year 5 day 61

movie: Private Benjamin
starring: Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan
genre: Comedy
year: 1980
format: Hollywood Suites Channel

plot: After her husband dies on their wedding night, a widow begins to fall apart and finds herself accidentally in the army.

We follow this chick who, at the start of everything has the life of her dreams, and five minutes later, living a nightmare. Cast out of her life because of a moment of stupidity; she's recruited by a snaky guy while still grieving, only to end up deciding to stay in the army because her parents would rather tell people she's in the psych ward. She then meets this guy who offers her the same life she always wanted, only on his terms.

I get that this is suppose to be a story about finding courage in yourself, and your place in the grand scheme of things, but I kept waiting for something to happen. It didn't really get good until she does decide to run off with the guy, which isn't until the last 20 minutes. It's only at that point that the lead character is forced to figure out who she is, and what she's honestly capable of. That's when she takes a real step back and asks herself if the life she's about to get into is her life or the life she's been expected to have?

The movie has a bit of an identity crisis, the first hour trying to be a comedy, and the last 20 minutes trying to be a drama, but never really finding it's balance. It's this big fluffy marshmallow of nothing, then all of a sudden, it decides it needs to tackle some heavy situations like sexual assault; which in turn flips the switch and leads the movie down another path. It's almost like two different movies were sliced together.

I can't say that I hated it, but I can't say that I loved it either. But I don't think I'd sit though it again on purpose.

what did I learn?  Movies don't need to have "girl power" songs to prove their point.