I watched Marriage Story a couple weeks ago and the word SpecialMeal has become stuck in my head.
Noah Baumbach has this way of writing little things about families that register in my brain in the most real way and just sort of set up camp there. The script and delivery here is not "a special meal," it isn't something new and surprising, it is dad's patented SpecialMealā¢ (spoken as one word). This moment is the first and only mention of SpecialMeal, but it contains lore and character building for those familiar with the way a certain kind of creative, egocentric father, when tasked with taking over dinner duty once in a blue moon, will throw together something from whatever is in the cupboard into the oven, and because this is an entirely original invention and not something as quantifiable as an existing dish like tuna casserole or whatever, it is bequeathed a title fitting of its originality, a Brand tying it to its creator who has taken a short sabbatical from real work to dabble in household chores, but again, as an artistic endeavor.
Behold: SpecialMeal, which has been ossified as such a foundational dish in this family's history that the introduction of garnish in an attempt to impress their dinner guest is seen as a disgusting contaminant, the mere presence of which may have ruined the delicate and precisely calibrated recipe of SpecialMeal. Father's creation has taken on a life beyond his control, and now this abomination with green things on it isn't even recognizable as SpecialMeal.
