Taking the next step

I just finished reading and commenting on a few of my favorite blog sites that are talking about dealing with pain, illness, stress, operations, and just recovering from grief. Yesterday my Life Partner sent me this picture, which I think he pulled off reddit or some similar place. It has continued to make me smile, every time I look at it, so I am offering it to all of you as a possible next step to take. I know I can find a waterfall somewhere, but I'll have a little difficulty blowing water out my snout, so I might skip that step.

Sometimes I think it's just fun to slip my consciousness into the skin of another creature and imagine what it would be like to be filled with joy and smiles like this beautiful elephant. If it is true that our state of mind is up to us, well then, can I choose this?

Yesterday I went to see the new movie Contagion. It was good, but it wasn't great. I didn't spend any time thinking about it after I left the theater, other than noticing all the times I touch public places that have been touched by others (like doorknobs) and thinking about how many times I bring my hands to my face without thinking. With the stellar cast of this movie, I expected more, so perhaps it was my preconceived notion that kept me from enjoying it more.

The weather has turned from unremitting sunshine to cloudy skies for the past two days. Tomorrow's hike is going to be cloudy and maybe even have some rain. But I'll be having a good time and looking forward to bringing it here to share. Until then, see if you can find some rainbows!
:-)

The catharsis of tears

From SF Chronicle review

The last couple of days I've gotten to see a really exceptional movie AND finish a book I started last week. Both of them have given me a chance to weep; in fact, at the moment my headache is a direct result of having just finished the book. But first things first: the movie is the film adaptation of the novel Elle s'appelait Sarah (Her Name Is Sarah) by Tatiana de Rosnay. Sarah's Key is playing at our local independent theater right now, and I suspect it will not be coming to national theaters any time soon. It is set in two time periods: 1942 and 2009, depicting an event that I knew nothing about, the roundup of French Jews who were sent by the French government to death camps.

It was a very hard movie to watch, because it felt so incredibly authentic. Told through the eyes of Sarah, a ten-year-old girl who tried to save her little brother by locking him in a closet and taking the key with her when they are forced to leave, she tries everything she can think of to try to get back to her brother. Kristin Scott Thomas plays an American journalist in present-day Paris who discovers the truth and decides to find out what happened to Sarah. Mick LaSalle wrote, in his review for the SF Chronicle:

"Sarah's Key" is a mature refutation of the romantic myth of wartime France as a land of partisans and Resistance fighters, and it's especially welcome to find this in a French film. The Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, in which Jews were placed in a sports stadium under unsanitary conditions, then separated from their families and sent to death camps, is a national disgrace, an atrocity committed by France against French citizens. The movie's stern message is all the more pointed in that the investigation is done by an American, not a French, journalist.

This was decidedly not a feel-good film, but one that made me think and ponder the inhumanity, as well as the many acts of kindness, that occurred during the Holocaust. Scott Thomas and others were simply superb in their portrayals. I left the theater glad to have seen the movie and interested in reading the book. Many years ago I read numerous publications about the Holocaust in order to try to understand it, but as I have learned in my life, there is simply no way to comprehend why we humans do what we do to each other. I am reminded that these kinds of atrocities are occurring all over the world as I write this, because we apparently didn't learn anything from that horrible time. I shed many tears during and after the movie.

And the book I just finished reading that has kept me weeping through the entire last few chapters is Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. This novel depicts some of the ethical questions that are raised by our technological ability to create "designer genes" for medical issues. Anna is conceived by her parents to be a "savior sibling" so that her umbilical cells can be used to help cure her older sister's leukemia. As it turns out, Anna decides at the age of 13 that she no longer wants to continue to give her sister bone marrow transplants and even a kidney. The book explores many of these issues and has a rather surprising ending. Picoult, in an interview from the back of the book, tells this story:

My Sister's Keeper is the first book one of my own kids has read. Kyle, who's twelve, picked it up and immediately got engrossed in it. The day he finished the book, I found him weeping on the couch. He pushed me away and went up to his room and told me that he really didn't want to see me or talk to me for a while — he was that upset. Eventually, when we did sit down to discuss it, he kept asking, "Why? Why did it have to end like that?" The answer I gave him (and you) is this: because this isn't an easy book, and you know from the first page that there are no easy answers. Medically, this ending was a realistic scenario for the family. And thematically, it was the only way to hammer home to all the characters what's truly important in life. ... I even gave a 23rd-hour call to an oncology nurse to ask if there was some other way to end the book. But finally, I came to see that if I wanted to be true to the story, this was the right conclusion.

Well, I wept my eyes out at the ending, too, and if you want to know why, you'll have to read the book yourself. So now I've shed my tears and am happily writing this post, hoping that I'll find something inspiring and uplifting to move me from my tears to a sense of gratitude for a wonderful holiday weekend, even if a bit on the wet side.
:-}

Babylon 5

When I first met Smart Guy, he was living in San Francisco and I was living in Boulder. We met through the skydiving internet (rec.skydiving), first making contact through email, then phone calls, and finally beginning to meet one another in person in 1992. It was amazing to me to meet another person my age who would let me talk about skydiving as much as I wanted (remember I had only begun to skydive late in 1990), someone who loved backpacking and the outdoors, and who was a science fiction aficionado just like me!

He moved to Boulder in 1993, and in 1994 we were married in freefall, but that's another story. During the same time frame, J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) created the Babylon 5 universe as a television series and the new drama was first aired in January 1994. The most startling thing about the five-year-long series, to me, is that the entire story arc was conceived by Straczynski in a flash. According to that B-5 Wikipedia link above, JMS writes,

Once I had the locale, I began to populate it with characters, and sketch out directions that might be interesting. I dragged out my notes on religion, philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, science (the ones that didn't make my head explode), and started stitching together a crazy quilt pattern that eventually formed a picture. Once I had that picture in my head, once I knew what the major theme was, the rest fell into place. All at once, I saw the full five-year story in a flash, and I frantically began scribbling down notes. (1995)

The locale that JMS is talking about here is a space station set in the 23rd century, Babylon 5, populated with many alien races and with characters that I have grown to know and love as though they were family. In our first years of being married, the two of us watched the original television series in our apartment, and we looked forward to each episode with incredible anticipation. I had never seen a show like this one, and although the Star Trek series has a similar appeal, this one is deeper and more complex than anything I had seen before.

The final show, "Sleeping in Light," was first shown in November 1998, and our marriage had finally settled into something that both of us believed would continue (after a very rocky start). I still remember both of us holding hands and crying our eyes out while we watched that final episode. We watched additional TV movies and reruns of the shows for years, but that first viewing of a very special episode ending five years of struggle that resonated so deeply with our own journey, well, it was unforgettable.

Smart Guy was so taken by the series that he bought the DVD special collection, and it traveled with us in 2008 from our home in Boulder to our new home here in Bellingham. The collection sits in a special place, but we didn't take it off the shelf for years, waiting for the right time to present itself. He paid $300 for the entire set, and I see it's now half price on Amazon but still available. There is an entire website dedicated to followers of the show, "The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5." Obviously I am not the only person who believes in its continued relevance.

Well, here it is, the middle of 2011, and today we watched "Sleeping in Light" again after revisiting all 110 episodes, once each day. I have arrived in this place where I am filled again with admiration for all the wonderful people who populate the B-5 universe, and JMS for his genius in creating this marvelous story. So many of the issues he raised are even more pertinent in today's political climate, and I feel grateful that I can look forward again, probably in a few more years, to experiencing this very special tale being told to me once again. It is bittersweet for me to realize that several of the actors have died since the show was produced in the 1990s, reminding me that time moves on, and that nothing stays the same. In fact, one of the actors, Jeff Conaway, died at the end of May, while we were watching the DVDs.

Although our life together has deepened and strengthened because of our commitment to one another, sharing something like this together as we have just done is beyond priceless. If we continue on this trajectory of love and light, I have no fear of where we will be in twenty more years.
:-)

Sunny Saturday

What a beautiful day! I got up and left the house at 7:30 am to get myself a latte before heading off for a nice 5.2-mile walk with the Fairhaven walkers in the early morning sunlight at Lake Padden. Then I quickly headed up to the Farmers' Market to catch a few pictures before going off to the Y for a swim. This sweet rose caught my eye, nestled among the other flowers, and I couldn't resist a quick snapshot. The market was filled with people right away, since it was such a gorgeous day.

As I sauntered past these delicious looking tomatoes, the vendor offered me a taste. I should have known better. No sooner had I tasted one than I had to buy some. You cannot imagine how sweet and remarkably tasty they are! The balloon man was setting up his scene to entertain us. He made this "hat" for himself while we watched, and half the kids couldn't help but ask for one.

He said that the local newspaper had itemized a hundred things for people to do in Bellingham, and he was listed as #51. He's a lot of fun, too. As I checked my watch and realized that I was getting hungry, it was only 11:00 am, but the the smells wafting through the market, coming from all around me, made me realize that I'd better get over to the Y and work out before I had my lunch.

I managed to walk away from these wonderful bread sticks, but it took some effort. I made it over to the gym in time to get a lane in the pool all to myself and swim a half mile. By the time I got home and made myself some lunch, it was almost time to head over to the theater to see Larry Crowne with my friend Judy. The movie has not received good reviews, but we both enjoyed it. It really helps to have your expectations lowered when you head out for a movie, then you can't be disappointed. Of course, any movie that has Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks can't be all bad, which is what he figured. We were right.

Last week we saw Midnight in Paris, and I enjoyed it while Judy didn't. You really do need to be a Woody Allen fan to appreciate it, but it was also a feel-good movie that had a happy ending. Have you seen either one? What did you think of them?
:-)

I AM, the documentary

I have never been much of a fan of Jim Carrey, and before I saw this documentary, I had never heard of Tom Shadyac. He directed Jim Carrey in some of his biggest hits, like Bruce Almighty and Ace Ventura. I think I saw Bruce Almighty, but it was by accident rather than design. His kind of humor has never been my favorite, since I tend to lean toward satirical stuff like Jon Stewart and even some British humor like Monty Python. I remember nothing from that movie.

But I will remember this documentary for a long time, partly because it spoke to me of things I've always believed, like the fact that the heart is the seat of emotion and that our hearts and minds can change the world, if we get aligned with other like-minded people. After I got home from seeing the movie, I immediately went to Rotten Tomatoes to find that only 44% of the reviewers liked it, but 79% of the audience did. Yep, my kind of movie, all right. I sat in the movie and wept over parts of it, cringed over other parts, and let my imagination and desire sweep me away for the rest of it.

The title comes from Tom Shadyac, who asked the question about what's wrong with the world today, and what can be done to change it. He had amassed a fortune from those comedies he either directed, wrote, or produced, owning a huge mansion in Beverly Hills and his own private jet. But then he had a bicycle accident that left him very injured and depressed. He began to wonder what he needed to do in order to become happy. He knew that wealth itself was not the answer, so he wrote and directed the documentary I AM in order to find out. The documentary has many notables in it, like Desmond Tutu (who I just love to listen to), Thom Hartmann and Noam Chomsky, to name a few others.

Roger Ebert was not a fan. He wrote this review, and he says the following therein:

You see, I am a rationalist. That means I'm not an ideal viewer for a documentary like "I Am," which involves the ingestion of Woo Woo in industrial bulk. When I see a man whose mind is being read by yogurt, I expect to find that man in a comedy starring, oh, someone like Jim Carrey.

You either love it or you leave the theater with the taste of industrial Woo Woo in your mouth. I loved it but then again, I was once removed from serving on a jury of my peers because of being way too much of a bleeding heart liberal. If you get a chance to see this documentary, I would really like to know what YOU think of it. In my heart of hearts, I believe that I am changing the world for the better, and this documentary affirms that belief.

Biutiful

You may not have heard much about this movie, but I was blessed to be able to see it because of our little independent theater here in Bellingham, the Pickford. It received quite a small showing in theaters in the States for several reasons, not the least of which was because it was made in Spain, has subtitles, and because of the subject matter. Javier Bardem received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Uxbal, a "street saint," a man who discovers he is dying of cancer while being the only stable person in the lives of his two children.

I was mesmerized by the man he portrayed. Some of the reviews I read on Rotten Tomatoes thought it was just too much of a downer movie, and although nobody faulted Bardem's performance, many didn't give the director, Gonzales Iñárritu, as much credit as I feel he deserves for his artistic direction. I thought the entire movie was masterfully crafted.

Uxbal is the protagonist in a gritty, messy love story between him and his children, his bipolar ex-wife, and the people he meets and deals with on the streets. He has the gift of being able to hear the voices of people who have recently died and hearing their pleas. He's aware that he himself is dying and wants to make things work out for those close to him, as much as he is able.

This is a Barcelona that is nobody's tourist destination, and although it was a really difficult movie to watch, I would see it again in a moment, partly because it was such a finely crafted movie, well worth watching. But it would have been a completely different experience without Javier Bardem. He was the jewel. I have thought of the movie many times since I saw it, and I can only say that if you go, expect to cry into your tissues and leave the movie theater with gratitude. I did, partly because it ended so beautifully, and partly because my own life was cast in a bright hopeful light, when I left the theater and felt the weight of Uxbal's world lift from my shoulders.
:-)

Coexistence

I saw this bumper sticker on cars a couple of times around town and looked it up on the Internet. I found that it is sold on a website called Peacemonger.org, with an interesting outlook (from their Vision page):

Our vision is of a creative collaborative outreach network that will combine artists and activists on a collision course with peace. We promote peace and social justice issues while advocating and fund raising for a broad spectrum of charitable institutions. 

What struck me about the sticker is the inclusion of many aspects of various people's belief systems in one simple design. I love it and find it very heartening. I'm not a bumper sticker kind of person any more (I used to be), but I think perhaps a magnetic sticker that can be removed without damage to my car might work just fine. Coexistence, to me, is a fact of life, but honoring many belief systems without making any value judgments seems like a very worthwhile goal.

Right now I am also wanting some signs of spring, especially after having read my blogging friend Linda's beautiful "walk through a winter garden." She lives down south in Seattle and has posted several pictures on her blog of her amazing back yard. I have purchased some daffodils and placed them on the corner of my desk, where I can watch them grow and change, watch my birds, and enjoy the pine tree. The window faces east so the tree catches the light at sunset when the grey skies lift. At first I considered buying a bouquet of cut daffodils, but these early daffys grown from bulbs seemed much more appropriate for contemplation. I am learning to coexist with the rain.

Tomorrow I go to see my new doctor and will miss my usual workout. I warned the instructor so she wouldn't worry about my whereabouts. I am such a regular that I'm missed when I don't show up. Last Monday when I went showshoeing, she asked me on Wednesday if I had missed the bus. It's nice to be missed, I find. I had to leave my previous doctor at the Center for Senior Health because they dropped my insurance coverage, and this new medical center is much less restrictive in what insurance they take. The only old thing about my new doctor is his last name: Dr. Whitehead. He's only been practicing medicine for four years and looks awfully young to my senior eyes. I tell myself that he will be up on all the latest, and I am predisposed to like him. I'll let you know how it goes.

I went to see The King's Speech a second time yesterday, this time with Smart Guy. It's interesting how much more I saw this time, and for some reason I was much more emotional and wished I had brought my hankie so I could wipe my eyes a bit better. Maybe it was because I had read up on King George VI and found that the movie followed actual history quite closely. As you might know, the movie is about Prince Albert who was forced to take the British throne just before World War II broke out. He had a debilitating stammer that caused him great distress, since he was expected to address his people through radio broadcasts. He spent many years working with Lionel Logue, a speech therapist who treated him with then-controversial methods. From this Wikipedia link:

In 1911 Logue set out on a tour of the world to study methods of public speaking. Following his return to Perth, and after the Great War, he developed treatments for war veterans whose exposure to shell-shock had left them with impaired speech. In addition to physical exercises, which helped with patients' breathing, Logue's distinctive therapy emphasized humour, patience and 'superhuman sympathy.'

As you may already know, Colin Firth won a Golden Globe for his performance as King George, and Geoffrey Rush (who played Logue) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, although he didn't win. It is a most satisfying movie, and that link to the movie (from Rotten Tomatoes) shows that both the critics and the audience agreed, giving it a 96% "freshness" rating. If you see it, I hope this true story might inspire you as it did me.
:-)

Black Swan

My friend Judy and I went to see The Black Swan the other night. I'm STILL not sure what I think of the movie, even after thinking about it for a day. The link takes you to the Rotten Tomatoes website, where the critics give it an 87% freshness rating, and the audience gives it 90%. Scenes from the movie keep coming back to me, especially when Natalie Portman is playing the Black Swan. Nina (Portman's character) is cast in a ballet production where she is expected to play the virginal and pristine White Swan and then morph into the sensual and sexy Black Swan.

The movie was really confusing, since you are seeing almost all the scenes from the point of view of Nina, who is going quietly mad in her quest to perform both parts perfectly. Several scenes that you think are real end up being hallucinations, and the director, Darren Aronofsky, doesn't help you separate the real from the imagined. In fact, by the end of the movie, I am not at all sure what actually happened, other than that she gave a performance that riveted the audience. I found this excerpt from a review by Chuck Koplinski (he reviews three movies; the second one is Black Swan):

I’m not sure all of the narrative pieces fit together, but that’s Aronofsky’s point. An examination of one’s descent into madness is only effective if we are put into the shoes of the afflicted, and the film does just that. Thanks to the filmmaker’s audacity and a fearless performance from Portman, Black Swan proves to be a gripping, shocking and haunting look at the fragility of the human mind and how defenseless we all can become to our fears and insecurities.

It's not a movie for the faint of heart, but I am glad I saw it. I cannot put Portman's Black Swan out of my mind and keep seeing her face, thinking that if anybody ever deserved an Oscar for a performance, it's Natalie Portman for this one. It was breathtaking.

127 Hours

I just got back from seeing the movie 127 Hours, starring James Franco as Aron Ralston, the guy who cut off his own arm when caught in a Utah canyon in 2003. He had gone on his adventure without telling anyone where he was going.

I was living in Boulder when this story emerged, and I remember vividly reading about the gruesome details of what Aron had to do in order to survive. He came out with a book called "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," which I haven't read but will immediately go out and purchase for a good read. Several of the people in the theater were there alone, with their friends and family deciding to stay home. No wonder. Most of them were afraid, as I was, of getting totally grossed out by the graphic depiction of what Ralson had to do. But it wasn't at all the focus of the movie.

Danny Boyle, the director of this movie (he also made Slumdog Millionaire, which I also loved), decided to tell the story of how Aron got to where he was, the mistakes he made, and his desire to live. Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a 93% freshness rating, and the reason why is made quite clear in a review by Mike McGranaghan at The Aisle Seat (click for his full review):

127 Hours is not a movie about a guy who cuts off his own arm; it's a movie about a guy who chooses to live. My initial instinct was one of horror, of the thought that I could never do what Aron Ralston did. In Boyle's hands, I walked away feeling the opposite. The strength of the film is that it so vividly portrays what Ralston went through that, when the moment comes, you understand perfectly why he took such drastic measures - and you realize that, under these same circumstances, you would do the same thing.

Make no mistake, the whole arm cutting part was gruesome, as I knew it would have to be and remain true to the story. Although I wanted to read the book earlier, I was afraid of all the details that friends had relayed to me. Now I know I can handle it (although I did cover my eyes in the movie during one scene). I left the theater in tears of happiness as I saw pictures of the real Aron Ralston with his wife and infant son, who appeared as a premonition in some of his hallucinations.

After having seen it once, I could see it again, and think it might not be so difficult to watch those scenes. But first, I'll read his book. Franco should definitely be receiving an Oscar nomination, if not a win, and the movie deserves to be recognized too, in my estimation. After having resisted seeing the movie, now I'm really glad I overcame my reluctance.
:-)

The Social Network

Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) and Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg)

I went to see the new movie The Social Network yesterday. Yes, I am a member of Facebook, along with 500 million other people, it turns out. I have spent the last couple of hours reading about this fictionalized version of real people and how Facebook has become such an integral part of many people's lives in such a short time. It was created in 2004 and has made many people, notably Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires.

The movie is based on a book by Ben Mezrich, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, which apparently doesn't have much to base its facts on other than the collaboration of Eduardo Savarin, who comes across in the movie as being pretty much shafted by Zuckerberg. But apparently that's what happened, as Savarin has now been given a very handsome settlement and has been added back onto Facebook's site as one of the co-founders, after his lawsuit against Zuckerberg.

Whatever. The movie itself is not really about Facebook, but about Mark's genius and the interplay between three people: Mark (played incredibly well by Jesse Eisenberg), Eduardo Savarin (Andrew Garfield), and Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). If Eisenberg doesn't receive an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal, I will be really surprised. He is unforgettable in this part. When I looked up Zuckerberg on Wikipedia, I was also struck at how much they look alike. I wonder if Zuckerberg talks and acts like Eisenberg did in the movie.

Sean Parker comes across as a real slimeball and Justin Timberlake plays him masterfully. I can't believe that he is really like that, given what I've read about him, but in the movie he is pretty sleazy and a really unpleasant individual. The movie may take liberties with real people, but it sure makes for an absorbing film experience. My favorite site for reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, gives the movie a 97% freshness rating, which is amazing. Obviously I wasn't the only one who liked the movie. And I can't imagine my life without Facebook.

One reviewer, Linda Cook on the Quad City Times, says it well:

It’s incredible how Facebook has become such an integral part of the lives of millions, and at so many levels — from those who check in once a month or so to those of us (and admittedly I’m one of them) who log in a couple of times daily. And it’s fascinating how such a relatively new development now has a “historical movie” dedicated to its origins.

I find it wonderful that I can keep tabs with all my old friends in Boulder, that all of my skydiving friends and acquaintances for the last twenty years, my family members (every one of my siblings and most of their offspring are on Facebook) show me pictures of their exploits and tell me what they are doing on a regular basis. And our vocabulary has definitely changed when someone asks you to "friend" them you know they are talking about on Facebook.

If you see the movie, I'd be interested to know what you think of it. I found it worthwhile just for the entertainment value, and not having been one of those aware of the origins of the phenomenon, I was also fascinated that it managed to make writing code and computer programming exciting.
:-)

Winter's Bone

Tonight my friend Judy and I went to the local art venue to see Winter's Bone, a movie set in the Ozarks and adapted from Daniel Woodrell's novel by the same name. He has coined the phrase "country noir" to describe his rather dark crime novels set in the south.

It was riveting, and if you get a chance to see it and can handle some pretty strong stuff, the performance by Jennifer Lawrence is simply amazing. She plays Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old who is raising her two younger siblings and caring for her mentally absent mother. You find out that her father is a meth dealer and has put up their house as collateral to bail himself out of jail. He disappears soon after, and she needs to find him or all of them will be thrown out. I found that Rotten Tomatoes (my favorite place to find reviews) gives it a 95% freshness rating. (The link takes you to the review page.) A review by Michael Smith in World Scene sums it up well:

The character that Lawrence creates, fearless and full of moxie, is nothing less than a heroine. Some people live in the middle of nowhere to do things they don't want people to see; reports of rural crime and meth labs fill newspaper pages. But the real stories are those like Ree's, of a selfless young woman fighting for nothing less than the survival of herself and three other family members who may or may not break free of the area's cycle of drugs and violence.

I was fascinated by the actress playing Ree and found that she just had her twentieth birthday and has starred in several other parts already. I found a really good interview with her on Black Book, with a title I couldn't resist: Jennifer Lawrence dishes on 'Winter's Bone' and stripping for Esquire. The film won the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and when she was asked (in the article) how she felt when she heard about the win, she said,

I just started bawling. I had such an ‘actress’ moment. I was there for the premiere of the movie, but then I went home. My mom was looking at it online, and then I started hearing Parker Posey describing the movie, and I just bawled. And then Lauren Sweetser, who plays Gail in the movie—we became real-life best friends on the set and have been ever since—we called each other and just started screaming.

She also said one of the reasons she had a racy photo shoot with Esquire is that she doesn't want to get typecast as the girl from "Winter's Bone." She wants to actually wear makeup in a movie and show that she can also portray a sexy woman. And from this picture, I'd say she should have no problem doing that.

If you get a chance to see the movie, it's worth it, although country noir is not easy fare, by any means. It is not my favorite genre. However, I got to experience this life and forgot I was even watching a movie, I was so engrossed. I'd also be interested to know what you thought of it.
:-)

A Single Man

I discontinued my Netflix account recently, since I have not been using it enough to make it worthwhile, coupled with the fact that I now have On Demand through Comcast on my TV. It has lots of free movies, but on Saturday I rented A Single Man on their 2-day rental plan and paid $4.99 for it.

One of the reasons I wanted to see it is that Colin Firth received a Best Oscar nomination for his performance, and I know he's really talented. However, I was taken aback by this movie, since I knew very little about its premise.

Based on a novel written by Christopher Isherwood in 1964, it's about a closeted gay college professor, George, who loses Jim, his partner of 16 years, in a car crash along with their two dogs. It's not clear from the movie if they lived together, but the flashbacks make it look like they did. The time period is the early sixties. George is so devastated that he decides to kill himself, and the movie unfolds around that decision.

The first scene where George learns of the crash and that Jim's family won't let him to come to the funeral is exquisitely done, and in my opinion Colin Firth deserves the Oscar for that one scene alone. I of course went over to Rotten Tomatoes to see what "freshness" rating the movie received (86%), and I was pleased to find that most reviewers also raved about Firth's performance.  I found a review that summed it up for me, written by Ian Freer on Empire Online (the link takes you to the full review):

Firth beautifully etches a man slowly detaching from his life. Perhaps the character’s biggest moment — receiving news of Jim’s death — starts with a clipped phone call and ends with a portrait of a man in bits, Firth making the transition without a false note. A model of economy and restraint, Firth starts addicted to his broken heart and ends a man capable of seeing the beauty in the world precisely because he has given up on it. He roots George, and therefore the rest of Ford’s beautiful film, in dignity.

I have thought of the movie several times since I watched it, and especially the incredibly well crafted story of what it must have been like to be gay back then. Julianne Moore plays an old female friend, and she is also incredible in her role. The film was nominated for The Golden Lion award at the Venice International Film Festival, and Firth received an award for Best Actor at that festival. Firth also won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor, and Julianne Moore was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. It received other awards, all of which were well deserved, in my opinion.

It seems like it would be a real downer of a movie, but it wasn't. It portrayed so many aspects of life that we all must deal with: loss, grief, acceptance of self, friendships, and the many facets of love.
:-)

Toy Story 3

I just got back from the movies with my friend Judy. We saw Toy Story 3, which amazingly got a 99% freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes, the highest rating of any movie I've reviewed. I read many of the reviews, and I have to say it was truly an enjoyable movie and I'm not the only one who thinks so. I found a review I especially liked, by Christopher Smith, who said, and I agree,

“Toy Story 3” also is about leaving behind one’s childhood, the knowledge of doing so, and the heartache and exhilaration that can come from it when a way of life is lost and a new one is found. It’s a movie that highlights abandonment issues for the toys in question, and it’s a movie that emotes all of those complex emotions with such sensitivity, you’re once again left with a groundswell of admiration for the skilled people at Pixar, who have an uncanny way of balancing all of this emotional weight with outrageous moments of comedy and action. 

I saw the two previous Toy Story movies, enjoying each of them, but this one, to me, perfects what was begun in the first two. I couldn't believe that I was crying over a bunch of plastic toys as they joined hands in what seemed their inevitable demise. But I was, and I truly enjoyed every minute of the time I spent enthralled in their world.

I especially loved the part where Buzz Lightyear was disabled, and while trying to get him back to normal, Woody and the others flip the wrong switch, turning Buzz into a Latin lover, speaking fluent Spanish and doing the tango with Jessie. That and the scenes between Ken and Barbie are my favorites.

If you want to see a movie that will make you laugh as well as shed a tear or two (or more), you will not be sorry if you see this one. We saw it in 2-D and didn't miss anything, but I suspect it would be lots of fun in 3-D as well. If you go, I'd love to know what you think of it.
:-)

Marianne Faithfull

Not long ago, our cable service was upgraded to allow us access to high-speed internet. Until then, we were only able to get wireless access through Clear, which has been pretty good but its variability in data transmission has made it impossible to use the Netflix streaming video.  I tried it once and the video would stop every few minutes. With the upgrade, we also got access to On Demand through Comcast cable.

Now THIS is great. We have access to the latest movies, but I don't use it. I can access tons of free movies, however, and the other day I watched a very interesting one, Irina Palm, starring Marianne Faithfull. All I remembered about her was what I remembered from my own youth, when she was with Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. Her Wikipedia page gave me some very interesting information about her that I didn't know. This picture was taken in 2008 when she was performing in Istanbul. But first, a little information about that movie.

It was released in 2007, and Faithfull is in her early sixties and looks it. She's still a handsome woman, if now a little plump and middle-aged. From the Wikipedia link about the movie:

Irina Palm (2007) is a tragicomedy film starring Marianne Faithfull and Miki Manojilovic. It is a co-production of five countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, Great Britain, Germany, and France). The film premiered to great acclaim at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival.

I downloaded it from On Demand because of her name, and I had never seen recent pictures of her or anything she had starred in, so it piqued my curiosity. The movie is about a middle-aged woman who can't get a job because of her age and lacks any kind of resume. She wants to earn enough money to send her desperately ill grandson to Australia for a special medical treatment. She wanders into a sex shop in Soho that advertised for a "hostess." Well, she finds out that she is expected to sit on one side of a "glory hole" where a man sticks his penis through a hole and she "wanks him off." In the movie you never see any male skin, but you know just what she's doing. (There's plenty of T&A of women, however.) She becomes very good at it, but she doesn't tell anyone (especially her son and daughter-in-law) how she earns enough money to send him for treatment.

Since she doesn't tell anybody where she got the money, the movie revolves around how it's revealed. I won't tell you that part, but there is a scene where she tells her women friends about it, because they just wouldn't stop trying to find out. In this delicious scene, Faithfull's acting carries the day. She tells them that she is now known as "the best right hand in London" and the queue to visit Irina Palm (her pseudonym at the shop) is always quite long.

Once I read the biography of Marianne, I was amazed to find out that she has been indigent more often than not during her life, and that her heavy drug use almost destroyed her. Today, however, she is trying to find some stability and is no longer drinking or using drugs. From Wikipedia:

Recent articles hint Faithfull is looking to retirement, in hopes money from Songs of Innocence and Experience will enable her to live in comfort. The 60-year-old said: "I’m not prepared to be 70 and absolutely broke. I realized last year that I have no safety net at all and I’m going to have to get one. So I need to change my attitude to life, which means I have to put away 10 per cent every year of my old age. I want to be in a position where I don’t have to work. I should have thought about this a long time ago but I didn’t."

She is still writing and performing, and from the information I've discovered about her latest work, I think I'll just head on over to iTunes and get her latest album, mentioned above. I am always fascinated by women who have been to Hell and back and are still going strong.

Talk to Her

The weather didn't cooperate today for Smart Guy and me to go skydiving, so after giving up on our hopes for blue skies, I finally decided to watch one of the Netflix movies that had been languishing on my coffee table for a few weeks.

I chose to watch Talk to Her, a Spanish language movie made in 2002. It's a very complex and interesting dark comedy. That link will take you to Rotton Tomatoes, which gives it a 92% freshness rating. I liked the movie a lot, but I wouldn't say it was one of my all-time favorites. The reason I wanted to write this post about it is that it triggered something I've noticed many times before: the difference in ethnic temperaments reflected in movies made by directors of different nationalities. Pedro Almodovar, the director of this movie, is (I guess) rather well known for avante-garde movies that deal with melodrama and obsession, teasing truth out of the absurd.

In this movie, a sensitive man who cries at the drop of a hat also writes articles and travel guides, and he falls in love with a female bullfighter. She ends up in a coma from a bullfight gone bad. The other couple in the movie is a male nurse, Benigno, who falls in love with a ballerina who is also in a coma from having been hit by a car. The men become friends, and the movie revolves around these four people. Almodovar uses flashbacks to develop some of the relationships. An excerpt from one of the reviews:

In the end, some of the lovers live and some die, and it becomes obvious exactly who the real cripples are. There is perhaps a smidgen too much patness in Almodovar’s fantastic script, something a little too easy about the way he wraps this up, but he doesn’t shrink from raising some problematic questions. Benigno is a creepy character, who nevertheless touches us — with his Peter Lorre eyes and dewy softness, he reminds us of a certain confused type of young man we all encountered in high school or college. He is all hurt and yearning and he uses his “devotion” as a kind of weapon.

So, as you can probably see from this description, the movie is so... Latin! I remember the time I spent in Mexico when I learned about telenovelas, those melodramatic soap operas that are watched by millions of people. (That link will take you to the Wikipedia page that compares telenovela style by country. It's fascinating reading.)

But what strikes me is the difference in temperament in movie styles by nationality. I recently watched a German movie, The Lives of Others (the link is to my review of the movie) and sometime last year I watched and thoroughly enjoyed a French movie, "I've Loved You So Long." The comparison of the style and feeling of these movies is, to my mind, strongly flavored by the nationality of the directors.

It made me wonder how much of what I experience in life is colored by my own American nationality. How real is this premise? What's your take on it?
:-)

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I went to the movies tonight with my friend Judy at the local art theater, the Pickford, to see the movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This was an exceptional film, one I highly recommend, if you are willing to see a Swedish movie with subtitles, one that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end!

The movie is made from the first of a trilogy of novels written by Steig Larsson, a Swedish journalist who wrote three novels about these characters before his death in 2004, which were unpublished at that time but now have become best sellers. The three movies were also made in Sweden and star Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, the two main characters. I understand that the next two films also feature the two in them, and I can only say that they are brilliant in these roles.

I especially loved the character of Lisbeth, a brilliant Goth-type young woman who is incredibly talented and bright and who was mistreated in her early years but finds ways to make her torturers pay that were very satisfying, especially after watching her suffer so terribly at their hands. The movie did have some very difficult parts to watch, but I have to say they were all worth it. By the time I was at the end of the movie, I can hardly wait to see the next two movies, as I am sure they will just carry these characters forward a little further in their lives.

I understand that this film earned a very favorable Rotten Tomatoes rating (85% fresh, this link will take you to the latest reviews of the movie). I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly, although now that I've seen it once, I think I would enjoy it much more on a second viewing, since the suspense, which is totally convincing, would be much easier to bear knowing the outcome. If you see it, let me know what you think!
:-)

Food, Inc.

Yesterday, Smart Guy and I watched our latest Netflix movie, Food, Inc. I missed this when it came to our local art venue, so I put it on the queue and when it came, rather than watch the one I had received earlier, we both settled down to watch this one.

This was an eye opener, even for those of us who consider ourselves well informed about our food choices. I had read Michael Pollan's books (all three of the latest ones) and had already been introduced to Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms, and it was great to actually meet him and see his farm as it functions in the world.

In the past few years, I have eaten chicken a few times, very few, and turkey only at Thanksgiving. I've never felt too bad about poultry, but after seeing what happens to them in a "normal" packing environment, I was shocked. One statement that stood out to me is that if we treat our food animals like this, it's only a short step to treating other human beings like things rather than people. From the website linked above:

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

 If you rent the movie, you will learn a lot about our food industry. I suggest you do it after dinner, or at least a distance away from a meal. It turned my stomach. But there ARE things each of us can do, and the link above (just in case you don't visit it), gives us five things we can do right now:

1. Visit the official Food, Inc. website (here).
2. Support healthy school lunches and sign the Child Nutrition
   Act Reauthorization petition.
3. Learn 10 simple things you can do to change our food system.
4. Read the Food, Inc book.
5. Read the Hungry For Change blog.

It was well worth watching and learning how to make a difference in your food choices. Every small thing we do for the planet also we do for ourselves and our neighbors.

:-]

Easter epiphany

Last night I went to see the musical Cabaret with my friend Judy and her daughter-in-law Amy. We went out for dinner and then to the theater to make a night of it. I have seen the movie version several times and knew the story and the music very well, but Amy hadn't ever seen it before. I keep forgetting that the younger generation doesn't have the same background I take for granted.

I woke up to the theme song "Life is a Cabaret" and "Money" reverberating in my mind and thinking about the play. The version we saw at the Mount Baker Theater had a very wonderful actor playing the part of the Emcee (for those of you who remember Joel Gray in that part). So, in keeping with the theme of movies about Paris during the Nazi occupation, I watched Inglourious Basterds today, which has been sitting on the side table for weeks now, with me not willing to deal with Quentin Tarantino's penchant for violence but really wanting to see the performance by Christoph Waltz, which earned him every accolade out there for his performance as Col. Hans Landa.

I am really glad I watched the movie today, on Easter, thinking of what I want to resurrect and what I want to let go in my own psyche. If you have only seen the trailers for this movie, you will be surprised when you finally do see it. It's not what you think. Yes, there is violence, but it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, and less than "Saving Private Ryan," which I cannot bring myself to watch again. I could see this movie again.

As usual, as soon as I finished watching the movie, I went over to Rotten Tomatoes to see what the "freshness" rating is and was pleased to find out that 89% of the reviews of the movie have been positive. Brad Pitt is funny and offers almost comic relief when compared to the scary brilliance that Waltz portrays. One reviewer (the Oscar Guy) says it very well:

Waltz is anything but humorous. He plays a character so repugnant and vicious that his mild manner and friendly gestures belie a horrible temperament, which perfectly captures the charisma inherent in the Third Reich that allowed them to so effectively creep into the minds of the public and encourage them to support their evil machinations. He clearly recognizes the needs of the role and executes them perfectly, shifting from French to German to English in character with the ease of a studied actor.

 But what of the epiphany in the title of this post, you ask? Well, it was about some of the feelings I had while watching the movie. After being pensive thinking about what the Nazi occupation did to the French and the Jews in Cabaret, I began to root for the vicious killers who were on the "right" side of the violence in Tarantino's movie. And then the realization hit me: I was feeling justified in my desire to watch them suffer, in effect becoming like them. Also from the Oscar Guy:

The viewer rejoices in what happens on the screen, but does not recognize how alike that response is to those of the Germans in the film. We are at once repulsed by their reaction, but celebratory of their own demise to that point. And I can fully attest to those same feelings. There’s a certain satisfaction in seeing the events as they transpire at the end of the film, but if we can recognize that in ourselves, it makes us far better able to amend our ways so that we don’t take that slippery slope towards exclusion, prejudice and injustice.

 Amen. That's the epiphany. The thing that keeps these things going on in the world from generation to generation: a desire for revenge, to see "justice" done, to keep alive all those feelings that I really want to see gone from the world. I have a duty to see the humanity in the struggles of all of us toward the light, toward wholeness. The place to start is in my own heart.
:-[

Crazy Heart

Yesterday my friend Judy and I went to the movies again. This time we saw "Crazy Heart" which is playing in the art venue (a small 75-seat theater), the Pickford Theater, here in Bellingham. We got there early so we would be sure to get in, because we heard that the lines were around the building.

Sure enough, even a half hour before the doors opened, the line had started. There's a reason for this, although most of us in line wondered why it was not playing in any of the major theaters. The movie was made to be a direct-to-video release, and wasn't even scheduled to be in any theaters until it was bought by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

The movie is about Bad Blake, an alcoholic down-and-out country musician played by Jeff Bridges. The story opens with him arriving at a bowling alley where he's scheduled to perform, and he gets out of his old station wagon looking like, well, a serious has-been. From one of the Rotten Tomato reviews:

As Bad Blake steps out of his truck upon his arrival for a bowling-ally gig, Cooper (the director) shows his audience exactly what a mess of a man he has become -- all in less than 20 seconds of screen time.

Anybody who has spent any time with a musician and/or a drunk will see how authentically this portrayal of Bad Blake was captured by Bridges. He's got nothing left in his life except booze and his music, and you can't help but feel he's at the end of the road. And then he meets Jean, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and although she can see who he is, she gets involved with him anyway. She's got a four-year-old son who Blake begins to care about, too.

Blake wants to clean himself up and tries, but he can't. And then he does something that causes Jean to break up with him, and he retreats into the bottle. The scenes of him with his bottle, staring into the depths of his soul, are so heartfelt and wrenching that I just sat in the movie theater with tears streaming down my face. And then he calls his friend and says he wants to get sober.

Blake goes to AA and finds his way back to life. It's so beautifully done. Bad Blake and his life were the first things I thought about when I woke this morning. It's a movie well worth seeing, and it ends with you believing that Blake will make it. I hope that Bridges wins an Oscar for this performance, because he richly deserves it. Maggie is also nominated for her performance. If you get a chance to see this movie, I hope you do.
:-)

An Education

Yep, my friend Judy and I went out to see another movie, this one called An Education (the link takes you to my favorite movie link, Rotten Tomatoes, which gives this film a 95% freshness rating). Set in London in 1961, it's the story of a young sixteen-year-old schoolgirl who falls for a guy twice her age. Played impeccably by British actress Carey Mulligan (who's in her twenties, I found out), Jenny learns quickly about the sophisticated world of David (Peter Sarsgaard) and his cohorts.

David is charming and takes her to amazing places, and she is so smitten that she decides his world is way better than the one she's known all her life. And then she discovers some not-so-nice sides of David, but since he showers her with expensive gifts, and she thinks she loves him, not to mention she loses her virginity to him (and this before the swinging sixties started up), she agrees to marry him and drops out of school before taking her final exams. She is smart and witty and had every intention of going to Oxford before all this happened.

For me, one of the hardest parts of the movie was the way her parents went along with everything that the charming David brought into their lives. I overheard a woman saying, as we were leaving the movie, "I can't believe her parents went along with all that nonsense!" And I found this reviewer expressing the same sentiment (Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post):

As Jenny herself notes at one point, silly teenage girls are always being seduced by glamorous older men, but what "An Education" portrays with such appalling (and improbably amusing) clarity is the complicity of Jenny's parents in their daughter's alluring, perilous flirtation with adulthood.

The period was created so completely that nothing stood out as being false in the setting, and of course it took me back to my own 1961 young womanhood. And I did wonder about this guy, who is he exactly. You find out before the movie's end that all is not as it seems, and that David is, as you might have guessed by now, a cad.

I would give the movie a solid "good" rating, although never would I have guessed that almost every reviewer thought it was better than I did, but of course I'm not an expert. [News flash: it got nominated for best picture and best actress for Carey in the Oscars!] I know what I like, and I liked it and will probably see it again on Netflix sometime in the future. Every time I see a movie the second time, I usually like it much better because I know the ending. I no longer feel so caught up in the story and can appreciate all the nuances.
:-)