s ) hair. It was a loving moment and one that was emotional because of the audience learning about Sophie having been abandoned by her mother when she was nine years old.

The movie made me realize how much I miss writing too. Sophie is a fact checker for a New York magazine in the movie but she really is a writer trying to get her start in publishing. Seeing scenes of her writing in a journal in a beautiful outdoor backdrop of Italy filled me with deep envy, and longing for the way I used to be. I thought about how much pleasure I used to take in writing all the time and in thinking of myself as a writer. I wondered why I always let things get in the way of that simple act, even though I know that writing is what I most love to do, and what I would still do (even more so) if I didn’t have to work for a living. For someone to actually pay me for my writing would be like a dream come true, and wouldn’t seem like a job at all.

At the end of ‘letters to Juliet,’ Sophie takes a story she wrote about the adventure of helping Claire find her long lost love in Italy to her editor/boss in New York, and it gets published by the magazine. What an amazing feeling that must be, having something published that you’ve written. I may have to watch this movie again simply for the inspiration it gave me to keep writing, or I should say, go back to writing on a more regular basis. I think tonight I’ll listen to the director’s and amanda’s audio commentary track to see if they have any writing tidbits in there, or more information about the lovely locations where shooting took place. It must be amazing to be a young actress and get to travel to these exotic locations to shoot movies with beautiful people and spend entire days outdoors in a lush countryside. Too bad the script wasn’t as poetic as the locale.

there's a scene towards the beginning of the movie where Sophie's fiance tells her that she must write because that is her passion. i thought, yeah, it's mine too, so why am i living my life being someone that i'm not?

on a random note:

here's a link to an intriguing photo blog i found today-

http://bferry.wordpress.com/