Robots Need Love Too By Lisa

Saturday night, my wine and I had another date. (Yes, again! But in my defense, my ”manfriend” is halfway across the country.)  I curled up next to my Cabernet to watch a couple of movies that might seem an odd pairing. I know I’d never expect to find Wall-E and Some Kind of Wonderful sold together at Target for $8.99.  Made twenty-two years apart (F**k, time flies!), one animated, one not, one starring robots, one human–but surprisingly similar.

Before I go on, here’s a bit of history. I’ve been run over by the love bus more times than I can count. I have the tire tracks on my ass to prove it! I’ve been to the war; figuratively knocked down and emotionally put through the ringer. But despite it all, I never lost hope that I’d find someone.

*Cue sappy music track* (I’m thinking Lost in Your Eyes by Debbie Gibson is fitting).

I’m an incurable romantic and optimist who, with the exception of a few choice drunken, pity party for one nights when I vowed to God and The World that I’d “NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER get my heart broken again!” always believed it would happen.

So, back to my “date night”. I ordered Wall-E because it’s been on my list of movies to see for a while and frankly, it was doubtful that my real-life boyfriend would have agreed to watch it with me anyway. I knew very little about the flick other than it had just won an Academy Award (should’ve won all six it was nominated for!) and was recently mentioned in an episode of Ugly Betty. “Wall-E, Eee-Va, Wall-E, Eee-Va”–more on that in a minute.

I didn’t know what I was expecting, but certainly not a movie where two robots fell in love and, yes, made me cry. In the world of love and romance, the word robot is often used to describe emotionally unavailable people. (Or maybe I’ve just taken a liking to calling men I’ve dated who were devoid of emotion–names like “R2 D2″ and “C3P0″).

Wall-E is a trash compacting robot living basically alone in a trash dump on Earth (his only companion, a roach he takes care of) until Eva arrives. Eva’s a much higher tech robot from outer space.  At first, Wall-E’s love is unrequited but he eventually breaks through, getting Eva to let her robotic guard down. It begins when they learn each others names “Wall-E” ,”Eee-va”,”Wall-E” ,”Eee-va” and throughout the movie (don’t laugh) it’s a mating call of sorts. And it made me cry every time I heard it.

It turns out, Wall-E is a wonderful love story of what can happen after someone (or something) opens his or her robotic (or otherwise) eyes to finally see the person (or machine) who loves them, right in front of them.

This is exactly what happens in Some Kind of Wonderful , recently given to me by a friend who loves to reminisce about trapper keepers, leg warmers and all things 80′s even more than I do. I hadn’t seen it in a long time but was instantly brought back to the year when the movie came out.

1987. I was a freshman in high school, wearing those red glasses you may have heard about. I sported too much hair gel, a mouth full of silver braces and underarm, I carried my Peechee folders with one unrequited lover’s name after another scrolled across them. Wow, it’s  funny how quickly the feelings of teenage angst come rushing back.

Many of you (especially those who are old enough to have seen the movie in the theatre- I know I’m not the only one!), will recall that the the plot of Some Kind of Wonderful is about an unpopular guy (Keith) who is so fixated on the popular girl (Amanda) that he fails to see his best girlfriend (Watts) is in love with him. The last line in the movie resonates. After Keith realizes Watts is “the one” and gives her the diamond earrings he’d originally given to Amanda, he says, “My future looks great on you.”

Yup, when she heard that, this incurable romantic cried again.

So I recommend that this weekend, you grab your wine or your guy or gal and watch these movies! Especially if you’re a wee bit more on the robotic side (not naming any names–Liz Clark Fenton!), you, like Wall-E and Eva, need love too!