Outfit #127 - Happy Birthday Shakespeare

Today is, apparently, Shakespeare's birthday.  At least, I am told he was both born and died on St George's Day - which is today.  You learn all sorts of things with trivia.  As it turns out, I know not much about St George or Shakespeare.  I think I need to rectify the situation.

Dress: Kinki Gerlinki.  Top: Ambra.  Leggings: ? Shoes: Target.  Earrings: The Silver Shop (I think).  Scarf: Atmosphere (gift).  Jacket: Hot Options (from Jeannie).

I was trying hard to find a Shakespearean outfit.  This was the best I could do.  My logic is that the dress is a bit like an old tapestry sort of thing.  My alternative involved a very short skirt.  Due to workplace dress requirements, the jacket was only actually included as a 'just-in-case' for the evening's trivia at the cathedral.  My team didn't come last - in fact we were winning for the first half of the evening.  And I'm pretty sure we had more fun than anyone else!

The scarf was only worn to school.  And then for photos.  But I do love it.

Movie #31 - Tropic Thunder

I was about to do a more recent movie post, when I realised I had neglected Tropic Thunder.  Vaguely understandable, considering I watched it on one of those super-hot days.  In January.  Which was perfect, really, pairing the horribly hot and humid brain-melting weather with the comedy and ease of this movie.  That said, it was a while ago, so please don't expect great things here...

Now, the last Ben Stiller movie I watched was Greenberg.  There is a reason he is better known for his comedies.  So, not expecting anything great or serious, I was hoping this would be a return to form for him.  Thankfully, this was the case.  And there was so much more.

We still had the Personal Journey Plot Device, alongside the Group Dynamics-Work as a Team theme.  But we also had rather a Shakespearean element.  You know the actor playing an actor playing a soldier thing.  Or are they...? And, even better, the white guy playing a black guy and staying in character the whole way.  Only because I knew, from the friend who showed it to me as well as from the advertising, did I realise that Tom Cruise and Robert Downey, Jr, were in this.  I love it when an actor is so well-disguised in a role that I don't recognise who they are.  (This doesn't often happen).  We also saw a bit of what I think of as the Truman Show Device, in which people believe the reality with which they are presented.  And it's this that I find most interesting.  We accept so much of our situation, but how often do we try to step outside of that and find another perspective?  In a way, we are all acting our life stories, but do we convince ourselves or others?  Do we live our lives so truly that others see us as we really are, or do we act out our lives so convincingly that we convince ourselves that that is who we really are?

It was funny, as promised.  Although set during the Vietnam War, there were only two gruesome bits, and one of those was rather comedic.  I was warned about it, so I could deal.  It sends up the outrageous things involved in movie-making.  The person who seems the craziest turns out to be the only one who can get the job done.  It doesn't try to be a serious movie - it actually looks like a whole lot of actors got together and said, wouldn't it be fun if... and so they did. 

Movie #27 - Lantana

The last weekend of the holidays (sigh - so long ago now!) I watched 3 movies.  Anything for Her; Greenberg; and Lantana.  I really enjoyed Lantana, especially as the end of Greenberg has a character with an atrocious Australian accent (not an Australian, by the way).  So to hear, then, familiar accents and idioms, and see country that I know - wonderful. 

I think I need to explain some of my mood here.  The morning of the day I watched it, I went to church.  The collect was for married people, and the sermon was about married people and people in relationships.  I have never felt before the way I did in church that day.  To watch Lantana that evening, then, was fortuitous.  All these people in relationships, trying to navigate the minefield of living your own life but being a good partner, compromise, responsibility, honesty, deception, secrets, trust, betrayal, passion and lack of it - it reminded me that there are just as many problems in relationships as there are without.

We're presented with all these relationships, each connected to another whether they know it or not.  And this was before Facebook!  It's tempting to judge each relationship on how well they're doing - I admit it, I judged.  And so I landed a few surprises along the way.  The 'best' couple - not perfect, but they are so open with each other, no secrets - they are certainly tested when the husband is accused of being involved with the disappearance of the psychiatrist.  And tested when the newly divorced neighbour starts flirting with him.  But the wife sticks by her husband ("in good times and in bad"). 

One couple - the shrink and her man - are slightly infuriating.  So calm, so 'shrink-like' - like there's no passion, just mature adults.  But still waters run deep, and the discovery that they lost their child not so long ago explains a lot.  I still wanted to them to have a good screaming match and then make up, but that was not to be.  Their house though - wow.  If you haven't been to the Hawkesbury river, or up around Hornsby with all that lovely bushland, put it on your bucket list.  I'm slightly biased as this area of Sydney is in my blood, but I still maintain it's beautiful.

Anthony LaPaglia's character... I can't help liking him.  True, he's having an affair.  As his police partner says to him, he's got a perfectly good marriage (something which still eludes her) and he's "pissing all over it".  His mid-life crises have an element of humour as well as desperation.  His lack of anger management is starting to be a problem but (from this vantage point) I see that more as a sign of depression than bad character.  After all, we are all flawed.  There are very few among us who behave impeccably all of the time, even if we try.  Sometimes, you need to fall off the wagon a bit to help you be better again in the future.  And having to investigate the shrink's disappearance - more, when I think of it, the husband's lack of passion towards her - reminds him, shows him, how much he loves his wife, how much he cares for her, and how easily she might leave him and how dreadful that might be. 

I think that it's this Shakespearean element of flawed character that makes this movie so appealing.  We are all flawed, no one has a perfect relationship unless they are in la-la land, and we are all connected whether we know it or not. 

Movie #11 - The Departed

Sam has loaned me a few DVDs, and for the last week or so he has been bugging me to watch The Departed.  Yesterday was his birthday, so I thought it fitting it was watched then.  I went for a run, started to inhale my dinner, and began the movie.  Not a good idea.  I was a little distracted by some other things at first, but then when I really got into it, the food was ... just... not welcome.

I used to be fine with violence on-screen.  One friend will even watch my face when we're in a violent movie, and when I stop grimacing she'll face the screen again.  But a couple of weeks ago I saw Safe House and didn't cope too well, and last night didn't go swimmingly either.  Well, I should clarify.  I'm not ok with violence to extremities, especially hands.  So when Leo is having his arm, only just now in plaster, bashed against a pool table, I was curled in a ball with my eyes averted.  That reaction happened a lot.  (This is a really good way to avoid eating too much of anything during a movie).

This is a movie I will need to see again - just not near a meal-time.  I loved all the twists and turns, and the deception on both sides - it was quite Shakespearean.  Especially the ending, where pretty much everyone is dead.  And the last man standing is the character I liked the least for most of the time, but who was (I think) the only one who really was who he said he was. 

Often when I see a movie with well-known actors, I know who they are the whole way through.  There's no escaping some people, no matter what part they are playing at a particular time.  I was surprised that I kept forgetting who these actors were, they did such a good job.  And not just their acting skills, but the actual casting.  Leo's face is so perfect for this role - trying to clean up, but able to look rough.  Jack Nicholson (with hair - didn't recognise him at first) so godfather-like, but also similar enough in features to both Matt Damon and Leonardo di Caprio that he could have passed as a father to either of them.  I knew Mark Wahlberg was in the cast, but with longer hair and not showing off his guns in most scenes, as well as really offensive language, it took quite some time for me to spot him.  And Alex Baldwin and Martin Sheen, similarly, looking almost trustworthy but with enough sleaze you doubt yourself. 

One thing that kept swimming around my brain today was the idea of environment and choice.  It seems (from my movie and tv watching) that often, the bad guys are bad guys because of their environment.  If you grow up in a gang neighbourhood, it's really hard to get out of that.  If that's what you know, it takes a lot of guts to even see another way, let alone pursue it.  As humans, we need to adapt to our environment and society in order to survive.  It may not always be legal, but it's human.  So, Leo's character is far more likeable because we can see that he is coming from a scumbag environment, but trying to be a better, more upright person.  Matt Damon's character, though, once we find out "Dad" is in fact Costello (Nicholson), is far less likeable, as he's got the good upbringing but is putting it to waste by being a rat.  And that's aside from the fact that he's not the right man for Vera Farmiga (who is becoming one of my favourite actresses). 

But there's even more to it than that.  In order for the law enforcement agencies to bring down Costello, there was such a web of deception.  So many people were rats that it seemed all Costello's crew were actually undercover agents, and most of the law enforcement people were rats for Costello.  Finding the right people to do your dirty work, as it really was, would be so hard - but then, actually being that person would be immensely hard.  As we see with Leo's character.  Trying to lead a double life, convincing both sides you're loyal to each of them, knowing this might get you killed, trying to 'keep things on an even keel' (a line which pops up a few times) and deflect suspicion - it does your head in. 

And this really ties in with personal identity.  Who are you?  Are you a rat, a cop, an ex-cop, an undercover cop?  One thing Leo says near the end is, Being a cop is not an identity.  Which has only just got my brain ticking over.  When is your occupation your identity?  When is it not?  How do you know who you are?  Getting very philosophical here...

Other small things about this movie:  Having visited Boston many years ago, I really enjoyed seeing that scenery, picking out those landmarks, pretending to be there again.  A few of the phone numbers were not - I repeat, not - 555 numbers.  (I guess they were real, then...).  Music - there seemed to be very little, and what stuck in my head was the opera.  IMDb tells me it was Lucia di Lammermoor, and also reminded me of all the Irish and Scottish music.  Duh.  I don't know if it's an actual thing, or a scheme set up by producers or something, but older bad guys seem to have a thing for opera.  I wonder about the psychology of that.  Does it make us think more highly of them?  Is it intended to mess with out brains?  Anyway... All in all - a very satisfying movie.  Ooh, it does come with violence and language warnings though.  Not one to watch with squeamish people, or one's parents.