My Brother vs. "Sleepless In Seattle"

As it was Valentine's Day yesterday, I had my brother watch a romantic comedy. And it's part of an unspoken experiment, project, war of ours.

My brother and I have always had a valued struggle of the male character. We're very different in what we believe a man should be. Or maybe we just like to argue and debate.

He thinks I need to appreciate more manly facets and I try convince him that he needs to appreciate a larger range of manliness. He repeatedly asks for my "man card" and I repeatedly explain to him that he doesn't understand women in the slightest. And it goes back to his stereotypical man being a hunter and mine being a poet.

In the last few months, it has become more endearing and realized. My brother was the first person to really try to get me to watch Mad Men (after he mockingly acted semi-delusional as a 1960s ad man any time he had a steak, telling me what accounts we lost and should go after while cutting up his slab of beef). Meanwhile, I got him to start watching Sex And The City seasons with me.

However, he and I have a lot of overlaps in interests. In fact, my whole family does. Many of our birthday presents could very well be for another person in the family.

Anyway, last night, the experiment continued. As my brother was sitting down to watch Sergio Leone's ultra-violent masterpiece city epic Once Upon A Time In America, I told him that we had to watch a romance movie, since it was Valentine's Day. After several minutes of jokes and arguments, he agreed. I looked for When Harry Met Sally... only to realize I had loaned it out. So, we went with Sleepless In Seattle, as we both agreed that it's "just one of those movies you have to see," if only to understands references and explore our culture's...culture.

And he enjoyed it and had many of the same opinions that I do of that movie, including that Meg Ryan totally fucks over Bill Pullman, who, for whatever reason, is totally ok and supportive of it. Oh, if only she knew that he would go on to become the president of the United States and lead this country to greatness among a big alien invasion years later).

My favorite moment: When Tom Hanks decides that he has to leave Chicago because everything reminds him of his recently deceased wife, he says that he's going to Seattle. To which, my brother said, "Oh my god, doesn't he know that he's not going to get any sleep there?"

The battle rages on.