Greetings from the Land of Enchantment

Seen at the Cinema

Or should I say Scene at the Cinema...we avoided an altercation, but evidently, we Americans are not as polite as Canadians in the movie theater. There's nothing more frustrating that someone talking behind you in the movies. I was lucky to be there with someone who was affected more than me, so I didn't have to get so upset--someone else was there to be upset for me :-)

Anyway, it's been a good week at the movies so far. And I'm looking forward to a few more holiday delights in the next week or two.

Syriana.

I don't know if as a vehicle it was successful. Was it important? Yes. Was it compelling? Yes. Was it disturbing? A Resounding Yes! But as a movie, did it do it's job. I'm not sure I'm convinced, unless you're into the Post Post-modern: no plot, no climax, no denoument, no clear sides, and hard-to-hear soundtrack. Sounds a little like life, huh? Nevertheless, if you've been resistant to conspiracy theories and still want to live in Mayberry, it will be a shocking wake-up call and you'll be on those websites quicker than you can say corruption.

The one reason to see it: the monologue by the oil trader/lawyer/whatever-he-was character who goes off on the benefits and necessities of corruption within the economic/bureaucratic structure we currently reside in--this is not a democracy, if you hadn't noticed yet. I don't mean to spoil your Christmas but, there it is.

Should you go see it? Yes.

The Family Stone

The title is a play on words--the family jewel and the family name. The movie in general is a play on your emotions. I laughed, I cried. I remember when that was the test of a good movie to me. Those days are over. I felt a tad manipulated by this film. I'm a big believer in love at first sight, but two, in the same family. Even hard for me to swallow--and I clicked my heels before I went into the theater, I promise.

Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to watch Diane Keaton and Sarah Jessica Parker in their roles as the matriarch and the up-and-comer--the wise and witty and the uptight and natty. I missed a lot of the dialogue in the beginning because I had to play the cultural interpreter to my companions. (No the deaf guy is not dating the young sassy (mean) one--they are siblings. The handsome black man is not an adopted son; he is the deaf character's lover.) Sigh. Anyway, as a tale of what people do to compensate for their families, their feelings, and their own desires, it is a complex and poignant picture of people's lives and how well we know one another: brother to brother, mother to son, and all the permutations in-between.

And, as every good love story should, the moral of this story was: follow your heart.

posted by Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa @ 2:22 PM