There's a great piece over on MSNBC today (yes, I link to it a lot; yes, it's the only news site I bother with) about "Netflix Guilt," which roughly refers to how you can stockpile high-brow films but then take forever to watch them. A perfect description:
Perhaps you’re familiar with the following dynamic: film is highly recommended; film appeals to intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities; film is added to the Netflix queue, and soon appears in the mail in that unassuming but somehow pushy red-striped envelope. Temperament, timing and ambiance is never quite right for film’s subject matter—in this case, brutal and depressing. Film sits on TV for a year, taking up valuable space on Netflix queue and inflicting pangs of guilt and regret. Said intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities are called into question when “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” is watched and quickly returned.
In the article, a former Netflix employee talks about holding onto "Maria Full of Grace," the gritty drug-mule drama, for a year or so and never being in the right mood for it. Karen and I have experienced this with several movies, almost always fitting the author's description. One of our worst was "Spellbound," because it's just hard to get pumped for a documentary about a spelling bee. Of course, when we finally got around to watching it, it was awesome.
Other toughies that languished on our shelf: My Life Without Me (returned unwatched after months), The Magdelene Sisters (not bad, but not great), The Heart of Me (meh) and Mrs. Brown (horrible).
I foresee a similar fate for this little number coming up in our queue.
What's your longest-shelved flick?
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