What's Playing at My House

The Holiday vs. Sleepless in Seattle

Really, it's not fair of me to do this. The Holiday is a sweet little movie and if you can get over the fact that Cameron Diaz is one of the actors [my dislike of her blonde bubblehead persona knows no bounds], it's worth your time.

But I had the misfortune to watch The Holiday just a couple days before I re-watched Sleepless in Seattle.

And what started out as a fun, light flick quickly faded when I remembered what a great comic romance really looks like.

In The Holiday, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are alone for the holidays and decide to trade homes for Christmas vacation. Removed from normal routines, each discovers a new relationship. I guess my biggest problem here is, that I could much more easily believe Kate Winslet and Jude Law falling for each other, and Cameron Diaz falling for Jack Black. Of course, it's the other way around.

The Holiday is slow at various times. It's not as tightly scripted as the best movies in this genre. And while I noticed it a bit while I was watching it, it wasn't really obvious until I watched Sleepless in Seattle.

We watched SiS in Florida last week, hoping for a movie that everyone from the 7yo to my dad would enjoy. We did it! The 7yo has discovered Bill Cosby, so I hoped she'd enjoy this too. What I didn't remember was Rosie O'Donnell's character in SiS. Oh my word, so funny.

But best of all, the movie is quick, unexpected and well written. Each character shines in a different way, and they fit together perfectly.

While I've enjoyed everything Tom Hanks has ever been in, I just love him in a comedy like this. It seems so effortless, so real, to watch him. The man is a genius. And perfectly paired with Meg Ryan.

So sure, watch The Holiday. Just don't go expecting Sleepless when you do.

The Age of Innocence

I saw this movie when it came out, and I remember liking it. But I just watched it again last night, and I'm now thinking this is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Superlatives are so shopworn nowadays that I'm having trouble deciding how to describe The Age of Innocence. How about instead, I'll start with a confession: Normally, I'm a major stickler for reading the book before seeing the movie. To the point where I bought all three Lord of the Rings books and whipped through them when I heard the movies were in production, so I'd be ready to watch them. [Review at a later date....] For some reason, I have never read The Age of Innocence [Edith Wharton, 1920, Pulitzer-winning book]. After seeing the movie again, I'm dying to.

I don't know if my book club friend Jamie reads this blog, but I will apologize to her if she does and this post has already made her faint. We have a long-running dispute: Who's better, Ernest Hemingway or Jane Austen? It turned out that neither of us had read the other's favorite author, being so turned off by the style. And I'm the Hemingway girl. We agreed to read at least one book of the other's choosing, and I waded through Pride and Prejudice last year, only so I could make her read a Hemingway. 

If you've read the two of those, you may also be surprised that I'm so in love with this film. I am curious to see if I like the book. I'll have to report back on that front. But what a masterpiece Martin Scorsese has created here!

A. The actors are incredible. Put Daniel Day-Lewis in a film about the dogcatcher and I'm there. This is a great role for him: he so often plays the angry man, but this character is fabulously multi-dimensional. Lewis is engaged and then married to Winona Ryder, who is exquisite here as the bland face of convention, though possessing a depth we don't appreciate until later. The scenes between Michelle Pfeiffer and Lewis are maddening as they struggle to avoid sweeping away in their emotions. Maddening in a it-makes-you-feel-like-they-must-feel-and-you-can't stand-it-any-more-than-they-can kind of way. The supporting cast is also crucial: they personify the sharp edges hidden under the polite veneer of 1870s New York high society, building a stockade around Lewis' character he is unable -- and unwilling -- to break through.

B. Have you ever felt so sorry for rich people? Is anyone in this film really happy?

C. The costumes and settings are so perfect, so what you imagine the time period was like [at least for the upper crust]. FYI, The Age of Innocence won an Oscar for costume design. Well-deserved. Why it didn't have more, I can't explain to you.

Last Holiday

When I first saw Last Holiday advertised on a trailer a number of months ago, I was massively skeptical. Keep in mind, I am not a high-brow movie person, in general. I have tried so, so hard to like many independent and foreign films, with only a middling degree of success. But Queen Latifah? I thought. I couldn't imagine how this could be amusing.

It was actually the 7yo who convinced me to watch it, only because she wanted to see it. I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for her or not. So I added it to my Netflix queue. It finally came in last week, and I have to confess I really liked it.

Now, don't be expecting any Oscar-caliber performances here. And especially not an Oscar-caliber plot. But it is good, light fun ... perfect for a sick day at home, which is when I watched it. You don't have to think too hard, and you will laugh.

Queen Latifah comes across as the most delightful, believable person. The movie makes you want to be her friend.

And the added bonus: she is a play-at-home watcher of Food TV, so there's plenty of pretty food and fun cooking scenes. I enjoyed that a lot.

Oh and, would I let the 7yo watch it? Probably. It has some sexual humor but I think much of it would go over her head.