The Young Victoria

The daughters and I went to this one when the boys were winter camping. We loved it.  What a great love story, those two: V & A. I knew the general story but loved knowing more. (Bummer about the typhoid, though.) Emily Blunt is lovely as Victoria and I'm seriously crushing on Albert/Rupert Friend (who I noticed in the .05 version of Pride and Prejudice, too). On the way home (Maddy still sniffling from the ending) we talked about being choosy in finding a partner and holding out for an Albert-type of relationship. 

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Invictus 

"I am the master of my fate/ I am the captain of my soul"

We saw this last night, G and I, and talked about it all the way home.  Inspiring (again true) story about Nelson Mandela's early presidency in South Africa and the struggling national rugby team; both became instruments in the others' success and acceptance.  You can't go wrong emulating Mandela's leadership.

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Bright Star

I went to this by myself since it only had one showing in one theater in the middle of the day and I had heard so many good things.  Loved it, though.  Depiction of sweet (alas, doomed) romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne.  This is exactly the kind of movie G encourages me to see without him :) .  Well done, so tragic.  (Bummer about the typhoid.)

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Also seen this month: Avatar, An Education, It's Complicated, Sherlock Holmes, & Up in the Air.  That's a little embarrassing but what can I say? It's one of the activities we love, especially when it's too cold to go anywhere else and we need to get out of the house before we go crazy.  Apparently I'm in a British, historical, true story kind of mood...

Around here we've been cooking, eating, playing games, reading, eating, talking, being thankful, and eating some more. (More about all that later.)  Yesterday my sister and I took the kids to the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was a hit with all of us: quirky and funny, both new and old-fashioned at the same time.

Here's a fun view at the making of the movie:

Today: Tuba Christmas (thanks Ellen!), pizza and cannoli in the North End, and watching football.

I hope your weekend has been Fantastic, too.

In a recent Boston Globe, Meredith Goldstein described how, when she heard that her grandmother had less than three months to live, she started orchestrating Grandma Lorraine's Netflix queue--demoting some movies, adding others--so that her grandmother's final movie(s) would be meaningful and suited to her tastes.  She says "When I got the phone call about my grandmother's fatal condition, I felt powerless.  Her last movie was about the only thing I could control. I was like God. God of the Netflix queue."  

What a beautiful thought, especially for a movie-loving family like mine.  I've often wished I could wield an Rx pad to prescribe certain movies for loved ones.  There would be the break-up prescription, the new parent prescription, the flu-ridden prescription, the life roadblock one. Books could be used in the same way but the beauty of a movie is that it can be enjoyed, simultaneously, by several people and it engages so many senses: the imagery, the music, the emotions, the story.

Grandma Lorraine's last full movie was Penelope, the quirky and delightful movie about a girl with a pig's nose. (She knew her grandma loved movies about women transcending some kind of obstacle: "women rising up." She tried to stock the queue with ones that would fit that description.)  I think I would want a transcending kind of movie, too. I'd want to cry.  I'd want to marvel about life and relationships and triumphs.  I'd want to laugh.  I'd want to look across the room and exchange a glance with a loved one at the right moment, squeeze a hand and telegraph my delight and love.  

Short list: To Kill a Mockingbird. Pride and Prejudice. An Affair to Remember. Once. Out of Africa. It's a Wonderful Life. All seasons of Friday Night Lights. Cinema Paradiso. Room with a View. West Side Story. Hopefully something new that I hadn't seen that fits the bill.

What movie (or kind of movie) would you want to see if it were your last? Or show to others? 

When I think of the movie Where The Wild Things Are, I will think of Sam wiping his eyes, flat palmed with both hands, as he cried at the end.

I've been chipping away at a couple of deadlines that are looming this week and next, trying to inoculate against the procrastination that can be my default [de fault?] mode.

Unfortunately, now I have another thing to add to my distractions: post-it-note art creation. And, of course, youtube surfing.