Stormy Weather and Silver Linings

Thursday, late afternoon, we were about to go see The Great Gatsby on its last non-3D showing at our local cinema. Just as we were going out the phone rang - tornado warning for the area. I'd checked on-line radar and the map didn't seem to be showing anything dire for our town, at least between the movie's start and end times. Sirens sounded, we waited. Another phone call, waited some more, another call with the same warning. Switched the TV on to a local station where the weatherman was getting excited about wall clouds and rotations near a town some 15 minutes away. Discretion being the better part of valour, and with the thought that, even though the cinema would be a safe enough building in which to be sheltered in case of tornadic activity, our car would be standing outside in the carpark. If tales of golf ball to tennis ball-sized hail were to be believed....well.....enough said. We ditched our plan but decided that once the storm had passed we'd go rent a couple of up-to-date DVDs for the evening's entertainment.

What I picked out proved to be considerably less entertaining than The Great Gatsby might have been, which was surprising as one of the DVDs was Silver Linings Playbook, it garnered tons of acclaim at various award ceremonies last Fall. The other DVD was Cosmopolis which had one of my favourite actors, Paul Giamatti in the cast. The only thing I''ll write on Cosmopolis is to agree with a remark of the late Roger Ebert about it: "You couldn't pay me to watch it again!" I don't itch to see Silver Linings again either - but if paid, I would!

For anyone who hasn't seen Silver Linings Playbook, or read the novel (which, I understand, has some important differences from the film's screenplay) some brief detail from Wikipedia:

Silver Linings Playbook is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by David O. Russell, screenplay by Russell, adapted from the novel The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.

Bradley Cooper plays Patrizio "Pat" Solitano, a man with bipolar disorder who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents. Determined to win back his estranged wife, Pat meets recently-widowed sex addict Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence). She tells Pat that she will help him get his wife back if he enters a dance competition with her. The two become closer as they train and Pat, his father (Robert de Niro), and Tiffany examine their relationships with each other as they cope with their disorders.

It received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay; it became the first film since 1981 to be Oscar-nominated for the four acting categories and the first since 2004 to be nominated for the Big Five Oscars, with Lawrence winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. It also achieved four Golden Globe Award nominations, with Lawrence winning Best Actress; three BAFTA nominations, with Russell winning for Best Adapted Screenplay; four Screen Actors Guild nominations, with Lawrence winning Best Actress; and five Independent Spirit Award nominations, winning in four categories including Best Film and Best Actress for Lawrence. The film was a blockbuster at the box office, grossing over $235 million worldwide, more than eleven times its budget.

The movie portrays the key family as Italian-Americans, but the novel names the leading character Patrick Peoples, rather than Patrizio (Pat) Solitano, and sets the tale in New Jersey rather than Philadelphia as in the film. I'd have appreciated the Italian reference more if Bradley Cooper had looked the least bit Italian. I don't understand why this particular change was seen as necessary. I understand that Cooper wasn't first choice to play the part of "Pat", Vince Vaughan or Mark Wahlberg were ahead of him, but neither looks Italian. Nicholas Cage wasn't mentioned as a possibility, but would have been a perfect choice. He wouldn't have given off that essential crowd-pleasing good-guy-but-rascally vibe that has become Cooper's signature. Cage would have had a more correct darker vibe to match a storyline involving violence to the point of near-murder.

Jennifer Lawrence was the only non-disappointment in the movie for me. She's so good, so young! Reminded me at times of a young Renée Zellweger, without irritating facial expressions.

For at least the first half of the movie, maybe first two-thirds, I kept turning to husband with variations of, "How the heck did this film get all the acclaim it did?" He wondered the same: "It's not the usual Award material - nowhere near it!" The last third of the film got me slightly more engaged, the dance competition, full chic-flick mode kicking in. The ending felt contrived though (to say the least!) A crowd pleasing ending was essential for Christmas-time screenings, I guess.

I felt uncomfortable about the way the movie treated serious mental disorders of various kinds so lightly (bi-polar and attendant violence, OCD, and gambling or sex addiction). Maybe I'm being too po-faced on this and ought to lighten up. I didn't laugh out loud once, whereas I've since read reviews where laughing "until sides hurt" was mentioned. I must be incredibly out of the loop then.

Maybe the movie was just too American for me to appreciate, though it seems to have done well enough on its showings in the UK. I've been wondering if the story could translate well, using alternative British motifs and clichés (and yes, this movie is full of clichés): soccer instead of American football, less "hyperness" all round, maybe set in down-to-earth but soccer-crazy Liverpool, Manchester, or somewhere in Essex...it might translate, but not easily. I doubt I'd find it funny, even in translation.

Thoughts on some movies & a series (no astrology today).

TV programmes become progressively more unwatchable during the summer. TV powers that be are under the impression that the Great Unwashed are out and about being summery, out of range of the goggle-box; or, this summer especially they assume viewers are interested only in coverage of The Games. So they drag out repeats of what was unwatchable even first time around. As I've whined already in these posts, summer weather in Oklahoma does not make yours truly feel summery. The last few days have seen temperatures here rise to previously rare levels even for southern Oklahoma: 112F in the afternoons.....44.44 C. Yesterday we received a phone call from the electricity supplier telling us that demand is astronomical, higher than it has ever been, and asking consumers to avoid using air conditioning, if possible, between 2 and 8 PM. That'll be hard !

At these times, more than ever, we fall back on our stash of junk store DVDs and VHS tapes, along with a smattering of rentals. A few thoughts on some we've seen recently:


The Iron Lady(2011) : The Margaret Thatcher story. I'd sworn I wouldn't, but curiosity overcame me. The film turned out to be a fairer assessment than I'd suspected. I had to yell at the TV only twice! Ms Streep's performance nothing short of....and here the word is appropriate - awesome!




Perfect Sense(2011) - This is an indie movie, shown at Sundance I think. Not recommended for nervous types or worry-warts. In a nutshell a virus (or something) attacks human sensory perception world-wide, though the scene of the movie is Glasgow, Scotland. First people lose sense of smell, then taste, then hearing....and onward. A chef (Ewan McGregor) and an epidemiologist (Eva Green) are our points of focus on how "life can go on" in spite of everything. Probably the most depressing movie I've ever watched all the way through. Upside: it does jolt the viewer into celebrating humans' wondrous, when working, senses.





Critical Care (1997) Directed by Sidney Lumet starring James Spader and Helen Mirren, this movie has become even more relevant in 2012 than it probably seemed to be in 1997. A young-ish James Spader, towards the end of the movie, gives a very good diatribe about hospitals, health insurance and the murky things going on beihind scenes. The speech is almost a limbering-up for him, for the many rousing speeches he gave in Boston Legal, later on.







Swept From the Sea (1997) - Chick-flicky on the surface, set in the 19th century, a love story, between a young Russian man who, with a shipload of his fellow-countrymen, was en route to a new life in America when the vessel was destroyed in a violent storm. He, Yanko, was the only survivor, washed up near a Cornish village in a remote corner of south-western England. Villagers were afraid of him, but a young woman, Amy, something of an outcast herself, takes pity on him, helps him and they fall in love. What struck me most was how the attitudes of distrust and ridicule, mushrooming into actual hatred and violence isn't much changed from the late 1800s to today, in both the UK and the USA and probably all over the world. Human nature doesn't change at its root; sadly it never will.

Kathy Bates plays a nice character part of one of the village's more enlightened inhabitants. Leads are Vincent Perez and Rachel Weisz.




We've finished the first season of The West Wing it was first aired in 1999; and now we're well into Season 2. Excellent, excellent series - addictive on a par with Boston Legal and Mad Men. I understand that later seasons may not be as good as the first two or three, but that tended to be so in the two other named series also. It'll not stop us - we're well and truly hooked already. It'd be nice to think that characters like these inhabit the real West Wing of The White House, but I have serious doubts on that. Watching this series somehow helps, though I'm not quite sure why.





Heavens Fall (2006) This film re-tells a very important, if uncomfortable true story. The film is another from my growing collection of movies in which David Strathairn has appeared, it's the story of a tragic court case in Alabama in 1931. Nine black hobos (aged 12 to 23) who came to be known as "the Scottsboro Boys" were accused of raping two white women on an Alabama freight train. They were quickly sentenced to death by electric chair, by an all-white jury who considered the evidence for all of 20 minutes. As news of the convictions spread the plight of the young men inadvertently fuelled fires of socialism across the globe. The case was quickly appealed to the United States Supreme Court. At a re-trial in a Decatur, Alabama courtroom, acclaimed New York defense attorney Samuel Liebowitz (Timothy Hutton) took on the formidable task of representing the accused before another all-white jury, in spite of efforts to include in it several well-positioned and qualified black citizens from the area. The case was heard before Judge James Horton (David Strathairn), from whose family motto "Let justice be done though the heavens fall" the film takes its title.

Incredibly, for me, the ending was in no way positive. Evidence clearly sufficient to give any reasonable jury member cause to suspect lies had been told by the accusers was presented. Yet the jury still returned a verdict of "Guilty". The judge set aside the re-trial jury's verdict. He was never allowed to preside as judge again, but it has been said by his son that he never once regretted his action.

The vein of ignorance and potential evil that runs through certain areas of the USA, even now, continues to horrify me.

Sir Terry Pratchett and "maybe a slice of tomato"

During August of 1997, sitting with my mother in hospital during her last sad days, I couldn't help noticing the guy who used to sit by the elderly patient in the bed opposite. The visitor, while his relative slept, would read a book with a constant grin on his face, occasionally bursting into spluttering laughter.

"What are you reading?"
"It's a Terry Pratchett novel - great stuff !"
"So I'd gathered !"
"You should try him!"
"I will."

Ever since then I've had a stored intention to get my head into some Terry Pratchett books but somehow haven't yet got around to doing so. There are so many, and they're mostly part of a set all relating to his fantasy Discworld. Each time I've begun looking for a used book or two of his I've been overwhelmed by sheer numbers and felt that venturing in to them now would be like trying to leap and hang on to the rail at the back of a speeding train which left the station long ago. In our local video rental store though, a few weeks ago I spotted:

Going Postal - a 2010 2-disc adaptation for TV of a Terry Pratchett novel - I grabbed it without further investigation - turned out to have been a good choice. We both enjoyed it a lot. Pratchett's style has echoes of....let's see.....Douglas Adams, Thorne Smith, Lewis Carrol, Harry Potter stories, Terry Gilliam and on....you get the idea? Fantasy with recognisable references and a good engaging story with quirky characters and excellent visuals. The plot involves a first-class con artist called Moist Von Lipwig finding the tables turned on him when he's conned into becoming the Ankh-Morpork Postmaster General. A position that has not been filled in years. This adaptation was produced as a 2-parter for Sky TV in the UK.

Properly referred to as Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE, the author was knighted in 2009. Wikipedia tells that:

Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, and has sold over 70 million books worldwide in thirty-seven languages. He is currently the second most-read writer in the UK, and seventh most-read non-US author in the US. ............. And, very sadly: In December 2007, Pratchett publicly announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Sir Terry now fights to raise awareness of the disease. Public attention increasing since he publicly backed assisted dying by making the BBC documentary Choosing to Die.

Sir Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was thirteen, bought a second-hand typewriter with the proceeds. His first novel, The Carpet People was published in 1971. His literary fate, he says, was truly sealed when, aged 10, he first picked up a copy of The Wind in the Willows...."Mole, Rat, Toad, Badger. All different sizes. All can go inside one another's houses. All wear clothes. The toad, by no means a looker, can pass as a washerwoman. That enthralled me." He worked as a journalist and press officer for some years, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including the first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, in 1983. In 1987 he began writing full time. His chosen style: a kind of magical-quirky-satirical-comical-fantasy.


Sir Terry's natal chart set for 12 noon as his time of birth isn't known.

I don't have far to seek to find the astro-signature of his trademark style: look at Venus, planet of the arts tightly conjunct eccentric Uranus - and in writers' sign Gemini too! Game set and match right there! Jupiter is opposite, in its home sign Sagittarius, known for philosophical leanings. From the Pratchett quotes below a definite philosophical bent can be sensed, so this astrological opposition reflects a balancing of the eccentric with the philosophical, and works out well.

A trio of planets in Leo, sign of a born leader in a chosen genre, who is unlikely to be ignored by the general public.

Sun and Mercury in Earthy Taurus with Moon somewhere in similarly Earthy Capricorn provide an underlying base of good old commonsense and business-sense around which his eccentric quirks and philosophical meanderings can swirl.

RANDOM QUOTES from Terry Pratchett and his novels

“There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty.

The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass! Who's been pinching my beer?

And at the other end of the bar the world is full of the other type of person, who has a broken glass, or a glass that has been carelessly knocked over (usually by one of the people calling for a larger glass) or who had no glass at all, because he was at the back of the crowd and had failed to catch the barman's eye. ”
(The Truth)


“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
(Men at Arms)

“There was this about vampires : they could never look scruffy. Instead, they were... what was the word... deshabille. It meant untidy, but with bags and bags of style.”
(Monstrous Regiment)


“The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up, such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way off. A dog's wet nose is not strictly speaking the worst of the bunch, but it has it's own peculiar dreadfulness which connoisseurs of the ghastly and dog owners everywhere have come to know and dread. It's like having a small piece of defrosting liver pressed lovingly against you.”
(Moving Pictures)


“He'd noticed that sex bore some resemblance to cookery: it fascinated people, they sometimes bought books full of complicated recipes and interesting pictures, and sometimes when they were really hungry they created vast banquets in their imagination - but at the end of the day they'd settle quite happily for egg and chips. If it was well done and maybe had a slice of tomato.”
(The Fifth Elephant)


“This book was written using 100% recycled words.”
(Wyrd Sisters)

“Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.”

“The entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks.”

“There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.”

More quotes at goodreads.com