Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates

It has been a long while since I read a book that really shocked me to the core.  I used to love reading Edith Wharton because all of her novels are downright pitiless.  Richard Yates managed to get to that level in a way that not many writers can.  It requires a lot of courage and the willingness to see the truth without shying away.

The novel starts out rather generically with broad strokes in characterization.  That kind of put me off for a bit because it seemed way too careless.  But I stuck with it and slowly Yates started to add more personal touches until I knew the characters to the bone.  By the end I was enmeshed and fully engaged with the Wheeler family.

This novel explores the disintegration of a marriage that should have never occurred.  Frank Wheeler and April Wheeler were a young and confused couple.  Each of them were seeking the other to give them a direction in life.  When April becomes pregnant, a hasty marriage, boring job and a house in a tony Connecticut neighborhood seems to be the right direction.  At the start of the novel this arrangement is already in the process of falling apart.  April tried to make a failed attempt to start anew in a community theater project.  Which causes her to breakdown and reexamine her life with Frank.  In the aftermath of the fighting the couple decide to take a wild leap and move to Europe.  But the closer to the time of the impending move, life throws out extreme changes once again.  Suddenly April is pregnant once more and Frank receives a big promotion in his job.  The pregnancy leads April to make disturbing discoveries about herself and her marriage to Frank.

The novel is well written, extremely truthful and not for the faint of heart.  But it gives huge insight into how people can sleepwalk into bad marriages simply because they are not paying attention or don't want to take responsibilities for their decisions.

The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling

I've mentioned before that I was part of Harry Potter fandom with all the joy and craziness that afforded me. Of course, by the end of it all I was burnt out and the last book was released during a rough time in my life. The last two books in the Potter series were flabby and poorly constructed. It felt as if Rowling just threw anything on the page in order to just be done.

By the time last fall rolled around a little of the Potter magic was back because Rowling had finally written a new book, her second.  I call it her second because, honestly, the Potter series was really just one long novel.  This book was what would make or break Rowling's standing as an author.  I didn't read the reviews but I had the impression that the novel was generally well-received.  There were a few spiteful sites that pulled some quotes of the book out of context.  I linked to one of them because it was amusing.

Since I didn't buy the book nor felt the need to, I didn't think I would ever read the novel.  But a week ago, it appeared at my local library and I decided to read it.  Unfortunately I believe the last person who had it was sick because the minute I started to read it, I began to sneeze.  Thereafter I experienced the worst cold/flu virus I ever had in the past few years.  No doubt, I have only solidified the germs on this copy of the book and it will continue to be a Typhoid Mary of the library world.

The Casual Vacancy was indeed a return to top form by Rowling.  All the best elements of the Potter series were in play with tight plotting and good characterization.  I will admit though that some of Rowling's worst faults as a writer were also in the book as well.  Rowling has a tendency to be too glib and to use caricatures as characters (especially when her story does not favor them).  One character, who serves as a part time villain, is overweight.  Rowling describes him in derogatory fashion with barely any sympathetic insights.  However toward the end of the novel Rowling does go to some lengths to give the character's side of the story regarding his physical condition.  But by that point it is too late, the character's weight has already been treated as a nasty joke and indicator of his personality for almost the whole novel.  This is a very real fault in Rowling's writing and I really hope she fights against this failing.  In my opinion it continually kept ruining the Potter series and made much of it rather nasty when it shouldn't have been.

While this new novel is not great literature, it is an interesting potboilery portrait of a small, sleepy English town.  I had a good visual of the type of town it was and how the characters fit into its life.  There was a nice motif regarding how problems from a nearby bigger town was spilling over into the smaller community.  However there was no real resolution to this problem.  Not that there had to be, but it would have been nicer for there to be more at stake for the town as a whole to be rid of its skidrow area.  I get that Rowling likes to be consciencious and supportive of lost causes because that is liberal and good.  But to be a stronger writer, I wish she would have explored, with some sympathy, why the town wanted to be rid of the government assisted living area.  The town may be full of small minded people but they were working class trying to aspire to something a little better.  The town was pulled down from its aspirations through no fault of the townspeople.  They pay their taxes because the town is lovely and moved to the area because it was so.  It is perfectly understandable that they wouldn't want drug abusers and welfare people pushed onto their doorsteps.

Well at the end, I wasn't sorry to read this book.  It is a good effort and shows that the first 3 books of the Harry Potter series were no fluke.  Rowling does have the goods.  I would say she needs a little more maturity and less of a desire to please.  Or maybe, to start, a fearless editor who could point out the faults without worrying about the ego of the Harry Potter author.

Farewell, My Queen

I've heard some good reviews about this film.  Unfortunately I was unable to see it at the local art cinema in the city.  Finally it has turned up in iTunes this week.  Joy!

One of the lucky productions allowed to film at Versailles, this film makes great use of the surroundings.  Viewers are allowed to get a glimpse of the servants quarters and, surprisingly, a glimpse at the Noblemen's quarters.  They weren't that much different.  One character even comments on the folly of a Marquis living in a one to two room apartment just to be able to see royalty.

The film follows a young servant, Sidonie, who has just nabbed a highly regarded position as the Queen's reader.  To prove the importance, the Queen authorized Sidonie to use a beautiful clock in order to always be on time to their sessions.  This clock causes no small amount of envy among Sidonie's friends.  Interestingly the film isn't really about Sidonie's position as a reader nor about the much discussed affair between Antoinette and the Duchesse de Polignac (the film makes an argument that Marie was lesbian).

This film excels as a mood piece.  It is about the fall of an empire that doesn't even know that it is dead yet.  We see servants and nobles alike scurrying around in darkened hallways looking for information.  The revolutionaries hit list appears and adds an even more nightmarish quality to the air.  One terrified Noble asks when the mob will appear at Versailles. And yet people carry on with the old ways.  Sidonie and her friends complain about the food they are given to eat (oblivious to the fact that people in the streets are starving).  Meanwhile Antoinette ignores the uproar and only becomes upset when it is clear that her favorite Polignac is in danger.  At this point, she asks the adoring Sidonie to make a dangerous sacrifice on her behalf.

It is a good film and for period fans absolutely fantastic.

Waltz of the Flowers

Happy Holidays

The Hobbit

Ok.

So I screwed up my courage again this week and ventured to a film theater to see The Hobbit.

Theater experience was still horrible.

I wanted to see the film in the much discussed 48fps format.  But it seemed theaters in my area only offered the 48 in 3D.

I hate 3D.  3D films make me dizzy, along with motion sickness and migraines.  The last time I saw a 3D film was Burton's Alice film.  It was a sickening experience for me.  Anyway I decided to brave the 3D experience once more for this film.

48fps

I have to say that I had absolutely no trouble with this new format.  In fact, I am excited about the possibilities of this new method of filming.  And I must stress possibilities because it just isn't....I guess...professional enough yet.  Although most claim it looks like video, I didn't find it so.

Let me break it down to the best and the worst, sometimes at once.

The clarity of 48fps is amazing.  Especially when filmed in a natural environment.  I mean so clear you can count the pinecones on Fir trees.  So clear you can see and judge the quality of wind blowing through an actor's hair.  The light is so luminous it makes you feel as if you are hallucinating.  In fact when this film was in gorgeous nature settings my eyes practically bugged out of my skull.  Which was amusing and disconcerting.  I don't believe my brain, in particular, could process all that information.  So it just left me slack-jawed, with my brain asking my eyes WTF they were watching.

However, the new format does reveal the tricks of the trade.  Sets look like sets on a soundstage.  "Stone" looks like what it really is...distressed styrofoam.  You can actually see the forced perspective used to make sets look bigger and more expansive.  So the proportions of buildings look wrong in relation to the actors.  The lighting techniques for sound stages in 28fps look like high powered lighting for nighttime sporting events in 48fps.  The makeup is revealed on the faces of the actors (fake noses are fake noses).  This is not good.  And if 48fps will be the new format, then there must be an evolution in all the filmmaking arts.  Because what was good before looks horrible in 48fps.

48fps in relation to digital effects, for the most part, looks wonderful.  However the clarity of the picture and the effects sometimes tips the experience into an Uncanny Valley experience.  Which isn't good.

3D

I don't like 3D.  But I have to say it was bearable in this film.  Because of the clarity of the new format and absolutely no film blur, it stopped the horrific motion sickness I always experience.  I don't know why 3D is pushed on audiences.  I know of noone clamoring for more 3D films.  3D does nothing to enhance the film.  It just makes everything look flat with no true depth and the experience is akin to looking at a pop up storybook.

The Film

Jackson and cohorts did a good job.  But I'm not sure if they really needed to stretch this into 3 films.  The book it's based on is a slim novel written for children.  The story is concerned about a young boy (Bilbo) growing up to take on more adult responsibilities and autonomy.  The dwarves and their heroic quest is really background.  Jackson has enlarged the scope of the film by including story information from the LOTR appendices.

So instead of Bilbo learning to be a grownup, we are really watching the rise of Sauron.  This leads to a large amount of disconnects between the story threads.  Bilbo's journey is relatively light hearted but the Sauron sub theme is extremely serious.  Not to mention the fact that we are saddled with Thorin Oakenshield's tale of revenge.    The tone of the film varies wildly.

The performances are all very good.  I have no complaints about this at all.  However I do feel that Martin Freeman's Bilbo was pushed to the background way too often.  The film mostly felt like the Gandalf and Thorin show when it should have been the Bilbo show.

Now there has been a lot of talk about the inclusion of Radagast and he is somewhat of a...ahem...Jar Jar Binks experience.  I have to say I enjoyed the character immensely.  I loved everything about him from the bird poop on his hair, to his love of the animals, his shroomy demeanor and his rabbit powered sled.  But he comes out of nowhere and then abruptly disappears.  He seems more like a character in his  own separate film rather than a part of this film's world.

All in all, I feel the film manages to overcome its setbacks both in story and technology.  The real test is ahead.  It remains to be seen if Jackson can keep the story on track and the technology from upstaging the story.  We'll know next year, I suppose.

Icky Blossoms

I'm having an obsession with the Icky Blossoms at the moment.

Creepy and cool



Don't ask me what is going in this vid... But the music sounds good.

Skyfall

I actually attended a movie theater for the first time in a year or so in order to see Skyfall.  During my visit I was reminded why I never attend movie theaters anymore.  Whatever, on to the film.

Overall, I think this installment of the series was rather well done.  It doesn't reach the same heights as Casino Royale but it does have its moments.  What did not work was that it was trying to be all things to all fans.  We had hints of the older Bond films with wild flirtations and womanizing ways.  But instead of making any kind of commentary on these procedures (as past Craig Bond films have done) it was left hanging.  The Bond girls were superfluous to the plot, therefore introduced and shown the door quite quickly.  It made me wonder why they were included at all except to pander to men who want to see proof that Bond is still heterosexual.

Which leads me to much ballyhooed "gay" Bond villain, Silva, played with abandon by Javier Bardem. I didn't think the character was given enough background or screen time to establish his sexuality or personality.  It all came from Bardem's press interviews.  The announcement that this character was gay was the same as J.K. Rowling announcing that Dumbledore was gay.  As in neither Bond film or HP books show these characters as active homosexuals.  What the film did do rather sneakily was shift the perception of Bond's sexual practices.  He is just as much a honeypot as one of his doomed lovers in the film.  If the job called for it, he would sleep with men just as he willingly sleeps with women.  Unfortunately the film shies away from showing this side of Bond and his singleminded tactics in getting the villain.

Since there was no Bond "girl", this void was taken up by Judy Dench's M.  This was the strong point of the film.  She is showcased to be a rather manipulative and neglectful mother.  Her spy department consisted of her method of seeking out men who are orphans.  Obviously they were needy and susceptible to mother figures.  Which is how Dench's M gained their loyalty.  The film also draws numerous similarities between M and past Bond love Vesper.  They are, in essence, the same woman in similar predicaments.  Both of them are doomed to pay for past mistakes.

Essentially the film is about Bond coming to terms with being an orphan and losing everyone that he loves.  This M is the last emotional tie that Bond has in the world.  As the film establishes the old conventions of the past Bond films (Moneypenny, Q, etc), we are watching a man losing all his ability to love.  This film finishes the character arc begun in Casino Royale through Quantum of Solace.

What we are left with at the end of Skyfall is a cold blooded killer, a man with nothing left to lose.  It will be interesting to see if Craig's Bond will be able to regain some of his humanity and if it is addressed in future films.