caircair wrote:

Do you ever find yourself cringing while watching a crying scene, not because of the acting, but because of the person you're watching it with?

I am a big fan of "The Musketeers", and especially actor Ryan Gage as King Louis. In the season ending episode, he had a scene where he was supposed to (SPOILER ALERT) [highlight if you want the info] sign the queen's death warrant, and he ended up sobbing that he couldn't do it. Husband has been watching this season with me, and when the king broke down, husband started making fun of him - "Oh, boo hoo, I'm such a spineless wimp!", that sort of thing. I partly wanted to defend the actor (I ended up saying "He tends to play that kind of role), partly wanted to tell husband to STOP making fun of the character, and mostly sat cringing in my chair - wishing I could indulge in watching the scene and soaking it in without having my attention diverted.

This is why I try to watch anything I know will have crying in it ALONE, if at all possible. It takes away a lot of my enjoyment if I feel like I have to defend the character (and thus, my enjoyment of his/her tears). It's yet another reason why I've never told husband about my little fetish - and why I will never be able to tell him.

I once had a similar experience, while watching a rerun of the BBC's Sherlock Holmes series (from the 1980's) with my family.  The episode we were watching is called "The Six Napoleons," and its final scene is one of the most touching in the whole series.  Basically, Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) finally admits to Holmes (Jeremy Brett) how much he admires his talent, and both men are visibly moved (though there's no crying).  I was anticipating really enjoying this scene...and my dad had to ruin the moment by making some sarcastic comment about how Lestrade never appreciated Holmes before, and now suddenly he does?  Needless to say, I was silently fuming.

I'm almost exclusively into male crying scenes, and for whatever reason I've always had a need for whomever is watching them with me to regard the crying in the scene as "normal."  In other words, I wouldn't want anyone to think the male character "shouldn't" be crying, or that crying is an "effeminate" thing to do.  In short, I want the viewer to be moved by the crying and not in any way critical of it, if that makes any sense.  


 

Last edited by White Tulip (March 11, 2016 2:36 am)

I usually end up watching movies with my husband, and I'm lucky both that he and I have pretty much the same taste in films and television shows, and that he's a very quiet movie-watcher.

From what I can recall, he's never actually commented during a crying scene we've watched together.  But, still, there have been times when I've felt so awkward that I've said something like: "Wow, that was pretty emotional!"  -- in order to gauge his reaction.  He always just kind of shrugs. 

But once I come across a crying scene I really like, I do try to find time to re-watch it alone so I can pore over all the little details.    

Last edited by Tristana (March 11, 2016 10:51 pm)

Actually, I have seen a few "acted" crying scenes that were so phony they turned me cold.

The one I remember best was from "The Mentalist" - the character of Rigsby, when his father died. The last scene was of him holding his son, crying. Except the actor's face was wet but his eyes were dry and not red, there was no attempt at a bitten lip or anything even close to marking any sort of emotion - just a stony, wet face. It was so badly acted it was laughable. I almost wanted to tell the actor to have Simon Baker give him some pointers. Mr. Baker does seem to be a mostly "dry" crier (no tears) but his facial expressions are realistic and he certainly sounds like he's crying.