I made it fifteen years without watching Titanic. This information is usually met with an incredulous look, but it’s true. I knew the story already, of the ship and of Jack and Rose, and I didn’t see a point in watching it. This, of course, was laughed at when I tried to explain it to my friend. She told me that everyone knows how Titanic ends and I realized that she was right.

It took some willpower to sit down to watch a four hour movie that I knew all about, but that was made easy when I realized that I really didn’t know all about it. For instance, that ridiculously long preamble with all of the submarines, I hadn’t heard anything about it. I knew what happened to Jack, but for some reason, I was under the impression that he was a stowaway. I knew Jack and Rose were together, but not that Rose was engaged, or secretly poor. I knew that the old woman threw the necklace into the sea, but not that she was Rose.

The most interesting part of the movie to me was all of the contrast. The difference between the woman that Rose was at the party with her family and the girl she was at the party downstairs with Jack. The difference between Jack and Cal, one of which trying to save a child for the sake of not wanting to leave him there and the other trying to use a child to save himself. The difference between Rose’s attitude about getting in the water that first night and last night on the railing.

I was taken with Jack instantly, and, despite the fact that I didn’t want to be, with Rose. The acting was perfect, especially the awkwardness of the drawing scene. The costumes and the scenery were beautiful.

Despite having known how it ended for as long as I can remember, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I sat there in my bed, clutching my dog, crying, and wondering how I managed to avoid this for as long as I have. I anticipating rating this at about a six, but it pulled about a nine, all things considered. It might have been a ten, but the beginning was slow enough to make me contemplate giving up on the movie. I’m glad that I didn’t.