Now I'm going to ruin it totally

One of the aspects of blogging that I have long enjoyed is how accepting the blogosphere is. You can hear the taboos tumbling, as bloggers admit to behaviours and attitudes they've previously considered outrageous. Confessions are usually met with variations on the following responses:

Aw, Hon, don't worry. We love you anyway! And in answer to your question, yes, you're totally normal.

I'm SO glad you wrote this post. I'm not alone! I've felt the same for years, but I've never been brave enough to say so out loud. Thank you!

Bloggers are commended for their honesty, sympathy is offered, and the blogosphere absorbs the revelation of this drossy bit of human life, and moves on.

But there must be a limit. There must be things which bloggers confess to, that other people can't condone. There must be moments when lines are crossed, sensibilities offended beyond forgiveness. Moments when bloggers turn their faces... Bloggy Friends, I fear this may be one such.

I don't like the film It's a Wonderful Life. There. I've said it. And there's worse. Not only do I not like it, I really hate it. I've only seen it all the way through once, and then tedious snippets on various other unavoidable occasions. When I did sit all the way through it, I found it boring, pointless, and downright irritating. I thought the central character was dull, and at points a bit creepy. I thought his self-assessment was right, actually. He should have left that insipid and dreary town, and found himself a more interesting life. At the crucial point, he needed Barbie, in one of her many cinematic incarnations, to appear and warble on about following his dreams, believing in himself, trusting his heart. That might have got him moving. As for the angel, he annoyed me immensely. Angels should not be bland. I believe the word "mawkish" was invented for films like this one. It's 130 minutes long, which is approximately 129 minutes too much.

I've heard TWO discussions in the past 24 hours, one on Radio 4 and one on Radio Scotland, about the remake, or sequel, that is imminent. Those radio people were loving it. Lapping it up, they were. "I go every year, with my family, to see it on the big screen, and we're all weeping by the end." "Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without it." "'Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings' - that line gets me every time!" I must have heard the word "heart-warming" as many times as is physically possible in the course of a radio segment. The only good thing was the aging actress from Vancouver, who played the daughter in the original film, and is playing an auntie in the sequel, who managed to give away huge chunks of the plot, before the interviewer could intervene. Ha! I enjoyed that bit, thinking of all you It's a Wonderful Life devotees speedily clamping your hands over your ears, but not speedily enough, and howling with distress at having caught a half-sentence too much of what she was saying. Ruined it for you, did she? Ha! (See, I have a dark side...)

Please don't judge me. I can't help it. It's a genetic condition. It's in my DNA. My sister hates the film too. We only have to sing "Buffalo Girls, won't you come out tonight?" to each other, in the knowledge that we are the only two people on the planet who feel this way about the film, to experience a Christmas bonding moment so magical, that I have only one word to describe it. Yes, you guessed it - "heart-warming".

Can you forgive me for my aberrance?

"Darling, you were right first time. Your life has been pointless and meaningless, and no amount of my smiling at you in black and white can make it better.

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