🍿 Freakier Friday
I can't remember why, but it seems every year, I'm compelled to watch Lindsay Lohan and/or Christmas-y movies from November until December. Maybe it's the Christmas season? Maybe I want to watch "easy" movies? Maybe I want to keep myself "young at heart"?
Anyway, I have to admit, I watched this one because I'd been waiting for it and my brother recently told me it's already available for streaming on Disney+. It also has four attractive women in it, so why not? I want to watch something easy, something that won't take too much brain power to enjoy.
But I was wrong.
The main conflict of the story is where they'd all live after the wedding. Lindsay and her new husband don't have any problems wherever they end up. In the story, both are successful enough to be able to restart their careers in any major city. The problem is that their daughters are pulling in different directions: one wants to stay while the other wants to go back. And that's where the tension lies: stay where you're comfortable or go back to where you were before.
As a guy who's always fantasized about being a father to at least one daughter and a husband to a wonderful woman, the movie really got me when I recognized how hard the situation was for Eric (Lindsay's new husband). On one hand, he wants to live with the woman whom he loves and give his daughter the family he believes she needs. On the other, he wants to give his daughter what she wants and go back to where her mother was. If it was me in that position, I honestly would freeze with indecision. But I'm also weirdly envious of him, being loved by two people to the point that he must choose.
The scene where he explains to his daughter (but in the body of his future mother-in-law) that he'll always choose her broke me. I just mentioned that I'd be frozen with indecision but that's not what a real father would do. For a good father, the choice will always be automatic: my own daughter above everyone else. Even if the choice was between my wife and my daughter, my daughter will always win.
But I can't. I honestly can't.
Even as I'm writing this, knowing the right answer, I'm still unsure if I'd choose her over the woman I love romantically. Maybe I'm that messed up. Maybe that's why I've never been given the chance to be a father (or a husband, which logically should come before being a father).
Yesterday, Nov 15, I turned 36 years old. Physically, I'm starting to feel it, but in other aspects, I still act and feel like I'm a teenager. Stunted emotional and psychological progress, I know. The maturity and control of a child. I prefer lighter movies because while I can mentally handle deeper films, the emotional and psychological load often overwhelm me. The harsh realities being discussed in some of them, the ones I can only experience through this medium, often haunt me long after I've watched them.
That weekend when I watched the 2025 Fantastic Four back-to-back with Sunshine is still on my mind. I can't finish writing about it because every time I try, there are points where I have to stop due to the emotional toll becoming too much. Even for this supposedly lighthearted family movie, that specific father-daugher scene, those the father said lines will be on my mind for months to come. And every time it plays in my head, I'll beat myself up for knowing the right thing but never choosing the most fatherly response.