Events of this world have been weighing on me lately.  As many in similar mental states have done before me, I try to consume lighter fare when it comes to my entertainment choices.  If I can laugh for a moment, that respite, however fleeting, is a God-send.  At the same time, there is a dilemma.  For one, I have come to prefer films with a meaningful message.  They may make me cry, but I would rather feel something than be numb.  I also believe this to be how God built us, to be sensitive to the world around us.  At the same time, it is that world that has been bringing me down.  In a Faith context, you would say that it is robbing me of the joy and peace of God.  Something I have been praying about and discussing with my spiritual director is how to maintain that to which God is calling me while not turning my back on the plight of others.  I do not have any answers at the moment.  What I can say is that today I chose Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), and oddly enough, I feel it fits with everything I just wrote.  Read on and tell me if you agree.

What is apparent from the beginning of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is that Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), his co-anchor and wife, agree that they are the best in the television news business.  They are widely heralded as they walk into the headquarters of the national network for which they work, and go on to complete another highly rated broadcast.  As they wrap, they are called into the office of network executive Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford), a man Ron greatly respects.  Ron and Veronica believe they are about to get a promotion.  This turns out to be the case, but only for Veronica, while Ron is fired for being awful at his job.  When they get home, Ron is furious at Veronica.  I suppose I should mention that the misogyny he displays in this scene is played comedically, if that makes any sense.  Nonetheless, with their seven-year-old son Walter Burgundy (Judah Nelson) sadly looking on, Ron leaves and returns to his native San Diego.  Spiraling further, Ron is then fired from his next gig at Sea World for drunken behavior.  Despite this, he is approached by Freddie Shapp (Dylan Baker), who represents the newly created Global News Network (GNN).  I think you can get the intended joke.  Speaking of which, Ron thinks the prospect of a twenty-four hour-a-day news channel to be an absurd idea.  Yet, it is a job and he accepts, which means he must assemble the team with which he had worked for years.  They are sports reporter and man secretly in love with Ron, Champ Kind (David Koechner); field correspondent and ladies’ man Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd); and, finally, weather forecaster and man who died for a week Brick Tamland (Steve Carell).  They pick up Brick at his funeral and head east in a motorhome that Ron thinks can drive itself while on cruise control.  Battered and bruised, they arrive in New York City only to be told that they will be put in a slot between 2:00 am and 5:00 am, a period where they are all but guaranteed to receive low ratings.  In order to climb out of the graveyard shift, Ron challenges Jack Lime (James Marsden), the network’s primetime host, to ratings contest.  If Jack beats Ron’s numbers, the latter has to leave New York and never again broadcast the news.  If Ron triumphs, Jack must legally change his last name to “Lame.”  In order to win, Ron comes up with the novel idea of instead of reporting important events, they will just tell people what they want to hear.  I do not wish to draw any modern comparisons, but it should be noted that this involves a lot of simply saying how great of a country is America.  It is a success, despite the misgivings of Linda Jackson (Meagan Good), the network’s African American program director.  I mention her race only because Ron and his team do not know how to handle her.  Linda’s low opinion of Ron changes when she sees the ratings he brings in, thus winning the bet.  Indeed, they start dating, and there is more so-called racialized humor with their romantic interactions.  He is able to pursue other relationships because his attempt to patch things up with Veronica are halted when he finds she is involved with a psychologist, Gary Bragger (Greg Kinnear), who Ron assumes has psychic powers.  The rivalry with Veronica does not end for Ron, particularly when he learns that she is about to get an interview of a lifetime with Yasser Arafat (Michael Menapace).  With the pressure of her bigtime interview and his team turning against him, Ron sees an opportunity to cover a car chase as it is happening, which proves to be so popular that it takes Veronica’s piece off the air.  Ron is on top, but he is sabotaged while ice skating and playing the jazz flute (this is a thing in this movie) by the now jealous Jack Lame.  The trip and fall blinds him, and he retires to a light house where he does a series of incredulous things due to his lack of sight.  The only one who can bring him around is Veronica, who moves in with him along with Walter, who is desperate for a relationship with his father.  However, the newfound familial bliss is shattered when he learns that she had not been relaying messages from doctors saying there is a cure for his blindness.  She pleads with him, saying she had done so only because they had never been so happy, but he leaves in anger anyway.  After the procedure, he goes back to work, but Veronica tells him that Walter is expecting him to be at their son’s piano recital.  He is about to sit down to report on air, but instead he leaves everyone aghast as he departs for the performance.  He has to deal with a ridiculous anchor fight along the way, but he makes it to the theater, singed but happy.

The applause Ron gives Walter at the end of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is not the final scene.  Instead, that is an equally ridiculous beach wedding between Brick and a former co-worker, Chani Lastnamé (Kristen Wiig).  Their vows are the ridiculous part, though this Catholic could not help but think about the fact that it would be an invalid marriage in the Faith because of its location.  A proper Catholic ceremony takes place in a church, but thank God for marital bliss, anyway.  The world could use more of that kind of thing.  What it could use less of are some of the stereotypical thinking that went into a portion of the humor in the film.  I had to shut my eyes during the scene where Linda takes Ron home to have dinner with her family.  Nonetheless, there is something to be said in a Catholic sense about Ron doing what God had put Ron on the Earth to do: report the news.  Those are not my words, by the way, but the way he is described in the film.  That is what we would refer to as a calling, something that we take time discerning as to what God wants of us.  It would be silly to say that Ron does the same, though he deserves a little credit for at least knowing it.  That is more than I can say for many of my fellow Catholics.  Still, I would be remiss if I did not comment on the strategy Ron arrives at for getting ratings, by telling people what they want to hear instead of the truth.  God did not give us life for it to be comfortable for us all the time.  Indeed, there would be arguably less need of Him if life was always great.  That is not to say that God purposely gives us hardships.  Rather, what He wants is for us to love Him in the good times and the bad. There are a few Scripture passages I could cite for this, but the one I will give is John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  It is a lesson I need to remember for myself, but Ron has his own version of it.  Ultimately, he realizes what is important, a truth he had been unwilling to admit to, and reunites with his family.

Of course, that makes Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues sound more serious than it is.  Mostly, I am okay with that, and it was needed for me after a day of dealing with the real news.  Perhaps the key is to be able to find those moments of joy, preferably in God, that can sustain you.  The film is mostly harmless, with a few flaws, but if it accomplishes that joy for you, then so be it.