Flipped over Flipped---a movie review

I begrudgingly attended the preview showing for the new Rob Reiner film Flipped (opening Friday, August 27, 2010), thoroughly expecting to roll my eyes for 90 minutes of saccharine, prepubescent puppy love.

Was I pleasantly surprised! This film drew me in and won me over by reawakening memories and emotions long dormant or at least dulled by the sensory overload of modern living.

The story harkens back to the late 1950s, when life was certainly simpler yet paradoxically deeper. By contrast, life these days seems way more complicated yet oddly superficial.

"Back in the day" people communicated by actually talking face to face with one another, or else showed disapproval by refusing to talk at all. This was long before the Internet, email and yes, even this most magnificent iPad, reduced our social interaction to a series of LOLs and :)s, if not WTFs.

Against this backdrop of life before cell phones, familiar (albeit all too rare nowadays) human feelings bubble to the surface: shyness, infatuation, hurt, courage, honesty and integrity shine out without the aid of mind-numbing FX and CGI.

When was the last time you saw a movie that both entertained you and made you think? No 3D, no IMAX, no gratuitous nudity, no vulgarities, no sex scenes, no drugs, no violence---just superb acting bringing a well-written and delightful script to life. If there is any downside to the movie, it's in the realization that over the past 50 years we somehow have lost the centrality of family. People still face the very same situations raised in the movie, only now our problems are compounded by isolation and self-imposed exile from one another.

Not coincidentally, I'm sure, the mothers in the two families are the catalysts for change. A family meal and a basket lunch provide pivotal moments for the characters to break through barriers and break down walls.

Coming against Sty Stalone's blockbuster The Expendables (which I also enjoyed, btw, for its adventure genre: mindless mayhem) with nonstop explosions, chase scenes and bloody violence, the low-key Flipped will not rake in the big bucks, but by contrast it will leave the audience rather than the filmmaker enriched.

Of women and Earth (Feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15)

As a doctrine articulated by the Church as dogma, the Assumption of Mary, that is, after her death she was assumed body and soul into heaven, is only 70 years old. But the belief that, like her Son, Mary now lives in eternal glory goes back to the time of the apostles.

Last June I had the opportunity to visit the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey and see the place where local tradition maintains our Blessed Mother spent the last years of her life under the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple. An ancient story told by Orthodox Christians is that as Mary lay dying, the remaining Apostles were drawn to her side. Only Thomas was late---as usual. After he arrived, John brought him to see her tomb but when they opened it, her body was gone.

From this arose the Orthodox feast of the Dormition (or sleep) of Mary, a phrase alluded to in the second reading where St. Paul refers to "those who have fallen asleep in Christ."

Since those early days, Christians gathered in Ephesus every August 15 to celebrate Mary's bodily assumption into heaven. And it was in Ephesus that the first Christian church was built and dedicated Mary. And it was at that church the Council of Ephesus met in 431 and declared Mary to be the "Theotokos", the Bearer or God, or as we say in the West, the Mother of God.

It is regrettable that Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary is misunderstood by many Protestants and remains a source of division. Although the tradition is old, the feast of the Assumption has an important message for people today.

If we believe that at this very moment the body of the Virgin Mary has been glorified and that she lives in heaven with her Son, we are compelled to respect women and the Earth. After all, it was through these that the savior came into the world and it was from these that every cell of Jesus' body came.

There was nothing wrong with a woman bearing the Son of God; there was nothing wrong with that same woman entering heaven as a woman.

How can we glorify a woman in heaven and ignore the plight of women on earth? How can we advocate for the rights of women in our society yet we deny them rights in the Church? Respect for women must start with us here.

The Vatican has determined that women cannot be ordained. This strikes me as odd, since more than any male priest, Mary can point to Jesus and say, "This is my body; this is my blood." If a woman can produce the body of Christ physically, why can't a woman produce it sacramentally? The argument that women cannot be ordained because none was present at the Last Supper, taken to its conclusion, means women have no right to receive communion either.

But women face larger problems then this. Health care, education, employment, domestic violence, human trafficking and exploitation all threaten the women of the world on a daily basis.

The Earth, too, continues to suffer abuse and pollution. Do we take the Assumption of Mary into heaven seriously? Then let us honor, protect and advocate on behalf of women and the Earth today.

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(Note: After delivering this homily at St. Paul Chong Ha-Sang Korean Catholic church last Sunday, I attended a meeting of the parish building committee. On the blueprints for the new center, I noticed there were fewer toilets for women then for men. They promised to correct this oversight. The women of the parish will be greatly relieved. [insert groan] Sometimes advocating for women can be something very practical and down to earth! ~ FB)