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Sunday, January 04, 2004
What We Did on Mike’s Birthday
Gee, I've been bad about posting lately. Hope this doesn't bode ill for the new year.
Let's see...on the 31st (Mike's birthday) we decided that doing a day time movie would probably be a good idea because of my recurring gall bladder attacks. We narrowed it down to two: Cold Mountain and In America. After eating lunch with my mom and the kids we couldn't make it to the early showing of In America so we ended up going to see Cold Mountain.
Cold Mountain is one of those big Hollywood historical epics that attracts lots of "name" stars because it gives them the chance to be in a movie that just might get some Oscar consideration. It stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger. The story takes place during the US Civil War and follows Jude Law and Nicole Kidman's characters simutaneously as they struggle to survive and pine away for one another.
Cold Mountain was a decent flick. It seemed a little slow at points but I'm willing to admit that I might not have felt that way if I hadn't been stricken by a gall bladder attack midway through the movie. This caused me to check the time on my cell phone frequently while squirming in pain and wondering when the hell the movie was going to end. I wasn't in a horrible position. I did have ibuprofen and tylenol on me but what I really needed was to be lying in my nice soft bed writhing in pain. Those movie seats, even stadium style ones, just aren't as comfortable.
Jude Law spent most of the flick wandering around half dead on his feet, trying to get back to Cold Mountain, North Carolina and Nicole Kidman. Along the way he met up with various Hollywood actors doing the character actor thing. Philip Seymour Hoffman does a nice turn as a man of God recently run out of town by his flock.
Nicole Kidman's character, a well-educated Southern belle, must learn to survive alone on a farm after her preacher father drops dead. She is wholly unprepared for the task and is doomed to starve until plucky hillbilly, Ruby Thewes (Renée Zellweger) shows up on her doorstep offering to help on the now dilapidated farm for room and board. I was getting kind of bored with the story by this time but Renée Zellweger really perked the movie up. Until that moment we hadn't been treated to much humor. But Ruby Thewes was a hoot and Renée Zellweger played her perfectly.
I must also mention that Jack White of The White Stripes has a small role in the movie as Georgia, a friend of Ruby Thewes father. I now desperately want Jack White to release a bluegrass album.
In short, Cold Mountain will probably get some Oscar nods although I thought some of the strongest performances came from actors other than the two leads. The story itself only had a few blatantly Hollywood moments—the bad guys were very Hollywood bad and the creepy albino bad guy was a bit much. Other than that I thought it was an okay flick. Not the best movie I've seen by far but it wasn't a waste of two hours.
After the movie was over Mike dropped me off at the house and I took still more ibuprofen and lay down for a bit. He drove to mom's to pick up Cal. Duncan spent the night with mom to give us a little quiet. One kid is quieter than two, don't you know.
By the time Mike made it back I was feeling a little better so he went off to rent Bowling for Columbine. Since it was his birthday he got the movie for free. Cool! Cal and I stayed home and I did some online chatting with a friend. Yes, geekdom rules!
By the time Cal went to bed I was feeling loads better so we settled down to watch Bowling for Columbine. Let me tell ya, that's a depressing way to start off the new year. Now I'm not saying it was bad. No, it was a fine film and it made you think. But it was also incredibly sad. Fortunately by the time we went to bed I was so sleepy I wasn't kept awake by morbid thoughts of the rampant gun deaths in the US.
posted by Tamara - 8:41 AM  -- Link to this entry
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