Movie Tales: HP, But Not Hewlett Packard

Yes, we were busy bees yesterday. We went to see "Walk the Line", which I won't recommend on the basis of either the writing or the degree of sympathy I felt for the characters, but which I CAN recommend on the basis of the acting tour-de-force given by both the principals and for the honesty shown by Cash in his autobiographies, if the movie is anything to go by. He excuses himself somewhat on the basis of his childhood experience, but does not fall into the easy position of either making himself out to be terribly sympathetic or making his first wife out to be anything approaching a monster. I don't like people who cheat on their spouses, but can to some degree appreciate the honesty of people who don't follow up the sin by excusing themselves on the basis of 'my wife/husband doesn't understand me.' I expect the film to get a lot of Oscar nominations, and it will probably win quite a few - it's the sort of easy Box Office Candy that the Academy drools over: fine acting, hard luck stories, bad behavior by celebrities, redemption. Nothing to make you exercise your grey cells too much.

We followed this up by seeing (with the Vampire and his lovely companion) the latest episode of the Harry Potter saga. The film versions are definitely showing the strains inherent in trying to convey some comprehensible sense of the convoluted story lines presented in the increasingly page-heavy tomes. There are other excellent expositions out there re the flaws of the most recent movie (I endorse the one written by the articulate author of the droolworthy Unlikely Words blog), so I won't bother to say more. Except that mine was a disappointment not entirely shared by my two 15-year-old companions. So in all probability, mine is an adult and jaded eye...