Wide-Eyed Wertz

So, Monica had the guts to tell us that she fell asleep last week while writing her post, so I’m gonna be honest and admit that I drank while reading Drinking at the Movies; not a lot, but I had a few. And after having a few beers I have to admit, I don’t know how she did it. Bottles with “xxx” across their labels appear at least every four pages throughout Wertz’s 189-page novel. She is depicted frequently with hangovers and headaches, but these never seem to dissuade her from ordering a bloody mary or getting hammered again the next night.

The role of her brother in rehab added an interesting twist to the drinking theme of this novel. I felt his character dropped off and was forgotten until his presence appears again just before Julia vomits from drinking too much (136). Julia’s words, “Guh. If the booze doesn’t kill me, the irony of this situation will,” would not have made sense had we not seen her moments prior getting upset at the woman at her brother’s rehab center; the “irony” being that he’s the one in rehab and maybe she should join him.

The six panels on the next page are of a brief eight word-bubble conversation between Julia and her brother. These panels are stark, lacking the clutter and mess we have come to expect from Julia’s life and her surroundings. She is sitting with her knees curled up to her chest in striped / plaid pajama-pants, and her pillow and covers lay neatly across her bed. The orderliness of her room and the striped pattern of her pants and covers referenced some sort of cell, perhaps the claustrophobic cell of homesickness while living in NYC, or a jail cell of her own design, or maybe at that moment she too felt like her brother in rehab. Either way, the last two panels on 137 are two of the stillest and most contemplative moments in the entire novel. Julia sits quietly on her bed, first staring at her phone, and then the lens zooms out just enough to show a picture with two figures, that are surely her and her brother.

Speaking of these two emotionally charged moments…where were they in the rest of the novel. Not that Wertz needs to have us bawling with every panel, especially since she is a comedian, but the rest of her characters were hardly built out at all. Only a few had names and they seemed to be divided between dudes with / without beards, women with blonde, brown, short, or long hair, and Julia’s parents. The moments with the brother (physically there or not) were the only moments were I felt Julia connected to anyone else in her life. I assumed Julia didn't really connect with the other characters because of her alcoholism and depression. I don’t think the lack of connection between Julia and the other characters (except her brother) can be chocked up to a craft choice, I believe this was a bi-product of her honestly communicating the events in her life. I think to call it craft would be a disservice to Wertz’s novel as memoir.

On another note, I noticed that in Wertz’s bio photo she has a wide-eyed look, like her character Julia. It struck me that Julia has these giant eyes that dominate half her face while everyone else in Drinking at the Movies has normally proportioned eyes. Perhaps Wertz used them to amplify Julia’s childish nature. She also uses them to communicate emotion frequently. Then I noticed Julia is not the only one with wide-eyed-syndrome, her brother has it too (57). Then I noticed her mom has it too (155). And her dad, kind of (he has glasses so it’s hard to tell). Perhaps Julia’s inability to grow up is genetic? Whatever it is, the wide-eyed rendering of the Wertz family told me that there was a strong bond between them, especially with her brother who loomes over her novel like a bad omen.

Margaret Seelie