Blind Prophecy

It’s been a while since I shared my feedback on movies or books with which I have been distracting myself. From the Netflix and the library…

Fling
(Brandon Routh, Steve Sandvoss, Courtney Ford, Shoshana Bush; 2008; dir: John Stewart Muller)

The story of things going right and wrong for a young couple in an open relationship. I liked it, although I thought that the “complications” for the couple were predictable and a little boring, the movie was well-acted and the cast is certainly easy on the eyes. Overall, I’d have been a lot more impressed if all the characters hadn’t settled down into fairly traditional lifestyles. If the movie scores major feminist points for Sam’s speech in defense of herself and her open relationship (“I’m not a victim here…”), it then includes one of the oddest and most disturbing sex scenes I can recall – with James essentially raping Sam in an alleyway (unless “no” suddenly has some new meaning I don’t understand) as a way of making up after calling her a whore. I spent the rest of the movie secretly hoping that she’d dump James for good after that.

Romance & Cigarettes
(James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet; 2005; dir: John Turturro)

A working class family deals with the adultery of father. Quirky and bizarre, think kitchen-sink drama meets jukebox musical meets experimental film student project. Most of all, however, this was a movie by actors, for actors. It felt like the plot was strung together primarily as a vehicle for an impressive number character actors to walk on, chew the scenery and disappear. Smaller roles were played by Steve Buscemi, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Eddie Izzard, Bobby Cannavale, Elaine Stritch, and Amy Sedaris. Seriously, the weakest link of the movie was our primary character played by James Gandolfini. Mary-Louise Parker was vastly under-utilized in this movie and showed more acting chops in a single scene near the end where her only line was “yeah” than most actors pulled off with entire dedicated musical numbers. This movie won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s got Kate Winslet’s tits so I’m surprised it didn’t score an Oscar nomination.

Foundation (Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles, Book 1)
by Mercedes Lackey
A young man is chosen to join the ranks of the Valdemar Heralds at the time of the founding of the Collegium. Not Misty’s most innovative or complicated tale, I loved it anyway. It’s been so long since we’ve had a new Valdemar novel that even though we’ve had a dozen or so “young person gets Chosen/coming of age” tales from Lackey in this series, I still found myself charmed by the requisite first interaction between Herald and Companion. Thematically, the story mimicked other Valdemar tales – young person feels all alone in the world, meets Companion, is generally skeptical of Heraldic vision, gets won over. There’s not much to the larger plot, either, except some light intrigue having to do with some foreign visitors, the beginning of Valdemar’s secret spy network, and a lot of foreshadowing for the continuation of this series. It’s not as good as her earlier works in the series, but it’s escapist and entertaining enough, and after a 5-year hiatus, it’s good to have new tales of the Heralds.

Filed under: books, movies by Jere Keys