Doubting Faith In Dog
Posted on | June 22, 2009 at 8:05 pm | 2 Comments
Since N got back, we’re trying to catch up on DVDs that we both want to watch. While she was gone, I watched a lot of noisy, violent movies, but now it’s back to the dramatic quieter flicks.
This weekend we watched two features. The first one was Doubt, which is about a scandal at Catholic school in Brooklyn in the 60s. Since I went to a Catholic school in the 60s, I have an interest in such stories. (My attendance at said school was fairly uneventful, aside from developing a great fear of nuns and their punishing superpowers.) I have to say it was one of the most beautifully filmed movies I’ve ever seen. We weren’t even watching the Blu-Ray, just a regular DVD on the PS3, and the colors and detail were amazing. I really believed we were watching Brooklyn from a bygone era, although it looked more like the 50s than the 60s sometimes. The Oscar-level performances by the three leads (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams) were all brilliant. The story was enthralling, but I think we wanted a bit less ambiguity in the ending. I’m not just talking about the resolution to the central mystery of the story. The final scene, especially the final line, was a bit too abrupt. And even though the cinematography was excellent, the movie still felt a bit claustrophobic and insular, no doubt because of its genesis on the stage.
The second movie, Wendy and Lucy(which I keep wanting to call Wendy and Lisa), felt even more isolated. This despite the fact that most scenes are outdoors, including some in the woods. It was filmed in Portland Oregon, which was standing in for a smaller Oregon town. It’s about a woman, Wendy, played by Michelle Williams, who is having a very bad couple of days. She’s trying to go to Alaska with her dog Lucy and has just enough money to make it, but then things start going wrong, including her car breaking down and her losing her dog. This could have been a more interesting character piece if they had actually gone into the background of the character and told us how she got to this state. But instead it’s more of a short “slice of life” story, one small chapter in the middle somewhere, with no real beginning or end. The whole thing is pretty sad and depressing, but somehow appropriate for watching in bed on a Sunday morning. Williams did a decent job with the material, and the few scenes were she got really frustrated, angry, or scared hinted at what her performance could’ve been and where a more interesting story could’ve gone. Too bad we don’t get to see that story.
Administration Note: I’m avoiding including pix in posts lately until I figure out what I want to do about a new WordPress theme. The fewer pictures I include, the fewer posts I potentially have to go back and edit if I change themes.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Waning support for the PlayStation 3.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “special k has changed from original flakes”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: inFamous demo (PS3), PlayStation Home.
Comments
2 Responses to “Doubting Faith In Dog”
June 23rd, 2009 @ 7:11 am
And for a taste of how the other half lives, most of the movies I’ve seen so far this year have been on the two plane trips I’ve taken (well, one round-trip)
The sound was so bad that I couldn’t hear most of the dialogue, especially the lower ranges, so for instance I saw one movie twice which might as well have been called “Frost and a Mute Guy”…
June 26th, 2009 @ 4:49 am
Wendy and Lisa would be an awesome movie. Not matter what it was rated, although I would prefer a hard-R.