the time traveller’s wife

Just went to see this movie, which in itself was a great treat (just leaving the house with husband and no children to sit in movie theatre).

I think this came off much better as a movie than did the original book, because time travel is a concept that is much more easily described visually. The movie was well directed and acted and simplified the plot nicely, whereas the writing style was not the book’s best feature.

As far as time travel stories it was a good one, with a complex enough plot to keep the audience interested. The basic “rules” of the time travel world were that you can travel back to different times but not change the events which occur, you can communicate with different versions of your self in different times.

The plot gave the impression of skipping all over the place in time, but was actually linear with a lot of flashbacks, which made it understandable.

It was a movie about loss and longing and regret and separation and grief and love. It was also a movie about wishes and second chances, about the hope of a soul mate and the heartache of little children.

one month free cable

My husband just arranged a month free trial of cable TV. You get all the whiz-bang extras including digital recording. So you can build up up to 80 hours recorded on your box, as well as the ability to pause live TV and catch up later. Apparently most people who do the free trial do end up signing up with the cable company. We have vowed not to do it, especially as we have the data projector, if we were to get cable as well our lives would be pretty much over.

I am trying to get as many great movies (and episodes of the Wiggles) recorded in this month as I can. The digital recording allows us to set the box to record programs at 2am, then record them into the video the next day. So I have bought a lot of tapes!

the spectator

This is an Italian film, the first I watched on my one month free cable TV.

I really liked this movie because I thought it was clever and plausible. It was ultimately unsatisfying, but I think that’s true of young girls who have secret crushes on men who don’t know them. Nothing usually happens, in the end.

The girl who engages in this type of behaviour quite often hasn’t much experience of real relationships and so freezes or has no idea what to do when confronted by an actual man, much less one she’s hugely attracted to and has built up high expectations for the meeting.

This movie was a bit slow to start, and that is part of the style of the story. The pace reflects the long periods in these people’s lives where nothing much happens. Once one gets into the groove it’s quite hypnotic. It’s ironic that the man she is following is himself unsatisfied in his love life by pursuing an unattainable woman.