My taxes are done. I feel like weeping with relief.
The computer doesn't allow the apostraphe in my name, though, which pissed me off. Kept getting "error" messages. Er - my name has an apostraphe. Okay? It's a valid way to spell a name. There is no error.
But that's a quibbling point. I am so glad they are done.
Additionally: I finally watched House of Sand and Fog this morning and - found it to be one of the most devastating movies I have seen of late. I did not know the plot but I had seen the preview, and - quite frankly - it looked bad and melodramatic, Jennifer Connelly screaming from her car: "THIS IS A STOLEN HOUSE!" I thought: Jeez, why am I supposed to care about this woman's house? I was quite quite wrong. The film is wrenching. Events step forward with the inevitability of a great tragedy - and yet - when something absolutely dreadful finally occurs - I was left completely unprepared. Somehow, I had blocked out the possibility. (This is one of the things all great tragedies have in common, come to think of it. You hope against hope that things will work out, that the web will be untangled ... and yet, you as an audience member, are forced to watch the characters muddle about in the dark, making fateful mistakes, doing their BEST ... That's where the tragedy comes in. Because "there by the grace of God go I.")
I really can't think of a finer actor than Ben Kingsley. His work transcends language - I can't even talk about it.
A terrible story. Filled with hope, dreams, love ... every character three-dimensional, every character with a valid point to make. There is no right side, no wrong side ... both characters (Jennifer Connelly's and Ben Kingsley's) are coming from sincere heartfelt places - we can understand the motivatoins of both. We cannot choose.
Which is why it is so terrible. You just have to watch ... helpless.
Afterwards: I took a 3 mile walk in the sun. Emotionally wiped out. And then I did my taxes. And it's only 2 pm.
Tonight's movie? Year of Living Dangerously. A favorite of mine, although I haven't seen it in years.
Update: Strange: just looked up Roger Ebert's review of House of Sand and Fog, and the first sentence is:
It's so rare to find a movie that doesn't take sides.
Exactly. Which is why it is so painful. You're kind of rooting for everybody. Nobody is a villain here.
Conflict is said to be the basis of popular fiction, and yet here is a film that seizes us with its first scene and never lets go, and we feel sympathy all the way through for everyone in it. To be sure, they sometimes do bad things, but the movie understands them and their flaws. Like great fiction, "House of Sand and Fog" sees into the hearts of its characters, and loves and pities them. It is based on a novel by Andre Dubus II, and there must have been pressure to cheapen and simplify it into a formula of good and evil. But no. It stands with integrity and breaks our hearts.
Indeed.
Hey Sheila,
Totally agree about House of Sand & Fog. I think I was with you at another movie and we first saw the dreadful preview together. I recall some collective snickering. But then the movie packs a wallop. Amazing. I've always loved Ben Kingsley....and this performance may have been his finest. Tonight, it's Easy Rider for me.
I went to see House of Sand and Fog on the spur of the moment on the day it opened in my town (a friend had an extra free pass). I knew absolutely nothing about it at the time, and I have to admit that for a considerable time in the first portion of the movie, I was expecting cliched developments along the lines of a standard thriller. That fear eventually dissipated, but a sense of dread began to grow in its place.
This film has a powerful emotional impact because it refuses to rely on tried-and-true devices. It simply tells its story and allows the realistic depiction of its non-black-and-white characters to move us. The deep sadness in House of Sand and Fog is the sadness of real life - even in the absence of great malice or evil, things simply do not always resolve themselves into a Happy Hollywood Ending.
Ben Kingsley is truly amazing - the breadth of roles the guy has played is almost unparalleled, and I can't recall ever seeing him NOT be completely convincing.
I did my taxes last night - it is a relief to have that chore out of the way...
Posted by: MikeR at April 11, 2004 12:06 AMYou just sold a movie. I ordered the DVD from Amazon just this minute.
Posted by: Michael J. Totten at April 11, 2004 4:32 AMMichael-
Wow! I should start charging a commission or something. :)
Stop by after you've seen it - let me know what you think.
Posted by: red at April 11, 2004 1:53 PMKingsley and Agadashloo (sp?) were great, but sorry, I just didn't like it. I had no sympathy at all for the Connelly character, and felt manipulated by the script, like it was trying way too hard to be evenhanded.
My other problem was that all the media coverage for the movie gave Connelly so much credit for taking on such an "unglamorous" role, when the director did everything he could to make sure we knew just how hot she is, including almost as many T&A close-ups as there were on Scarlett Johannson in "Lost in Translation."
Posted by: Stephen Silver at April 12, 2004 9:07 AMDidn't get the T&A thing at all, Steve. Maybe it's cause I'm a chick? I thought she was completely convincing as a recovering addict, down on her luck - still using what was left of her looks to manipulate the cop, etc.
Posted by: red at April 12, 2004 10:05 AMYea, especially in the first half of the movie, every time she walked into a door there were ass close-ups, and of course there was nudity in the sex scene. I had the same objection to "21 Grams," in that the Naomi Watts role was also supposed to be "unglamorous," yet they still cast a really hot actress and had her get naked.
Posted by: Stephen Silver at April 12, 2004 10:20 AMI guess I just saw a woman in shorts.
Posted by: red at April 12, 2004 10:30 AM