dumbstruck

Film Lucy Mangan is suffering from reader's block:

"Symptoms of reader's block include half-heartedly picking up books, skimming the blurb and listlessly replacing them without even opening the covers; wandering into Waterstone's and running a wan hand over the piles of 3 for 2s on the first table and wandering out again; and hours spent gazing with mounting consternation round plentifully stocked bookcases, whose numerous volumes customarily whisper coquettishly to you of their charms, metaphorically sashaying their hips and beckoning you towards their hidden treasures within, but whose voices are now unaccountably silent."

I can sympathise, but I'm often afflicted by a related malady, viewers block, or a disaffection from watching films. Impossible you may think, but like Lucy (and Neil Gaiman's) extensive library of books, I have thousands of movies, but when I have a spare couple of hours it's sometimes near impossible to choose something.

I'll stand dumbstruck at the boxes unable to decide. Big Night or The Fountain? In The Line of Fire or The Sun? Something challenging or ... not. That's why I like Lovefilm and boxsets and watching a director's life in films, because there is only one thing I can watch next, the element of choice and uncertainty is removed.