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I knew about this movie years ago but I have never watched it until now.
Since this is based on a memoir, I'm sure this will be respectful representation of people with developmental disabilities.
Our first problem is the title. It's in Comic Sans. This is going to be a painful one.
The movie starts with a bus driving and a pan over Beth's quirky room. She's quirky. Get used to that.
There is a parallel shot of Beth and Rachel waking up. Beth jumps out of bed and runs to the bathroom, with Rachel stretches and walks slowly to the mirror. Get it? They are comparing the way Beth and Rachel wake up. Because Beth has a developmental disability. And Rachel does not. This movie is clever.
Rachel is working out, while beth goes outside to yell at the mailman, who gazes at her. Beth puts on on a tweety-bird shirt, while Rachel takes off her workout shirt. First we have the mail gaze, now we have the male gaze.
Despite the name of this blog, I'm allowed to make fun of the misogyny in movies too, right?
Beth goes downstairs, while her neighbor yells at her for clomping down the stairs "like a hippopotamus" She gets on the bus, where a man snaps at her for riding on the bus all day on government dole and tells her to do something useful with her life.
subtle
adjective sub·tle
Simple Definition of subtle
: hard to notice or see : not obvious
: clever and indirect : not showing your real purpose
: having or showing skill at recognizing and understanding things that are not obvious
Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
Rachel is photographing a scene with a bride, some children, and puppies. The bride is allergic to the puppies and complains that the dress is 98 pounds. Is there any joy in this movie?
Beth gets back on the bus. The woman next to her moves away and a man calls her a retard.
We keep cutting back and forth between Rachel's day as a photographer and Beth's quest to buy a toilet seat. Rachel is stressed out and Beth is happy. Rachel goes to dinner with her boyfriend and they talk about having a baby and then getting married in a few years. Her boyfriend says he just wants them to enjoy life.Then we cut to Beth dancing. I think we can get the idea without switching back and forth every few minutes.
Beth's...caretaker, I think, tells Beth that her father had a heart-attack and they go on a bus to the hospital. Beth runs screaming through the hospital and starts yelling. A nurse says her father is in a coma. Beth holds her father's hand and screams. Then she sits on a park bench and eats a bagel. Okay.
Bath calls Rachel and tells her that their father is dead. Wouldn't they hospital contact both of them? Cut to the funeral, where everyone throws dirt on the coffin. Rachel holds the dirt in her hand for a few seconds before throwing it in the grave. Beth refuses on the grounds (ha, ha) that you shouldn't throw dirt on people. I haven't seen such a powerful story about challenging religious traditions since I saw a middle-school performance of fiddler on the roof. Cut to a flashback. We know it is a flashback because the colors are faded. Young Beth is eating dirt next to young Rachel. Their mother comes out and tells Rachel that because Beth is different, she has to take care of her forever. End flashback. I can just imagine the writers thinking "This is way too subtle for the average person to understand. Let's put giant neon signs that say 'THE PART IS CLEVER' in the movie"
At the reception, Beth says that she didn't want to throw dirty ground on her father. Rachel, their brother, and Beth's two caretakers talk about what to do with Beth now that her father is dead. One caretaker says Beth doesn't want a job, she just wants to ride the bus. This movie does a lot of things wrong, but wasting time is not one of them. Rachel says that Beth needs a lot of supervision. Cut to a flashback of Young Beth choking and people trying to resuscitate her. Get it? It's a flashback that directly supports the claim that Beth needs supervision. I would be so confused without these scenes.
Beth's brother leaves and Beth and Rachel live together in the same house. Beth says that there's a sale on soda and Rachel asks whether the only reason she wanted to have her move in is so she can help carry soda. This could go Riding the Bus With My Sister or this could go Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Rachel is on the couch looking through an old photo album. One of the pictures starts moving, indicating a flashback of Beth and Rachel having fun.
Rachel comes back with a black car, which Beth dislike. They go grocery shopping, and Beth picks out junk food. While loading groceries, Beth leaves the shopping cart in the middle of the sidewalk. Rachel tells her to move it because someone could get hurt and Beth replies "So? I don't know someone." I guess sociopathy is funny if the person has a quirky developmental disability?
ANOTHER FLASHBACK of their mom yelling at Rachel because Beth started eating paint. I think my first college term papers had less padding than this movie.
Beth and Rachel are riding the bus. 33 minutes and we finally have our title.
I'm only a little over half an hour into the movie.
Beth scares some kids away and she says she can't have kids because her tubes were tied. Then she asks if the bus driver likes marshmallows. Then they start talking about men. I hate this movie.
Beth and Rachel go to talk to office of the caretakers to talk about what to do now that her father is dead. Her cholesterol is high, she hasn't been to a dentist in years, etc.
Flashback to their father running away to their mistress. Okay.
The caretakers ask whether Beth wants to take a class or go to therapy. Beth says no, and her goal is to go to Disneyworld. Rachel snaps at her and asks if she can do something more productive than riding the bus all day. The caretakers says that riding the bus is good for developing Beth's friendships. The caretakers tell Rachel to live with Beth until she can get on her feet, despite Rachel's insistence that she has a demanding career as a professional photographer. Am I supposed to see Rachel as the bad guy? She's the only likable character.
Rachel says she can live away from Beth and send checks, but Beth says she gets money from the government. An old woman comes up and asks Beth how to get somewhere via bus. Beth gives intricate directions on when and where to catch a bus and when to transfer. Gee, I wonder whether this will come back later and make Rachel appreciate her sister.
But we need some more time before that brilliantly planted Chekov's gun fires. Rachel asks whether Beth wants to go to home, which she doesn't. Then they ride the bus, and Rachel sees how much everyone on the bus likes Beth.
Apparently, Rachel has never told her boyfriend about Beth, which is why she didn't invite him to the funeral. So now nobody in the move is likable. Her boyfriend, Sam, gets angry and walks away.
Another flashback of Beth looking at Rachel as she leaves the schoolbus. Rachel looks embarrassed and their mom scolds Rachel and tells her that Beth will almost be part of their family and she will never place her in a home. I think their mom already watched this movie so she can give the most specifically relevant advice in each flashback.
Rachel goes to a bus station near a park where she knows Beth is. Beth is watching this man named Jesse do martial arts. Rachel asks if she can take same pictures. Romance subplot commence?
Rachel takes a picture of Beth holding a "cookie mountain" Whimsical.
Rachel decides to move in. She said she broke up with her boyfriend so she could be a better sister. Um...
Rachel, Beth and Jesse go to dinner. Beth says the restaurant doesn't like her because she goes in to use to bathroom.
Beth annoys the waitress (and the audience), then goes to the bathroom. Rachel and Jesse flirt. The whole boyfriend sacrifice loses significance when she can just get a new one in the next scene. Beth reminds Jesse not to drink wine because of his medicine.
Now Beth is annoying and tells all the bus drivers that her sister broke up with her boyfriend. She goes to the rest stop for the bus drivers and greets everyone. I get the point. More montages of Rachel and Beth riding the bus.
Two riders complain about Beth riding without a zone one pass and living off the government. The bus driver tells Beth to take out her zone one pass. Which she does. Okay.
Now Rachel and the bus driver are playing pool. The bus driver explains the nuances of Beth's language and tells Rachel not to expect too much from Beth.
A creepy man drives up and gives Beth a Tweety Bird doll. That's...really creepy and unnecessary. He never comes up again.
Beth and Rachel have a deep philosophical conversation about love in the laundromat that boils down to who looks hot and who acts nice. Flashback to their mother going out to meet a guy.
They go grocery shopping and Beth moves the cart when they are finished. It's like that scene at the beginning of the movie when she didn't move the cart. Character development.
Jesse gets mugged. Okay. They go to the hospital. It's like that scene at the beginning of the movie where they go to see their father die. Except Jesse doesn't die. Character development?
Beth and Rachel get into a fight. Beth says she doesn't want to live with Rachel. Rachel says sometimes she hate Beth because we are about three quarters done with the movie and the two main characters have to say they never want to see each other again so that they can learn a moral at the end.
Rachel apologizes, and then says maybe she should just leave. Which she does. End of movie.
No, we have 15 minutes left. Rachel is talking to the bus driver about how her father leave when they were little and he drank $200 of bourbon a week and smoked five packs of cigarettes a day. Flashback to Rachel meeting their mother's boyfriend, Raymond. I feel like the writers included this scene as if it would reveal the complex motivations behind Rachel's behavior forgetting that this is a 2005 TV movie starring Rosie O'Donell. Also, they see two buses. Symbolism?
Rachel drives by Jesse riding his bike and asks whether he wants some pictures of Beth. Jesse says no, because he doesn't want to think of Beth alone. Why is everyone guilt-tripping Rachel for wanting to continue her career?
Flashback to their father leaving Rachel to take care of Beth. It's kind of subtle, but all of these flashbacks correspond to the situations that characters are currently facing.
The flashback worked, because Rachel comes back to Beth as she is walking down the steps of her house.
Rachel takes Beth to get her hair done and buy a new dress. In the next scene, Beth turns her hair back to the way it used to be and doesn't wear the dress. Rachel says she likes Beth just the way she is. This move is really proud of itself for existing.
Rachel and Beth go to a bus, but Beth says that its the wrong bus. They get on, and it's a surprise birthday for Beth. Didn't see that coming.
Actually I didn't, but I've only been half-paying attention.
Rachel takes some pictures at the party and Beth holds a baby. Then we cut to after the party where Beth is sad because her tubes are tied and she can't have a baby. This was set up in the beginning of the movie and I forgot about it so, at least the movie did something correct.
Flashback...I think to when Beth decided to get her tubes tied. That was necessary. The two sisters tickle each other, distracting from the conversation.
Pop song as Beth, Rachel, Jesse, and the bus driver ride in a car to the beach. This is necessary to contrast the deep emotional previous scene.
Rachel and Beth go back to the caretakers. Beth says her goal is to go to Disneyworld and Rachel is okay with this.
So at the end of the movie, Rachel learns to accept her sister and absolutely nobody else grows or learns anything.
Rachel gets a gallery display of the pictures she took of her sister Beth. This is supposed to be inspirational, but I found it negates the sacrifice of her career the beginning of the movie.
Rachel also learns that she should sacrifice everything, including her career and fiance, to help her sister full-time instead of finding a qualified professional.
What do I think of this movie? It's as good as a movie where Rosie O'Donnell plays a person with a developmental disability can be.
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