Postcard of the beach at Saugatuck, Michigan.  Maybe you've been there.

You need to identify as much as possible.  Even if it's random.  I think you will be surprised when you do.

For instance I finally saw (500) Days of Summer.  Sometimes when you wait to see a movie after everyone has told you they loved it you are set up to be disappointed.  Your expectations are now so unrealistic.  But since Eduardo and I were really going to see Ang Lee do Woodstock but I got the time wrong, we didn't exactly go with expectations but with the convenient show time.  

Plus there was a red carpet set up at the theater for a new movie about a bunch of girls who join a sorority and all get murdered in terrible and scary ways, as apparently often happens in this type of situation, or at least in this type of movie, so we had cheeseburgers and diet cokes and sat outside at the restaurant behind the yelling paparazzi and watched.  We did not recognize a single one of the young stars but felt that a couple of them had real possibilities.  We tried to guess which ones got killed first. 

"You get killed when you have sex," Eduardo explained, smoking and pointing to likely candidates.  "That one," he decided, indicating the one in a purple gown.

Meanwhile I reminisced about working with young stars who were on the verge of being discovered, back when I was doing that and we were younger and newer in this town, and then we both agreed we needed to get back to going to the gym again, regularly.  So we were primed to see a movie about young people.  Or I was.

"This is a date movie," Eduardo exclaimed, looking around with dismay at the audience of young couples.  I was forced to agree with him.

"I want to see the one where they kill all the girls in the Whore House," he announced a little too loudly.  

"Sorority House," I corrected.

"They are giving free popcorn and diet cokes with that one," he pointed out.  He looked at the group of young girls seated behind us.  "Where are your dates?" he asked, slightly belligerently, making them wonder if they would have to move their seats.

But in the end we stayed for (500) Days of Summer and were both glad we did because we began to identify.  Randomly at first, and then increasingly, with wonder and delight.  For example:

The young actor tells the young actress he started out thinking he wanted to be an architect.  (I started out thinking I wanted to be an architect!)
The young actress says she's from Michigan. (I have been to Michigan!)
The young actor has nerdy friends who drink too much (I have been a nerdy friend who drinks too much!)
The young actor points out his favorite building in downtown L.A. which he says was built in 1904!

Needless to say, even Eduardo nudged me when he heard that.

So you see?  You go out expecting one thing and you end up discovering all kinds of random significance with which you can identify.  The world takes on new meaning.  

"But I could have done without the Wise Child," Eduardo says afterward, referencing an element in the film that, if you have not yet seen it, totally won't spoil your enjoyment of it or raise your expectations.  "Remember Beautiful Girls?  Natalie Portman did that."

I had to concede that Natalie Portman had indeed totally nailed the young girl saying wise things to an older guy thing.  But that seemed to be in a movie that takes place in winter and this was a movie mostly in and about summer.  And this weekend marks the end of summer.  

We both felt young and old at the same time, thinking about that.

More significance.