Laid back and wonderful

Last night's party was terrific. A small crowd, but great atmosphere; wine to beat the band followed by generous measures of whiskey; really nice food (beef stroganoff); good chat -- and a final touch of drama. We were last to leave (if you ever invite us to a party, be warned that being last to leave is part of the package). A taxi back to Carl's place got us there around 3.15 am.

After the hectic weekend, it was time to chill out and take it really easy today, especially since the weather, which began with a really promising morning, turned foul by afternoon. After the Hollyoaks omnibus (do not scoff!), we settled down to an extended session in Carl's kino (aka his home movie setup, with ceiling-mounted projector and motorised 72" screen). We began with V for Vendetta (gave up after thirty minutes or so), and followed that with Stranger than Fiction. After that we thought a 1940s black & white movie would make a nice contrast, and we plumped for His Girl Friday (gave up after ten minutes -- stilted script, dreadfully artificial delivery). The final offering was The Pledge, which Carl enjoyed more than I did (I found it too slow, and over-clever and self-conscious on the part of director Sean Penn). When that finished I said my farewells and came back home.

Observant readers will notice that I've yet to say anything about Stranger than Fiction. That's because I need to concentrate a bit on that particular offering and try to do it justice. As Carl said, the plot summary does not sound as if it can sustain a full-length movie (The mundane existence of lonely IRS agent Harold Crick is transformed when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life. With the help of a professor of English literature he discovers that he's the main character in a novel-in-progress and that the voice belongs to an eccentric author famous for killing off her main characters in creative ways. Harold must quickly track down the author and stop her before she conjures up a way to finish him off.) But the movie succeeds triumphantly and provided us with the best cinema experience in a very long time. The script is superb, direction and editing are wonderful, and the four main roles are uniformly excellently carried off by Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Watching this was the icing on the cake of the hectic weekend, and just what I needed as an antidote to the tragic event of a week ago.

(And, by the way, the movie site is a nice example of web design.)