Cynicism and Sentimentality On the Bus

If cynicism has become a national contagion the flip side is sentimentality. One sees through jaundiced eyes and the other through rosy lenses. Through a glass darkly an omelet is just a broken egg. A happy face stays happy eating the shell. There must be a range of options between a hard-boiled warrior and soft-boiled wimp.

Ironically cynicism seems to be the current default position for both the ill-informed and the well-informed. Among the hopeless MAGA minions a systematic breakdown of institutions has become devoutly to be wished for. Five minutes of Fox news is meat for a cynic. Non-belief in the DOJ, in climatologists or public health officials and certainly in levers of government including free elections is all a precondition for American fascism.

Sadly, we are also witnessing blue state cynicism. I know, I am one of them but only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For the rest of the week I try to restore my faith in the good sense of the electorate and the tenents of our democracy. And yes, Virginia, there really is such a thing as Truth.

Cynicism is too easy. It’s an abdication of engagement. Skepticism is the appropriate alternative just as sentiment is the healthy version of sentimentality. We don’t have a nuanced vocabulary sufficient to describe gradations between a mawkish gush of emotions and a well-earned expression of sentiment.

All of which brings me to a bittersweet movie called The Last Bus. Most critics dismissed it as soppy sentimentality. I gladly suspended my disbelief, muzzled my critical yawp and got on the bus as it left the station. Perhaps if it weren’t for the great Timothy Spall in a tour de force performance I may not have remained in my seat. But, with a face only a mother could love, he conveys the full spectrum from child-like wonderment to hard-edge vehemence and earns the emotions in spite of a needlessly manipulative script. Sir Timothy’s face seems to have registered all of life’s insults yet manages a radiance in spite of that.

Let cinephiles scoff. I saw the film as a desperately needed antidote for the malice in our midst. It was an act of restoration in humanity. Hearts melt, blue and red. See it and park your censorious arsenal in storage. A little schmaltz can’t hurt; get over it. Without any words preached, Spall’s character models a way of being to reawaken a slumbering society. He reminds us how some of us may have taken the wrong bus.

The Last Bus can be seen on streaming sites,  Kanopy or Amazon. There are other films with the same name. Look for Timothy Spall’s name.