By REY FLORES
Movies can be such a terrific escape from the everyday routine; they can be something we learn from, or they can sometimes be a complete waste of our time. Some are even harmful to our souls.
This St. Valentine’s Day weekend two movies are being released, targeting the date movie audience. One film offers us chivalry and chastity, while the other wants to assault us with a pseudo-porn spread of bondage and sadomasochism, designed for mainstream audiences.
One film offers an escape and some valuable lessons about romance, while the other movie spews out more sordid sewage from the bowels of Hollywood.
Old Fashioned is exactly what today’s men and women need to arm them against the confusing and misleading “shades of grey.” Either you are in or you are out. It’s time to pick a side. You are either going to side with good or with evil.
Old Fashioned tells us a tale about a man and a woman who meet and are attracted to each other, but both go about trying to make something happen in ways the other one doesn’t totally understand. Both struggle to find the right words to say or the right things to do, but that’s par for the course in the timeless dance of courtship.
This film teaches us that life is too short for us to play games and give ourselves away. Sadly, our modern society instead tells us that we aren’t worth waiting for and that we might as well just give ourselves away to as many sexual partners as possible.
This has only brought us the pain of abortion, divorce, STDs, loneliness and the loss of self, soul included.
The two main characters in Old Fashioned take us on an emotional roller coaster ride, but not a really bad one. It does have some scary dips, but those only serve to make this drama all the better, without the whips, chains, and all that disgusting garbage with which many Hollywood films attack our senses.
Old Fashioned is the most nearly perfect film I have ever watched, and it was even better because I watched it with my wife. It was one of the very few movies that she and I totally agreed on and loved.
As a man, I identified with the lead character Clay Walsh, well played by actor Rik Swartzwelder, as he stumbled through his life, having left a sordid past behind to seek Jesus Christ as his guiding light.
Clay is still a young man, but no longer the wild and crazy partying guy he used to be, and that does not sit well with some of his buddies who are still wallowing in sin. Clay’s newfound pursuit of purity also causes some confusion with the forlorn Amber, the female lead in the film.
Actress Elizabeth Ann Roberts does a wonderful job playing Amber Hewson, who has also had a difficult past but is still hopeful for a better beginning. Amber is a young woman who cannot remain long in one place. She demonstrates this by keeping an hourglass of sorts, a water jug, that she fills up with small bills and change; if by the time she fills it and things still haven’t gotten better for her, at least she will have enough money to make her next move.
Another thing that I really liked about the film is its imagination in how a man can romance a woman with honor, dignity, and respect. What a great film for young men to go see! It’s not about “getting to third base” or anything degrading like that. It’s about seeking to truly be a man of honor and of God and not just some boy in heat.
It’s no accident that the disgusting and pathetic 50 Shades of Grey is also being released the same week as Old Fashioned, but all moviegoers would do themselves a great service by avoiding the false and pseudo-porn of 50 Shades and seeing Old Fashioned instead.
Old Fashioned is billing itself as the St. Valentine’s Day movie in which “chivalry makes a comeback.” Support good films that still value the dignity of men and women and send Hollywood moguls a message that we are through with the smut and trash they keep spewing from their studios.
I give Old Fashioned five out of five stars. Any movie that can make me laugh, cry, and want to throw my popcorn at some of the characters at times is well worth it.
This movie is rated PG 13 because of adult themes. Old Fashioned opens in theaters nationwide on February 13. Watch the trailer at www.OldFashionedMovie.com.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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