Well, CB, I think if I had been married to an Earl I would have walked out of the movie due to the stress it would have triggered in me. As it was, every time that damn car horn blared I flinched. It made me angry what he was doing and how he was doing it. Most of the people in the theater just enjoyed the movie for what it was--the humor and the love that was in it. The people around us were just giggling and enjoying. I think I was a taking it a little too personally.... For people who really have lived it, I suppose it could be therapeutic if you approached it with that in mind.
I told my husband afterwards, if I had never learned the things I know now about N, I would have thought the character of Earl was the most poorly drawn and unrealistic one in the movie. Now I think he was the most accurate and realistic one. Ignorance is bliss but the truth will set you free.
PP