My views: 12
One fateful day in the summer of 2003, my mom noticed that this movie was going to be on TV. I don't know if she'd seen it before or if she just saw who was in it and instantly thought of me, but we ended up watching it with my brother. My sister was at camp at the time, and I distinctly remember including in a letter I wrote to her that I had just seen one of the funniest movies ever. Mostly, though, like Bringing Up Baby, this became a movie I watched and recited with my brother.
We were both kind of upset when we got the DVD and found only Marilyn Monroe's picture on the case because, while she is good in this film, she's not really that important. For us, by far the best aspect of this film (okay, besides Cary Grant's Cary Grantness) is Ginger Rogers. She is absolutely hysterical as an adult playing a child (which I'll get to talk more about in a future post), and I think our favorite parts have pretty much always been when her character is under the influence of the formula. Cary Grant's quite convincing at it as well, and the main reason I kept watching this, especially from 2003-2005, is that the two of them are so fun to watch. My brother and I also constantly amused ourselves by imitating them, particularly Ginger Rogers's "Barney, I'm so happy!" [breaks down crying].
By the end of 2005, however, when I'd seen it 8 times, I started to think this movie was kind of lame. It has a totally ridiculous premise and some of the acting, while fun, is equally ridiculous. I didn't see it again until 2009, and I'm pretty sure at that point I wondered why I'd ever liked this film. But then, the following year I gave it another chance, and I discovered something. While on the surface it's a silly film about a chimpanzee discovering the secret of youth, there's a lot more to it than that, and it's definitely ridiculous on purpose. The characters initially feel that people need to discover the secret to staying young because youth=happiness. Then it's discovered by accident, and everything starts falling apart. Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant both almost kill themselves from carelessness, and their marriage almost breaks up, not to mention all the property that gets destroyed. I'm not saying this is a 100% accurate view of what youth is like, but the point is that we can't live life backwards. Everyone has to grow up. If we spend all our time trying to stay young, all we end up doing is wasting our lives, and looking pretty silly in the process.
Honestly, I think this message is part of the reason I stopped liking this movie in my late teens. I didn't want to hear it. I had no desire to grow up, and I wanted to return to my childhood when everything made sense, not move forward into the terrifying unknown. To a certain extent, I still feel that way, but this movie reminds me that I'm probably better off this way than having a formula that erases everything I've learned since I was younger. I think we as adults idealize our youth because it meant innocence and simplicity, but we forget that with those things we also had ignorance. And that's why adults acting like children looks ridiculous. So while I must admit that I still primarily watch this movie for its entertainment value and my love of its stars, I can also say that it has definitely helped me view growing up more as a privilege and less of a burden than I used to.
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