Smiling in a Dopey Fashion

My post was going to be titled "Smiling Dopily" but then I thought, I'm not sure that I've spelt "dopily" right. Dopeily? Dopily? This is what happens when you look too hard at a word. It just looks odd anyway you spell it.

I'm smiling in a dopey way because I have just had a few days off work after a long stretch of stupidly-long days. And it feels so good!

But now for some updates:

Film:
First up is The Breakup (2006). A whole lot of talent gone to waste on a film that doesn't know what it wants to be when - if - it ever grows up. SPOILER ALERT: So, pre-credits, we have Vince Vaughn not at his funniest, attempting to pick up Jennifer Aniston, doing what she does least effectively, which is to be kind of uptight and unfriendly. During the credits, they turn into the sort of annoying people who have to photograph every social event they partake in and document thusly their process of falling in love. Post-credits they have moved into their gorgeous condo and are throwing their first meet-the-families dinner party.

BUCKET OF COLD WATER ALERT: OMG! Vince has turned out to be Neanderthal man #1 and refuses to help Jennifer do anything as he spends every waking minute playing video games. OMG! Jennifer has turned into a shrewish, misunderstood home-maker who collects injustices like they are going out of style and just wants Vince to want to be the man she wants him to be.

At no point in this movie do you understand how or why these people got together. At no point is there a shred of evidence to show they were ever attracted to each other on any level or enjoyed each other's company, other than the strained collection of opening credit photography.

HEAPS O' TALENT GONE TO WASTE: Judy Davis as Jennifer's art-gallery boss, a character who deserves a movie all her own - what an actress! Vincent D'Onofrio as Vince's earnest older brother, wonderful except for a weird moment where you think they might have been cracking up each time they tried the scene... he seriously looks like he's about to start laughing right when he shouldn't. Justin Long as the art gallery receptionist - almost unrecognizeable with a dreadful hairdo but I always love him. Two words: Ann Margaret! And finally, the surprise of the night: Peter Billingsley all grown up from A Christmas Story (1983) as Jennifer's brother-in-law. You can see Ralphie in him, but he's playing a dad now. A Christmas Story is so timeless I forget it was made over 20 years ago.

Things got way better with Breach (2006), with Chris Cooper as real-life renegade FBI spy Robert Hanssen, Ryan Phillippe as the FBI man who helped to bring him down, and Laura Linney as an FBI special agent who masterminds the bring-down. The cast is rounded out by such great actors as Kathleen Quinlan, Dennis Haysbert and Bruce Davison. It's earnest and surprising, and only predictable in that the wonderful Chris Cooper manages to be completely wonderful. I will see any movie with this man in it. In fact, after a conversation about him, we decided the next movie to see (DVD conveniently always at hand) would be Lone Star (1996)... one of my top eleven movies of all time, as you know. We watched it, yet again, and yet again I got more out of it, noted some new subtlety. When a script is this dense, and this rich, and this true to every character, it never fails to teach you something. It's like Hamlet for crying out loud! John Sayles is a film god.

The History Boys (2006) is based on Alan Bennett's Tony-award winning play, set in 1983, about a small group of English school boys being groomed by a trio of teachers to be accepted into Oxford or Cambridge. The film is directed by Nicholas Hytner and the script is adapted by Alan Bennett himself. The actors are perfectly cast: Richard Griffiths as Hector, a lonely, married homosexual whose passion for learning and teaching is so eloquently expressed. There is so much to discuss here just about one character. Frances de la Tour is Mrs. Lintott, another devoted teacher, which leaves me gasping with the question: where were these teachers when I was growing up? I seem to recall an endless line of burnt-out, embittered child-loathing, original-thought despising old farts. Stephen Campbell-Moore is perfect as Irwin, the younger teacher brought in by the ambitious headmaster to put the finishing polish on the boys as they prep for the entrance exams and interviews. He is exasperatingly and perfectly wishy-washy. All the actors, including the excellent young guys who play the students, played the same roles on stage at the National Theatre in London. I don't know the path by which it came to NY, but I gather that both Griffiths and de la Tour won Tonys for their performances there. What an opportunity... to play those roles on stage, then to film them. And what performances you get then, when actors have lived with those characters for so long. It's a rich experience.

Food:
I celebrated the slight drop of temperature this weekend by making some chocolate chip cookies using the Callebaut chips. Someone help me! HELP ME!!! Can't... stop... eating... It's soup season too, so made heaps of chicken stock in preparation for the soups to come. The fridge and freezer are stocked and ready. And now I have some free evenings to bash and crash about in the kitchen. Not food-related, but have to report that instead of cut flowers this week, I bought a sheaf (I guess) of wheat and stuck it in two vases. My place is now redolent of a barn full of hay (and no other smells thank goodness). Just lovely hay. It's quite fragrant and surprising.

Fiction:
On the long-time recommendation of L and J, I have finally taken to reading The Golden Compass, (known in the UK as Northern Lights) which has been made into a movie. This is just part one of three. It's already infiltrated my imagination and Lyra is a wonderful young heroine. I'm just a third of my way into the book and it has proved a powerful distraction from knitting, hee hee. I suspect I shall be buying the other two parts of the complete trilogy before the week is out.

Television:
Mad Men finally ended it's 13-episode run. It's such good television in all respects - production values, casting, writing, acting, editing, music - it seems flawless. I can't wait for season two which - I believe - will be aired next summer. The last episode was a great finale, with more of the now-expected twists that turn any possible cliche into a surprise.