So on Wednesday I took a half day off work and gave myself a rare treat: I took myself to a movie. I decided to see Invincible, the Disney make-ya-feel-good-underdog-comes-out-on-top football movie, not unlike Rudy or Remember the Titans or other such feel-good classics. And the thing is, it did make me feel good. What a good movie.

I went to the 2 o’clock matinee. This movie has been out for many moons, so I expected the theater to be pretty empty. And it was. I walked in halfway through the previews, so everyone else was seated. I sat in the second row from the top, in the middle. The only other people in the theater were several rows below me. They were seven men, all sitting in the same row, some balding, all dressed in business casual. I was the only girl.

It was great.

Later I looked up the movie on imdb.com because I knew I had seen the guy who played the coach but couldn’t place him. And it turns out that he’s the guy that’s been everywhere but you never knew it. He was Meg Ryan’s boyfriend in You’ve Got Mail (you know, the one who loves his typewriters). He was David in Sabrina, Ratchet in Robots. His name is Greg Kinnear. (His blonde hair in Invincible is really very nice. Much sexier than his brown mop in You’ve Got Mail.)

I also looked up the girl who played Janet, the love interest in the movie. I thought she was beautiful but didn’t recognize her from anything else. Turns out it’s because she’s mostly been in more adultish movies like Slither, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Sexual Life, Wet Hot American Summer, and the episode of Sex in the City entitled “Politically Erect” (which, you have to admit, is a funny title).

Also–get this–the main character, Vince Papale, was played by Mark Wahlberg, whose older brother was dreamy Donnie from NKOTB (New Kids on the Block, for you post-1980’s people). Mark Wahlberg (a.k.a. Marky Mark) was also a high school drop-out, convicted of minor felonies, and appeared in famous Calvin Klein underwear ads in the 90’s. But he turned into a decent actor.

When the credits were rolling, the row of middle-aged men stood, stretched, and filed out of the room one after the other. Very orderly. I was the last one to leave the theater. It was a nice treat.