Plus, there were so many wonderful movie choices that I didn't want to sleep at all. Which made for loads of jetlag later. (At basically 30, I don't feel as tough as pushing through the jetlag as I did at 18--how in the world do you fly when you're 60?)
On the flight, Francisco and I watched Silver Linings Playbook, which came fairly highly recommended and was underwhelming. It was a basic chick flick with actors who weren't too confusing as real people. It was set in Philly and they got that part right--the older actors had the right accents and the scene, a working class Italian home, was set well. The chemistry between the two main characters, however, as well as their struggle with mental illness, were simply not that compelling.
In contrast, we also watched the best movie I've seen since Vertigo: The Intouchables. The Intouchables (that's the original French name) also deals with disability, but the chemistry is perfect between Phillipe, a quadriplegic aristocrat, and Driss, a Senegalese-born man who begins by stealing one of Phillipe's Faberge eggs. The movie is charmingly funny and movingly emotional--we laughed, we cried--shamelessly in front of the fellow passengers. The relationship they form transforms both of them. And the movie is even based on real life (although in real life, Driss is Arab, not black). Go see this as fast as you can. Book a Virgin trip if you can't find it anywhere else. It will be worth it.
(Note: many American critics find the film to be racist. Here's Rolling Stone's response.)
We also watched The Promised Land. I had to--it's all about fracking. I was unimpressed, although sympathetic to the film's message. It just wasn't convincing to me--Matt Damon's grand change of heart, the film's clever twist which makes it seems like the natural gas companies are big and bad and all powerful and omniscient (I totally believe that they're big and bad, but I have to draw the line at all powerful and omniscient). In the really wonderful final twist of the film, it turns out that the film is partially funded by big oil:
[O]ne of the financial backers listed is Image Nation Abu Dhabi.
Image Nation Abu Dhabi is, in turn, owned by Abu Dhabi Media - a state media company for the United Arab Emirates. The UAE, an OPEC member, is the world's third-largest oil exporter.
This may actually prove the film's point after all--that energy companies are all powerful, it just isn't natural gas that's the only bad guy.
1 comment:
Agreed about Silver Linings Playbook -- it was fun, but given the reviews etc I was expecting something much better than an interesting setting with two characters getting together in an entirely predictable way (not to mention that given the way both of their mental problems had been set up at the beginning -- I wasn't buying that they could possibly last more than a week. You don't just slough off an obsession that easily).
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