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Had lunch today with a grandmother whom I hadn't seen in, like, a couple of years. Was nice. Had fabulous burger. Got a chance to poke around in a Columbia(n?) Sports store while she picked up some photos and discovered that there are indeed jerseys available for my favourite Sox player, Jason Varitek. Since he's not one of the big superstars and I have no knowledge of sports merchandising, I didn't know if they would exist or not. Cannot wait to have money with which to buy one.
I watched The Broken Hearts Club the other day, and now I finally get
I watched The Broken Hearts Club the other day, and now I finally get
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Had lunch today with a grandmother whom I hadn't seen in, like, a couple of years. Was nice. Had fabulous burger. Got a chance to poke around in a Columbia(n?) Sports store while she picked up some photos and discovered that there are indeed jerseys available for my favourite Sox player, Jason Varitek. Since he's not one of the big superstars and I have no knowledge of sports merchandising, I didn't know if they would exist or not. Cannot wait to have money with which to buy one.
I watched <i>The Broken Hearts Club</i> the other day, and now I finally get <username="j_crew_guy">'s username. Heeheehee. (But you should be Idaho Guy! 'Cos, he's Lindsey! *g*) Great movie; I decided to try it 'cos it was written and directed by our very own Greg "Damn You" Berlanti. I won't even tell you how many times I damned Berlanti, because I lost count. Many, many times during the last half hour, to be sure. (For those of you who don't spend way too much time at <a href="http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com">TWoP</a>, that means that I cried a lot.)
And last night, I watched another <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171359/"><i>Hamlet</i></a>, this one starring Ethan Hawke. It's a modernization of the play set in 2000; Denmark is not a country but a major corporation of which Hamlet, Sr was the CEO or something. Elsinore is a hotel. The changes made to the story feel a little weird and render some things really amusing - I particularly like the effect they have on Laertes lecturing Ophelia to safeguard her virginity, like, it's the twenty-first century, Laertes, shut up. I'm not sure if it works overall, but I did like some things they did - the first scene with the ghost, for example, takes place in one of Elsinore's suites. Hamlet is alone, and the ghost is very physically aggressive with him - crowding him into corners, standing over him, and just generally making one wonder what kind of relationship Hamlet really had with his father. (People like to push Hamlet around and touch him a lot in the movie, actually. You'd think the hideous ski cap he wears through most of the first half of the movie would put them off, but I guess not.)
I really like what they did with Ophelia, too. See, I never really was very clear on why she went insane. I mean, I get the circumstances, but to read the text, she just doesn't seem like the type to crack the way she does. However, in this production, Ophelia (played by Julia Stiles, who seems to like doing <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147800/">modern</a> Shakespeare <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184791/">adaptations</a>) is very quiet, still, and withdrawn. Most of her dialogue is cut, Stiles's body language is restrained, and she doesn't show much emotion. I think the most active she gets is when Polonius is showing Hamlet's letter to Claudius and Gertrude, and she tries to grab it away from him a couple of times. During the scene where she is setting up Hamlet (rather than having Polonius and Claudius hiding, she wears a wire), she reacts strongly to Hamlet's indifference; since she isn't required by social convention to show the restraint becoming of a noble maiden, she is more obviously hurt. I hate to say it, but Stiles's near-tears delivery of "I was the more deceived" says more to me about Ophelia's state of mind than does the entire equivalent scene in Kenneth's film. But to the best of my recollection, that's the most emotion she shows while still sane; overall, she is very subdued and and obviously not well-equipped to handle a lot of stress. Thus, when she cracks under the strain of everything that happens to her, it makes perfect sense to me and the only question left is how, exactly, she was able to stay in a fountain that I believe was located in or near Elsinore (or Denmark Co.) long enough to drown herself. Worst security ever.
Also? This movie has the <i>weirdest</i> cast. Everyone from Julia Stiles to Bill Murray (yes, that Bill Murray; he plays Polonius) to Liev <a href="http://catslash.acherontia.org/phantoms.html">"Cotton Weary"</a> Schreiber (as <i>Laertes,</i> of all people; if I were to cast him in <i>Hamlet</i> - well, I wouldn't, but if I did, I'd have him as maybe Osric or the First Gravedigger), to Kyle Maclachlan (a very suave, dapper Claudius). All very obviously designed to appeal to to my age demographic - well, except for Maclachlan; I don't think my age demographic knows who he is. My very favourite piece of casting, though, was Casey Affleck as Fortinbras. This is because we see Fortinbras, like, twice, and both times it's just a publicity photo. Why bother casting Casey freaking Affleck if you're not going to have him <i>do</i> anything? They could have just put any young guy in a suit and taken a photo and called him Fortinbras. Hilarious. Absolutely nobody's performance was especially notable - for all I said above about Julia Stiles, I suspect ninety-nine percent of my praise actually belongs to the director, Michael Almereyda. Nobody sucked and nobody was great. Kinda like Mel Gibson's performance ten years previous, actually. I think I'm going to watch it again tonight, though, to see how it holds up under a closer viewing.
My favourite surreal moment: Hamlet does "to be or not to be" in a video store, in that stupid ski cap (I suspect they were going for "Holden Caulfield," but they missed by a mile and landed on "colourblind crackhead" instead), wandering up and down the aisles muttering to himself. It's a wonder nobody discreetly called the cops.
I watched <i>The Broken Hearts Club</i> the other day, and now I finally get <username="j_crew_guy">'s username. Heeheehee. (But you should be Idaho Guy! 'Cos, he's Lindsey! *g*) Great movie; I decided to try it 'cos it was written and directed by our very own Greg "Damn You" Berlanti. I won't even tell you how many times I damned Berlanti, because I lost count. Many, many times during the last half hour, to be sure. (For those of you who don't spend way too much time at <a href="http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com">TWoP</a>, that means that I cried a lot.)
And last night, I watched another <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171359/"><i>Hamlet</i></a>, this one starring Ethan Hawke. It's a modernization of the play set in 2000; Denmark is not a country but a major corporation of which Hamlet, Sr was the CEO or something. Elsinore is a hotel. The changes made to the story feel a little weird and render some things really amusing - I particularly like the effect they have on Laertes lecturing Ophelia to safeguard her virginity, like, it's the twenty-first century, Laertes, shut up. I'm not sure if it works overall, but I did like some things they did - the first scene with the ghost, for example, takes place in one of Elsinore's suites. Hamlet is alone, and the ghost is very physically aggressive with him - crowding him into corners, standing over him, and just generally making one wonder what kind of relationship Hamlet really had with his father. (People like to push Hamlet around and touch him a lot in the movie, actually. You'd think the hideous ski cap he wears through most of the first half of the movie would put them off, but I guess not.)
I really like what they did with Ophelia, too. See, I never really was very clear on why she went insane. I mean, I get the circumstances, but to read the text, she just doesn't seem like the type to crack the way she does. However, in this production, Ophelia (played by Julia Stiles, who seems to like doing <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147800/">modern</a> Shakespeare <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184791/">adaptations</a>) is very quiet, still, and withdrawn. Most of her dialogue is cut, Stiles's body language is restrained, and she doesn't show much emotion. I think the most active she gets is when Polonius is showing Hamlet's letter to Claudius and Gertrude, and she tries to grab it away from him a couple of times. During the scene where she is setting up Hamlet (rather than having Polonius and Claudius hiding, she wears a wire), she reacts strongly to Hamlet's indifference; since she isn't required by social convention to show the restraint becoming of a noble maiden, she is more obviously hurt. I hate to say it, but Stiles's near-tears delivery of "I was the more deceived" says more to me about Ophelia's state of mind than does the entire equivalent scene in Kenneth's film. But to the best of my recollection, that's the most emotion she shows while still sane; overall, she is very subdued and and obviously not well-equipped to handle a lot of stress. Thus, when she cracks under the strain of everything that happens to her, it makes perfect sense to me and the only question left is how, exactly, she was able to stay in a fountain that I believe was located in or near Elsinore (or Denmark Co.) long enough to drown herself. Worst security ever.
Also? This movie has the <i>weirdest</i> cast. Everyone from Julia Stiles to Bill Murray (yes, that Bill Murray; he plays Polonius) to Liev <a href="http://catslash.acherontia.org/phantoms.html">"Cotton Weary"</a> Schreiber (as <i>Laertes,</i> of all people; if I were to cast him in <i>Hamlet</i> - well, I wouldn't, but if I did, I'd have him as maybe Osric or the First Gravedigger), to Kyle Maclachlan (a very suave, dapper Claudius). All very obviously designed to appeal to to my age demographic - well, except for Maclachlan; I don't think my age demographic knows who he is. My very favourite piece of casting, though, was Casey Affleck as Fortinbras. This is because we see Fortinbras, like, twice, and both times it's just a publicity photo. Why bother casting Casey freaking Affleck if you're not going to have him <i>do</i> anything? They could have just put any young guy in a suit and taken a photo and called him Fortinbras. Hilarious. Absolutely nobody's performance was especially notable - for all I said above about Julia Stiles, I suspect ninety-nine percent of my praise actually belongs to the director, Michael Almereyda. Nobody sucked and nobody was great. Kinda like Mel Gibson's performance ten years previous, actually. I think I'm going to watch it again tonight, though, to see how it holds up under a closer viewing.
My favourite surreal moment: Hamlet does "to be or not to be" in a video store, in that stupid ski cap (I suspect they were going for "Holden Caulfield," but they missed by a mile and landed on "colourblind crackhead" instead), wandering up and down the aisles muttering to himself. It's a wonder nobody discreetly called the cops.