March 30, 2005

• WEDNESDAY MOVIE
  

  Finding Neverland
  

  Way back when, I reviewed all five nominees for Best Film of 2004 but this one. Just didn’t get to it. All Depp Fiends have already seen it and probably most everybody else as well because it’s a film for the whole family, or whatever parts of it see movies. The Depp role is, of course, J.M. Barrie, the Scottish author who published Peter Pan in 1904 (when he was 44) and who was himself the ninth of 10 children. He left home at 13 and eventually got his M.A. at the University of Edinburgh. He was a journalist who wrote both novels and plays, and he married but, according to biographers, was impotent. He was only five feet tall and rarely smiled. Peter Pan was the result of stories he told to Sylvia Llewelyn Davies’ 5 young sons. Unlike in the movie, she was married and her husband was not happy about Barrie’s invasion into their lives. Later, when she and her husband had both died Barrie became the boys’ unofficial guardian. Two of the boys later committed suicide, which was a great blow to him. Barrie died in 1937 at the age of 77. As for the film, it was very pretty to watch (especially the Deppster), but I can’t say I was transfigured with amazement. Probably the best acting was accomplished by the little boy who plays Peter Llewellyn Davies, who is so adorable you’d just like to take a big bite of his face. Kate Winslet is always competent, though there’s something about those horsey toothy Englishwomen that I find slightly annoying. Nevertheless, Neverland is a place we can all visit on grey days for a little spot of dreaming. What is that sentence in the book – “Every time a child says ‘I don’t believe in fairies’ there is a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead.”
  

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  Deep Thought: “When this girl at the museum asked me whom I liked better, Monet or Manet, I said, “I like mayonnaise.” She just stared at me, so I said it again, louder. Then she left. I guess she went to try to find some mayonnaise for me.”
  Today I am grateful for: Xanga
  Guess the Movie: “You a real cowboy?” “Depends on what you think a real cowboy is?” “Can you 2-step?” “Course.” “Wanna prove it?” Answer: Urban Cowboy, 1980. Winner: hereathome.
  Nation in a Persistent Torpid State
  by David Rossie
  “And here, in silence, are seven more.”
  That is how Jim Lehrer has ended many of his News Hour broadcasts during the last two years. The reference is to American military men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; their names, faces, ranks, hometowns, and service branches are presented, one by one. There is no background music or commentary. Only the mournful numbers vary.
  As the war enters its third year and casualties continue, the question will not go away: What will it take to end the silence, to rouse the public from its torpor? (Rest of article here.)
  End of Day: 8:36 pm
  + = Resigned from Curves.
  - = I’ll miss it – I loved that little gym.
  

  • 8:55 am
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