This was a beautifully photographed and well-done movie that was a bit hard to find. I saw it recently when I was in L.A. on vacation, and at the time it had not been announced for Portland, although it is now mentioned in the Coming Soon list on the website.
The movie is set in 1937 India, and the drama of the plot unwinds carefully. It is an interesting period story that is told with care without getting overly judgemental, as it lets the viewer handle that portion of the experience. Without giving the plot away, the story is not a happy one, so if you are looking for the bouncy happy ending or a Bollywood musical, this has neither.
All of the main actors did an excellent job. I was hoping for more to Jennifer Ehle's role, since her involvement was how I found the movie, but she did well with what she had to work with. I hope one of these days someone persuades her to do a main character on film again, so often her roles are small, and things like her excellent scene getting cut from Michael Clayton don't help either. Thankfully that one showed up in the DVD extras.
Overall, if you like occasionally watching odd little movies that don't fit the Hollywood mold, this is a good one. It's not one I'll rush out to see again because the story is not the sort I enjoy seeing repeatedly, but I don't regret in the slightest the time spent on watching it.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Further thoughts on L.A.
After spending a number of days in the City of Angels, I could see spending more time in the area. Not sure where I'd want to reside, as I was in mostly in the Garden Grove and downtown areas, and attended the USC graduation since that was the main point in going there in the first place. San Bernardino was a hot afternoon, but closer to the coast seemed ok. The evening cooling effect was quite nice there compared to the full desert heat further east.
There do seem to be quite a few things in the area I'd enjoy, and I barely scratched the surface. Art museums, restaurants, cafes, movies that didn't seem to be heading for Portland any time soon and so forth. I'd want to be living close to whatever job I picked up, but other than traffic I could handle living in the area. I didn't see much in the form of bookstores, although I didn't really get the chance to look, but at least Powells is available via the web if need be.
Huntington Gardens was a wonderful place, between the actual gardens and the art collections. I definitely didn't get to spend enough time there or at LACMA, and there were a number of others that looked interesting but I didn't get a chance to go to.
Overall I liked L.A. more than Chicago, less than Portland. Not sure where NYC fits into that list, I need to spend more time there one of these days to figure that out, but so far I've liked it also.
There do seem to be quite a few things in the area I'd enjoy, and I barely scratched the surface. Art museums, restaurants, cafes, movies that didn't seem to be heading for Portland any time soon and so forth. I'd want to be living close to whatever job I picked up, but other than traffic I could handle living in the area. I didn't see much in the form of bookstores, although I didn't really get the chance to look, but at least Powells is available via the web if need be.
Huntington Gardens was a wonderful place, between the actual gardens and the art collections. I definitely didn't get to spend enough time there or at LACMA, and there were a number of others that looked interesting but I didn't get a chance to go to.
Overall I liked L.A. more than Chicago, less than Portland. Not sure where NYC fits into that list, I need to spend more time there one of these days to figure that out, but so far I've liked it also.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Vacation!
I'm on vacation for two whole weeks and a couple of days. Spent the first couple driving from Portland to L.A. I'd rather forgotten just how big L.A. is, and sprawled, and busy. Friends and relatives to see here, going to be a busy few days. Next week should be more relaxing, get to go up to Napa Valleyish portion of CA.
Made the comment that it would take quite a bit of inducement to live down here with all of the traffic and pretty much having to drive to EVERYTHING, and the reply from my mom and stepdad was that all it would really take is the right woman. Probably quite true, the right company makes most things in life bearable and quite a bit of it even becomes enjoyable.
Anyway, back to enjoying the bits in between the driving episodes.
Update after about 24 hours of dealing with L. A. traffic:
Still annoying, although it's not quite so overwhelming. Part of my annoyance is that even where I live in the Portland area, I have to drive to everything, and L.A. is that experience multiplied significantly. I'd consider it, but New York is more appealing because there is a lot more walking ability and the subway and from what I understand a lot easier to get things delivered. I'm plain old sick and tired of driving everywhere all the time, even without current gas prices.
Anyway, back to that vacation thing.
Oh, and I so miss my Mac, this Windows machine is annoying as hell. Definitely need to get a Mac laptop for my next computer I think, even though I want the higher-resolution screens on the iMac, the portability will trump it I think.
Made the comment that it would take quite a bit of inducement to live down here with all of the traffic and pretty much having to drive to EVERYTHING, and the reply from my mom and stepdad was that all it would really take is the right woman. Probably quite true, the right company makes most things in life bearable and quite a bit of it even becomes enjoyable.
Anyway, back to enjoying the bits in between the driving episodes.
Update after about 24 hours of dealing with L. A. traffic:
Still annoying, although it's not quite so overwhelming. Part of my annoyance is that even where I live in the Portland area, I have to drive to everything, and L.A. is that experience multiplied significantly. I'd consider it, but New York is more appealing because there is a lot more walking ability and the subway and from what I understand a lot easier to get things delivered. I'm plain old sick and tired of driving everywhere all the time, even without current gas prices.
Anyway, back to that vacation thing.
Oh, and I so miss my Mac, this Windows machine is annoying as hell. Definitely need to get a Mac laptop for my next computer I think, even though I want the higher-resolution screens on the iMac, the portability will trump it I think.
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