a prevailing mood

Sometimes, just occasionally, I'll watch a movie, and the mood of that movie will overtake me, like grey clouds rolling into a blue sky, or a bright lightbulb sparking on, illuminating a dark room. It doesn't have to be a good movie, it just has to affect me in some small way, and for the rest of the day, the next day, the next week I can't shake feeling from my soul, even though the memory of watching the movie may have long ago faded.

Twilight isn't a good movie by most movie-making standards. It was interesting and a good way to pass a rainy Thursday night on the couch with my husband, but there are plot holes and weird scenes and unanswered questions. Part of that is probably because I haven't read the book and that there are more movies to come. Despite that, the mood of the movie, greatly dependent upon the cinematographer and the actors' brooding stares, especially the main male vampire, crept into my brain like one of those grey clouds. Last night and this morning as I was getting ready for work, I felt the world was pale, cold, foggy, and sad. It made me long for that new love feeling, the kind that makes you crazy and uncontrollable, that makes you risk everything you know, that wells you up until you burst. I won't have that again, I realized, and it made me kind of sad. 

I think my husband must have felt it a little too, as he was much more snuggly than usual. By the time I woke up, that part of the feeling had faded-- a night in his arms and I was reminded how much better this real love that we have is anyway, that that new love insanity either melts away or becomes what we have now. But the melancholy was lingering in the back of my mind, especially as I never really did sleep. Bub has a hot spot on the back of his front right leg, and he licked all night. He's now at the vet.

There's something about stepping into this office that brings me back to the real world though. I would like to feel the sun on my face, just to shine out any last remaining traces, but it's still cloudy after all the midnight rain. I am glad, though, I didn't watch the movie on a Friday night-- I'm afraid the gloom would have survived the weekend.

Are there movies that do this to you, that latch onto your brain and won't be shaken off? Any in particular that you remember? Books can have this affect on me too. If I'm upset, I pick up my worn, hunter green paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice, the one I've had since high school, I flip open to a random page, and read until the mood has slipped away again. It almost always works.