In Need of Help - or Mellowing with Age?

The wife persuaded me to accompany her to the (dreaded) cinema on Friday evening to the inevitable (and equally dreaded) rom-com. I have seen too many of these wretched sub-Austen shmaltzy re-makes for several lifetimes, so against my better judgement I went.

This one was the same recycled storyline, except that this time the setting of the same storyline was the music industry. The dizzy-girl (ie. the Meg Ryan character) was played by Drew Barrymore (my word she's changed since E.T.) and Hugh Grant played the ..er... Hugh Grant character.

T
hey meet, they connect, they separate misunderstanding one another, yet they improbably get back together at the finale. Heard it all before? You bet!!

But here's what's troubling me most. I didn't fall asleep, which is my usual recourse during Hollywood soporific spectaculars. I didn't check my watch (much). I didn't get ludicrously grumpy and I didn't start picking all the obvious faults in the film to moan about. On one occasion I am ashamed to say that I actually emitted an audible laugh.

So what is happening to me? Is this any better than the usual drivel? Hardly! Was I taken aback by the cinema experience rather than the usual small-screen? Are my critical faculties loosing the long/slow war of attrition? Or am I just mellowing in my old age? Any of the possible answers are troubling.