What is "entertainment" if it's not fun?

As I have mentioned before, the purpose of sports is entertainment.  If you're not having a good time, it seems silly to watch.  And that is why with the finals seconds ticking away in the AFC Championship Game yesterday I changed the channel, and I've pretty much avoided the TV and internet ever since.  If I don't enjoy seeing/hearing/reading about the Patriots losing a big game, why subject myself to it?  Normally I spend Mondays sitting in front of my computer researching/writing various sports stories with one of the ESPN channels on my television.  So in need of a different pastime, today I went out to the theater and saw two movies (although I only paid for one, Shhh).

Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games)

First up was Lincoln, which was good, but I definitely would have liked it a lot more had I brushed up ahead of time on my knowledge of the very short and specific period in U.S. history (i.e. January, 1865) that it details.  I did however learn that the film is based on a book written by somebody I know (Doris Kearns Goodwin), and also that Lincoln died on my birthday, April 15th.

But the point of this post comes from the second film I watched today, Silver Linings Playbook.  If you haven't seen it there's some mild spoilers here, but I promise you'll still enjoy it even if you keep reading.  As the movie goes along there are several sad and gloomy parts, but in the end Katniss and Hangover guy get together, and it turns out happy.  However, it easily could have gone in another direction, which would have been a terrible decision by whoever picked the ending.  Like sports, movies are entertainment, they're supposed to be fun.  If you leave the theater feeling all dreary and depressed, what's the point?

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