Sad Movies

The public response to two movies on artificial insemination, including The Switch , just out and not doing well, tells us something about the way Americans feel about the subject, writes Mary Rose Somarriba in Artificially Conceiving a Bad Romantic Comedy . And they’re on to something, she writes in today’s “On the Square” article. What’s sad about it

is that some real, deep aspects of the human experience—such as the realization of one’s aging, the desire for love and family, and the sorrow of lost time—are covered up with chipper confidence that none of these things matter anymore. Age doesn’t matter. Time is never lost.

Love and commitment aren’t necessary; in fact, they’re not even worth seeking. You can start a family all on your own. It’s a Do-It-Yourself Family! The biological bond required to conceive a child—a male’s sperm and a female’s egg—is all you need; you don’t need the metaphysical and the personal bond with another to make a family.

And later in the morning we’ll be posting a second “On the Square” article for the day, in which Father George Rutler reflects as a pastor on the new Catholic liturgy just, and finally, approved by the Vatican.