My Day of Atonement

Years ago, after the hubby had his wisdom teeth out, I rented Beaches and some other horrible chick flick like Fried Green Tomatoes. Kick 'em when he's down, I say. He's never quite forgiven me.

I finally atoned for that sin during Yom Kippur by getting sick, staying home for two days, reading a boring book and watching three films -- all of which left more to be desired. The worst of the lot was Adrift in Manhattan starring Heather Graham. The only thing that could have saved me from interminable boredom during this "drama" was if I were adrift in Manhattans but alas I'm deep in the heart of my pseudo-Lenten, non-drinking period. Next up was Grace is Gone with my main man John Cusack. Not bad; not great. Touchingly so so.

Hands down, the best movie of the three was Burn After Reading which was disappointingly not up to par with other Coen Brothers films. But here's what I really want to know: how did they get John Malkovich to play the part of the jilted agent/husband? Did he read the script before signing on? He, of course, was fantastic (as he typically is) but his character spent the entire film saying and/or asking "What the f*&^?" in a million different, highly expressive ways. I'm not sure he had many (if any) other lines but he delivered each WTF with a new, fresh intonation while stressing different words. Impressive. I guess that's acting. The hubby's guess is that he needed a cash infusion to renovate his kitchen.

Oh well. I think it's high time to put my movie picking to rest and let others select films for me from now on. It's no wonder I'm not allowed to touch the remote.

Love & Marriage

"Marriage is like an unfunny, tense version of Everybody Loves Raymond
. . . but it doesn't last 22 minutes. It lasts forever."

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I finally saw Knocked Up last night and, while I couldn't stop laughing throughout the film, that line was the highlight. (Doesn't hurt that it was delivered by Paul McDreamy Rudd.)

Although the focus of the movie is on the hilarity of the unplanned pregnancy and the budding relationship between total opposites (i.e., a stoner and a hottie), I really enjoyed the scenes with, and droll dialog of, the married couple (i.e., the hottie's sister and brother-in-law).

Yep, it doesn't get any better than this! Till death!

Son of a Gun

During the sermon this past weekend, our pastor was recounting the scene in Dead Man Walking when Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) tells the convicted murderer/rapist (Sean Penn) whom she was counseling spiritually, "You are a son of God" and he responds with a bit of a laugh, "I've been called a son of a you-know-what plenty of times, but I've never been called a son of God."

Son #1, who just turned eight, turned to me and whispered, "I bet he's been called a son of a bitch."

Hmmm. Well, at least he was listening.